Britishness and Otherness

A workshop jointly sponsored by the Humanities Research Centre (HRC) and National Institute of Social Sciences and Law (NISSL).

5-6th July 2004

WORKSHOP REPORT

Purpose, Proceedings and Outcomes
Our purpose in convening Britishness and Otherness: Locating Marginal White Identities in the Empire was to contest the assumption latent in much critical work that "Britishness" was a static politico-cultural identity accessed easily and equally by all phenotypically similar (ie white skinned) subjects of the British Empire. The workshop brought post-graduate students from across the ANU campus together with international and national scholars in British studies to investigate marginal identities in the Empire produced outside of the collision of the "white presence" with the "black semblance'" (Bhabha:1994) - a theme currently under-explored in the British context and in existing studies of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Workshop was conducted over one full day (Monday 5th July) and one half day (Tuesday 6th July). These dates were chosen to coincide with a major international history conference, British World III, which was held from 2-4 July 2004 at the University of Melbourne. Funding from the HRC and NISSL enabled the organizers to invite several international scholars to join the workshop in Canberra after they had fulfilled their obligations in Melbourne.

The workshop was structured around two elements in conversation:
i) A symposium: this occupied the first day of the workshop and comprised the presentation of 10 invited papers. Each participant spoke for 20 minutes and then took 10-15 minutes of questions and discussion in which all attendees were encouraged to engage with the themes and issues explored by each presenter.

ii) A colloquium: a two hour moderated discussion was held on the morning of the second day. The first hour saw each of our four commentators present a 15-minute response to the preceding day's papers. This was followed by an hour of free questions and discussion with all participants which allowed for the identification of themes and threads common to the papers. This also enabled the working through of various theoretical disagreements in an energised and receptive environment.

In all, 25 students, academics and interested members of the public participated in the workshop.

The workshop's outcomes can be measured across four broad areas:

i) Professional Development: the workshop provided the opportunity for the three post-graduate co-convenors to gain experience additional to that normally identified with thesis research and writing. The range of intellectual, logistical and administrative challenges posed in the organisation of the workshop provided a valuable experience for the three co-ordinators, who are grateful to the HRC and NISSL for their generous sponsorship of this event and their encouragement of postgraduate participation in the broader intellectual life of the university.

ii) Cross-campus community building: the workshop facilitated the interaction of ANU staff and students (both undergraduate and graduate) across a broad range of disciplines with an interest in varied aspects of British identity and the Imperial experience. There has been some discussion of extending the connections formed through the workshop into an informal on-campus discussion group.

iii) Format innovations: the workshop was deliberately structured to avoid the impersonal and disenfranchising effects sometimes felt in large-scale, panel-oriented conferences. Speakers were expected to fill a 20-minute slot, but there was no requirement that their contribution follow the structure of a formal paper. Several participants chose to "converse", rather than "present", which ensured the tone of the symposium constantly shifted and the flow of ideas remained dynamic. An intimate venue (the Seminar Room, OCH) was selected in order to facilitate the non-hierarchical "round-table" ambience outlined in the workshop's mandate. All participants commented on the success of the informal yet structured arrangements that allowed for a level of discussion, interrogation and reflection that often is not possible in larger conference formats.

iv) Publication: it is anticipated that a cohesive and unique anthology will be produced from the workshop papers. However, such a publication is still in the embryonic phases of planning and no firm details can be provided at this stage.

The organisers owe a debt of thanks to the following people: Dr Paul Pickering for his exceptional patience and dedication during the planning process and his skillful and good-humoured chairing of the workshop itself; Dr Caroline Turner for her initial enthusiasm for the project and support of our application for funding; Christine De Bono for her guidance and support with our funding application; and to Leena Messina and Judy Buchanan for their invaluable assistance regarding administrative matters and for help in setting up and ensuring the smooth flow of events during the workshop.

Papers
Robyn Westcott (Macquarie University/The Australian National University)
The uses of (an)other History: A digression from Linda Colley’s 'Britishness and Otherness: An Argument' (1992)

Chris Saunders (University of Cape Town)
Black British and White British in South Africa

Ben Wellings (The Australian National University)
Crown and Country: Britishness and Australian Nationalism since 1788

Tina Parolin (The Australian National University)
Contagion and Containment: Political Prisoners and the 'Other' in early Nineteenth Century England

Donal Lowry (Oxford Brookes University)
The Irish Diaspora

Malcolm Campbell (University of Auckland)
‘Marginal micks’ or mainstream men and women? Irishness and Britishness in nineteenth and early-twentieth century New Zealand

Lancia Roselya (The Australian National University)
Grace Aguilar: A Sephardic Woman's Perspective on the Prospect of Embracing the Christian 'Other' in the Nineteenth Century

Sarah Carter (University of Calgary)
Cultivating Distinctions: The Category of "White Woman" in the Canadian Prairie West, 1896 – 1920

Emma Greenwood (The Australian National University)
Being & Becoming a British Migrant: Post-war British immigration to South Africa & Australia, 1945-1960

Alex Tyrrell (La Trobe University)
Scottishness and Britishness: From Scotland to Australia Felix

Commentators

David Armitage, Harvard University
Jennifer Ridden, The Australian National University
Paul Pickering, The Australian National University
John Docker The Australian National University

Participant List
David Armitage, History, Harvard University
Malcolm Campbell, History, University of Auckland
Sarah Carter, History, University of Calgary
Sally Chessell, The Australian National University
John Docke,r Humanities Research Centre, The Australian National University
Ian Donaldson, Director, Humanities Research Centre, The Australian National University
Emma Greenwood, History, The Australian National University
Mary Kilcline Curly, Asian Studies, The Australian National University
Donal Lowry, History, Oxford Brookes University
Sylvia Marchant, Humanities Research Centre, The Australian National University
Iain McCalman, Federation Fellow, The Australian National University
Tina Parolin, Humanities Research Centre, The Australian National University
Paul Pickering, Humanities Research Centre, The Australian National University
Jennifer Ridden, History, The Australian National University
Lancia Roselya, Centre For Cross-Cultrual Research, The Australian National University
Chris Saunders, Historical Studies, University of Cape Town
Frances Steel, Gender Relations Centre, RSPAS, The Australian National University
Helen Tiffin, English, Department Queen's University, Canada
Alex Tyrell, History, La Trobe University
Ben Wellings, European Studies, Australian National University
Robyn Westcott, Humanities Research Centre, The Australian National University
Harry Wise, Humanities Research Centre, The Australian National University