Dr Laurence Brown
Lecturer in Migration History
History
School of Arts, Histories and Cultures
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL
ENGLAND
Telephone: 0161 275 3100
Fax: 0161 275 3256
Email: Laurence.Brown@manchester.ac.uk
PROFILE
Laurence Brown is Lecturer in Migration History. His main research interests are the Caribbean diaspora (1760-present), labour migration in the remaking of nineteenth century colonialism, and the impact of migration on contemporary Western Europe.
After completing a doctorate in comparative history at the University of York in 1999, he was a lecturer at the University of the West Indies (Barbados) and at the American University of Paris. In 2004-2005 he held a research fellowship at the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research at the Australian National University that focused on exploring the connections between colonial migration networks in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans during the nineteenth century.
CURRENT RESEARCH
My current research project examines the relationships between past and present migratory movements in the Caribbean, from European colonisation and the African slave trade, to indentured Asian and African immigration in the nineteenth century to contemporary Afro-Caribbean movements across the Americas and Europe. A central focus for my research has been the inter-colonial movements of elite and subaltern migrants between the British, French and Hispanic Caribbean. I am also interested in the extent to which contemporary theories on trans-nationalism, integration, second generation identity, diaspora and ethnicity can be used to inform historical research.
As part of this research I have begun examining how projects for migrant labour in the nineteenth century Caribbean were connected to changes elsewhere in empire, and particularly the construction of plantation economies in the island colonies of the Indian Ocean and Pacific.
My interests in examining the interactions between different diasporas has led me to explore the application of GIS to mapping how migrant experiences were shaped by cultural, environmental, demographic and economic forces. Migration studies has been mark by the pervasive rupture between qualitative and quantitative research. Whereas quantitative research has tended to homogenize historical conditions and ethnic identities, the visualization capabilities of GIS allow us to explore a range of migrant cultural practices and how these varied across space and time.
TEACHING
My teaching interests include slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic World, migration and citizenship in modern Europe, the social and cultural history of the Caribbean, British and French colonial history, and the visual history of race. I am happy to supervise projects and dissertations on any of the above topics.