PhD in Cultural Studies

Project title: Young Refugees to Britain in the early Twentieth Century/nDepartment/School: Department of Languages and Cultures, School of Humanities/nSupervisors: Dr Ellen Pilsworth, Dr Monja Stahlberger/nProject Overview:/n2026 marks 75 years since the Refugee convention (1951) outlined the definition of a refugee and the minimum legal obligations of the States who receive them. This Convention was a response to the millions of people displaced by European conflicts in the early part of the twentieth century. We are interested in the histories of European refugees who came to Britain in the decades before the Convention, with a specific focus on the experiences of children and young people still engaged in education or training./nGovernments have often viewed children as more easily assimilated and less of an economic or administrative burden than adult refugees. Yet, research shows that children’s experiences of exile are far more complex: language acquisition, identity formation, and senses of belonging can follow unpredictable paths. Studying children offers a vital lens onto the assumptions and realities of displacement./nWe welcome applications interested in the British reception of Belgian refugees during and after the First World War, as well as Italian, Spanish, Polish, Czecho‑Slovakian and other refugee and displaced groups in Britain in the broader context of the Second World War. Please note, we are not accepting proposals to work on German-speaking refugees, as this group is already represented in our project. We are open to any other relevant national group(s). Projects may take a comparative approach across the period ca. 1910-1950, or choose a narrower temporal focus./nThe PhD topic should be based on original historical research, using sources that could include state and personal archives, published or unpublished memoirs, and oral history. The successful student will work alongside the UKRI-funded project ‘Nation of Refuge’.