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Research group: Centre for Migration and Postcolonial Studies (MAPS)
Exploring the impact of postcolonialism and migration on the literary and cultural landscape — now and in the future.
About our research
About our research
The Centre for Migration and Postcolonial Studies (MAPS) works in the fields of postcolonial, migration and diaspora studies, literary and cultural geography, and global testimony studies.
Our research deals with a range of disciplines relating to South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and South East Asia, as well as minority and diasporic cultures in the UK and beyond.
With the current migration crisis, our work has never been more timely or more relevant.
We often work with award-winning writers from the Manchester Writing School, one of the largest postgraduate English and creative writing communities in the UK.
Manchester itself has a history of migration and postcolonial encounters, making it one of the more ethnically diverse cities in Europe.
We want to create an inclusive, international culture at the University through local and international partnerships, and by exploring how histories of migration shape and mark literary and cultural landscapes.
Our continuing aim is to connect the history of colonialism to the literary and cultural future.
As well as our MA English course in postcolonial studies, we also run a speakers’ series, a reading group, a film club and a writers’ forum on creative-critical conversations.
Our research themes
Our research topics
Postcolonial Trauma and Testimony Studies
The intersecting fields of trauma and testimony studies are widely researched in MAPS. Professor Minoli Salgado’s Leverhulme-funded project, The Other Side of Violence, offers a practice-based comparative critique of witness literature. This draws on fieldwork in Cambodia and Sri Lanka, as well as work with the National Peace Council, Sri Lanka. This research is reflected in the MA course on Postcolonial Trauma which engages with literature and film from these areas, as well as from Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan and Northern Ireland. It is currently taught by Professor Salgado, Dr Eleanor Byrne and Dr Sonja Lawrenson.
Climate Change and the Global South
Dr Chloe Germaine and Dr Ben Bowman are leading a project on Climate Imaginaries relating to climate fiction and young people’s environmentalism funded by the Political Studies Association. In addition, Dr Muzna Rahman is interested in the intersections between climate change, sustainability and literary studies, and has worked as a visiting researcher at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Decolonising Comedy Studies
Dr Sarah Ilott leads on a project that challenges the existing canon of comedy theory. Working with researchers, performers and writers from across the globe, the project provides alternative histories and ways of understanding comic performance that decentre the privileged white, male, European subject position.
Selected projects
Key publications
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Key publications
Non-fiction
- Rahman, M (2022) Hunger and Postcolonial Writing, Routledge
- Salgado, M (2022) Twelve Cries from Home: In Search of Sri Lanka’s Disappeared, Repeater Books
- Grzegorczyk, B (2020) Terror and Counter-Terror in Contemporary British Children’s Literature, Routledge
- Davies, H and Ilott, S, eds (2018) Comedy and the Politics of Representation Mocking the Weak, Palgrave Macmillan
- Ilott, S, Mendes, CA and Newns, L, eds, (2018) New Directions in Diaspora Studies Cultural and Literary Approaches, Rowman & Littlefield International
- Buckley, CG and Ilott, S, eds, (2017) Telling It Slant Critical Approaches to Helen Oyeyemi, Sussex Academic Press
- Lichtenstein, R (2016) Estuary: Out from London to the Sea, Penguin
- Grzegorczyk, B (2015) Discourses of Postcolonialism in Contemporary British Children’s Literature, Routledge
- Ilott, S (2015) New Postcolonial British Genres Shifting the Boundaries, Palgrave Macmillan
- Lichtenstein, R and Sinclair, I (2014) Rodinsky’s Room, Granta Books
- Lichtenstein, R (2013) Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden, Penguin
- Schoene, B (2009) The Cosmopolitan Novel, Edinburgh University Press
- Lichtenstein, R (2008) On Brick Lane, Penguin UK
