Research in colonial and imperial history has been an integral part of the work of the German Historical Institute London since its establishment in 1976. This research interest is due not least to the fact that London, as the former political centre of the British Empire, is one of the most important places for archival research in this field. Moreover, as a result of increasing interest in global and transnational approaches to history, the field has received growing attention both in the United Kingdom and in Germany. Currently, three research approaches figure particularly prominently in the projects undertaken at the GHIL, namely knowledge and knowledge production, education and the civilising mission, and the creation of new spatial units and structures.

First, knowledge and knowledge production in colonial contexts has evolved in the last two decades to become one of the main topics of research in the history of the British Empire and the Commonwealth. An important inspiration for this has been the reception of Foucault’s work. Colonial power has been located not only in the military and in the European colonial administrations, which were generally fairly slender, but also in the appropriation of knowledge about colonised communities, the classification of the latter according to European and male categories, and their re-formation through teaching the colonised about themselves.

Second, education and the civilising mission in colonial and postcolonial contexts are closely connected with the history of knowledge and knowledge production, yet rather than highlighting specific fields of knowledge, this approach focuses on the institutionalisation of learning as well as on educational norms and values in comparative perspective. By examining the agendas and backgrounds of both the ‘educators’ and their ‘customers’, the different ideologies of different civilising missions as well as inherent contradictions and limits become apparent.

Third, re-conceptions of spaces as products of migrations and networks offer new avenues for research. For example, Atlantic history has been substantially expanded by the inclusion of Africa as an integral part of the ‘Atlantic community’. The Atlantic slave trade by no means represented a movement in just one direction but comprised continuous multilateral exchange, in the form of trade relations, social networks and cultural exchange. Likewise the trajectories of educational ideas span several continents and cannot be confined to simple one-way interactions between metropole and colonies.

A promising integrative perspective on these three approaches is offered by biographical research as a micro-historical approach linking historical actors, networks, transfer of ideas and knowledge as well as social practices. Furthermore, this theme offers connections to activities and interests in other research areas of the Institute. Biographies thus form an overarching theme of the GHIL’s research programme in colonial history during the years 2010 and 2011, as is also reflected in the topics of various conferences, lectures and projects of scholarship-holders funded by the Institute.

'The Great Plan for Mass Education': Twentieth-Century Colonial and Postcolonial Experiments in Education (Valeska Huber)

Christian Missions and Female Education in Nineteenth-Century Sierra Leone (Silke Strickrodt)

Religious Buildings, State Archaeology, and the Making of Monuments in Colonial India (Indra Sengupta)

Criticism of Colonialism from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century (Benedikt Stuchtey)

Related Conferences and Seminars

Related Projects of Scholarship Holders

Visiting Fellows

Dr Tanja Bührer, Universität Bern: European Intermediaries on the Fringes of Empire: British and French Political Agents at the Court of the Nizam of Hyderabad. Funding: Swiss National Science Foundation (September 2010 - August 2012). More Information (this link will take you to the University of Bern website)

Dr Arndt Brendecke, LMU München: Imperium und Empirie. Funktionen des Wissens in der Spanischen Kolonialherrschaft. Funding: Dilthey Fellowship of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation (August 2009 - October 2009)