![A Black man drinking from a 'coloured' fountain in a historical United States diner](https://www.mmu.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/page_header_half/public/2021-05/discrimination.jpg?h=4a20892f&itok=7POLUKf9)
Research group: Race, religion, ethnicity and community
Exploring the development of religious, racial and ethnic identities over time, while informing contemporary discussions of community, conflict and dialogue.
About us
About our research
Our work takes a cross- and inter-disciplinary approach to crucial questions about race, religion, and ethnicity.
We look at the way in which religious, racial and ethnic identities have developed over time, and how different communities have encountered and understood one another, whether in cooperation or in conflict.
Exploring the history of these identities and encounters helps us to understand contemporary issues such as structural inequality, religious violence and community formation.
Our areas of work include:
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studies of Burmese temples and manuscripts
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the history of travel to the Holy Land from the Middle Ages to the present
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communities of print in early-modern England
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early-modern debates about the apocalypse and Jewish restoration
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Taiping theology in nineteenth-century China
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slave-holding women in the United States civil war
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Jewish communities in nineteenth-century London
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racial ideas in the Renaissance
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political groups in industrial Britain
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cultural memories of the troubles in Northern Ireland
We help heritage organisations and museums in the United Kingdom and internationally develop their work.
And we supervise postgraduate students conducting historical research.
Our expertise
We are committed to developing intellectual, professional and public debates about:
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the questions generated by encounters between different communities
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movement, and the spread of ideas through travel
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ways in which ideas can lead to community formation
Selected projects
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Key publications
- Cromwell, J (2017) Recording Village Life A Coptic Scribe in Early Islamic Egypt University of Michigan Press
- Hirsch, S (2019) In the shadow of Enoch Powell: Race, locality and resistance Manchester University Press
- Hurlock, K (2018) Medieval Welsh Pilgrimage, c.1100-1500. Palgrave MacMillan
- Kilcourse, C (2016) Taiping Theology: The Localization of Christianity in China, 1843-64 Palgrave Macmillan
- Wolstencroft, S (2018) The Progressive Alliance and the Rise of Labour, 1903-1922: Political Change in Industrial Britain Springer
Organisations we work with
![Logo of the National Trust](/sites/default/files/styles/logo_scalable/public/2021-04/The%20National%20Trust.jpg?itok=mzv_d_3o)
The National Trust
![Logo of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization](/sites/default/files/styles/logo_scalable/public/2021-04/unesco.jpg?itok=JOs0D_b4)
UNESCO
![Logo of Sandys Row Synagogue](/sites/default/files/styles/logo_scalable/public/2021-04/srs-logo.png?itok=2GhghdwL)
Sandys Row Synagogue
![Logo of Chetham's Library in Manchester](/sites/default/files/styles/logo_scalable/public/2021-04/chethams%20library.jpg?itok=I1l8v6IA)
Chetham's Library
Contact
Contact us
You can contact individual members of the team through their staff profiles.
For general enquiries, please contact our research group leads Andrew Crome and Rachel Lichtenstein.