- Schoene, B (2007) The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature, Edinburgh University Press
- Salgado, M (2007) Writing Sri Lanka: Literature, Resistance and the Politics of Place, Routledge
Selected fiction and poetry
- Wheatle, A (2020) Cane Warriors, Anderson Press
- Roffey, M (2020) The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story, Peepal Tree Press
- Salgado, M (2019) Broken Jaw: Stories, 87 Press
- Roffey, M (2017) The Tryst, Dodo Ink
- Wheatle, A (2017) Straight Outta Crongton, Atom Books
- Wheatle, A (2016) Crongton Knights, Atom Books
- Wheatle, A (2015) Liccle Bit, Atom Books
- Barker, S (2014) The Incarnations, Black Swan
- Roffey, M (2014) House of Ashes, Simon and Schuster
- Salgado, M (2014) A Little Dust on the Eyes, Peepal Tree Press
- Booker, M (2013) Pepper Seed, Peepal Tree Press
- Roffey, M (2012) Archipelago, Simon and Schuster
- Roffey, M (2011) With the Kisses of his Mouth, Simon and Schuster
- Weatle, A (2011) Brenton Brown, Arcadia Books
- Roffey, M (2009) The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, Simon and Schuster
- Barker, S (2008) The Orientalist and the Ghost, Transworld
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Events
Testimony and the Postcolonial: A Symposium
- April 2023
The event featured papers by Dr Sonja Andermahr (University of Northampton); Dr Lindsey Moore (Lancaster University); Professor Minoli Salgado (Manchester Metropolitan University), Dr Henghameh Saroukhani (University of Durham) and Dr Agnes Wooley (Birkbeck, University of London).
It was followed by the Manchester book launch of Prof. Minoli Salgado’s Twelve Cries from Home: In Search of Sri Lanka’s Disappeared at the Manchester Poetry Library.
The Great Waking Up – a live event about the writing world and the climate emergency
- 17 April 2024
Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement (2015) said that writers were asleep on climate change, and there had been great apathy from publishers too. Not enough writers were writing about this oncoming catastrophe and any book attempting the subject simply fell into sci-fi or horror as a genre. Today, just a decade later, the opposite is true. There has been a “great waking up” in the literary world around climate change. Not only have we seen novels with massive sales (such as The Overstory or The Ministry for the Future) but writers in the UK have never been more active and articulate about climate change. There are now several active climate change writers’ groups.
This event brought together a unique panel to talk about why writers need to be awake and active in this current crisis, and what impact can literary activism make. What can writers now do? How can we unite to face the coming changes in our climate?
Invited speakers:- James Miller, novelist, Writers Rebel
- Chis Redmond, poet and host for legendary poetry night Tongue Fu, one half of Hot Poets
- Leena Norms, poet and podcaster
- Chaired by Monique Roffey, writer and professor at Manchester Met’s Writing School, co-founder of Writers Rebel, and ambassador for Just Stop Oil.
Out of Sri Lanka: The Poetry of Witness
- 1 May 2024
A hybrid literature event hosted at the Manchester Poetry Library with a panel discussion on the politics and poetics of witnessing and video recordings of poetry readings, followed by the Manchester book launch of Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala and English poetry from Sri Lanka and its diasporas.
Invited speakers: Vidyan Ravinthiran, poet, editor and literary scholar (Harvard), Seni Seneviratne, poet and editor, and Shash Trevett, poet, translator and editor. Chaired by Minoli Salgado, writer and Professor of International Writing (Manchester Met).
Partners
Organisations we work with
![Logo of Home, Manchester](/sites/default/files/styles/logo_scalable/public/2021-06/HOME%20Manchester.jpg?itok=xLkhANPG)
HOME Cinema
![Logo for Massey University in New Zealand](/sites/default/files/styles/logo_scalable/public/2021-12/Massey%20Univeristy%20logo_0.jpg?itok=iaC1Lw5T)
Massey University, New Zealand
![Logo for the International Centre for Climate Change and Development](/sites/default/files/styles/logo_scalable/public/2021-12/International%20centre%20for%20climate%20change%20and%20development%20logo.png?itok=FwLL9Tkl)
ICCCAD
Contact information
Contact us
For general enquiries about our Centre for Migration and Postcolonial Studies research group, you can contact its lead Prof Minoli Salgado.