果冻影院

Academic profile

Dr Michael Collins聽(DPhil Oxon, FRHistS) is Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary British History. He joined聽果冻影院 History as a probationary lecturer in 2007. He became a permanent member of 果冻影院 History staff in 2010 and was promoted to associate professor in 2016. He was awarded his D.Phil. (PhD) in History by the University of Oxford in 2009, and previously studied the history of political thought at Cambridge University, and political science at the London School of Economics.

Research

Dr Collins has two main research themes:

1. The historical development of political ideas in聽Britain since c. 1940. This work focuses on how ideas are formed and deployed by elites聽to respond to specific problems and challenges, for example the decolonisation of the British Empire, migration and social change, Britain鈥檚 late-1950s orientation towards European political and economic integration, and the rise of identity politics聽within the United Kingdom.
2. The social and cultural history of migration and settlement in post-war Britain since c. 1940.聽This research focuses more on the experiences of migrants and settlers themselves and聽how postwar social and cultural change has reconfigured the meanings of Britishness and Englishness. Dr Collins has a particular interest in migrations from the Anglophone Caribbean and from South Asia.聽

He is currently finishing a book on the social and cultural history of cricket and Caribbean 鈥淲indrush鈥� migration to Britain; Windrush Cricket: Caribbean Migration and the Remaking of Postwar England will be published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in 2024. His next book project is 鈥淎fter the Raj鈥�, which looks at a wide spectrum of Indo-British relations 鈥� economic, political, military, cultural, and sporting 鈥� since 1947.

Selected recent publications

• in Lawrence Booth (ed.) Wisden (London: Bloomsbury, 2024), pp. 135-141.
• , The Conversation, June (2023)
• 鈥�, in 鈥楬olding up a mirror to cricket鈥�, The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), June (2023), pp. 35-53.
• 鈥樷��, The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), June (2023).聽
• , The Conversation, June (2023)
• 鈥樷��, The Political Quarterly, Dec. (2022)
• , The Political Quarterly, Dec. (2021)
• , Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 40/3 (2020), pp. 601鈥�606
• , in A.W.M. Smith and C. Jeppesen (eds.), Britain, France and the Decolonization of Africa: Future Imperfect? (London: 果冻影院 Press, 2017), pp. 17-42
• , in J. Mackenzie (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Empire: Volume 2 (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016), pp. 1-15
• London: Routledge, 2015
• , in A. Fischer and C. Speiss (eds.), State and Society in South Asia: Themes of Assertion and Recognition (New Delhi: Samskriti, 2014), pp. 101-144
• , Diplomacy and Statecraft 24/1, (2013), pp. 21-40
• , South Asia: The Journal of South Asian Studies 35/1 (2012), pp. 118-142

For a full list of publications, see .

PhD supervision

Dr Collins welcomes applications from students wishing to study for a PhD connected to the history of political ideas, the end of empire, immigration and identity in Britain after 1940.

Please note, before making an application and listing him as your prospective supervisor, you must contact Dr Collins directly to discuss the viability of your PhD project as well as聽his suitability and availability to supervise you.

Currently supervising:聽Sameema Rahman, 'The Figure of the Refugee in 1970s Britain'.聽

Recently completed:

• Saffron East,聽鈥楢ntiracism in Southall, 1968-1982鈥�
• Jack Saunders, 鈥楾he British motor industry 1945-77: how workplace cultures shaped labour militancy鈥�
• Kieran O鈥橪eary, 鈥楩rom Birmingham to Bulawayo: The Labour government, race and decolonization, 1964-1970鈥�
• Kevin Guyan, 鈥楳asculinities, planning knowledge and domestic space in Britain, c.1941-1961鈥櫬�
• Jack Taylor, 鈥楾he Attlee Government and the collapse of British Power in Iran, 1945-1951鈥�
• Hana Qugana, 鈥楾he cultural politics of Englishness: John Gordon Hargrave, the Kibbo Kift and Social Credit, 1920-1939鈥�.