Mixed Relationships - Racialised Boundaries: Histories, experiences, identities and representations of black/white mixed-heritage families in Europe
Lead Research Organisation:
Loughborough University
Department Name: Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy
Abstract
Our new European Research Network will develop research collaboration to explore the complex histories, shifting lived experiences, identities and representations of mixed-heritage couples of different generations and the historical legacy of racialised discourses and discrimination against interracial relationships in European societies (1920-present). These issues will be analysed from critical, inclusive, interdisciplinary, postcolonial, and intersectional perspectives and address 3 key objectives:
1) To strengthen and enhance collaboration in our new international research network to generate substantial knowledge on the complex histories, identities, lived experiences and representations of black and white mixed-heritage families in Europe;
2) To develop an interactive and communicative research agenda to enable the network to actively engage with people in mixed-heritage relationships/of mixed-heritage, drive knowledge transfer, to create wider public impact/engagement activities of benefit to this group and to raise awareness amongst a broader public;
3) To work in partnership with the Runnymede Trust and other NGOs/cultural institutions (eg Mixed Museum London, Joliba, Afro-German Women's association) to generating wider public and cultural impact from this research.
Our research design combines two main innovative research strands:
a) An empirical study combining interviews with digital methods to examine the complex and changing lived experiences, identities and concepts of belonging across multiple generations in mixed-heritage families in European societies. These will be examined via narrative life history interviews with the descendants of first-generation interracial couples, children/grandchildren (where possible), and an analysis of their self-representations on social media platforms which, we hypothesise, act as a space to counter stereotypical narratives of 'mixed race' and 'mixedness', to voice alternative narratives and construct 'digital diasporas' (Ponzanesi 2020);
b) A historiographic, rhetorical analysis of the historical legacy of racialised media/wider public discourses and racially structured discriminations associated with mixed-heritage couples/families in European history and their contemporary repercussions. Combining these two research strands will enable us to (1) interrogate the legacy of mixed relationships in the earlier period for subsequent generations, (2) gather data from a wider range of sources than is customary to enable diachronic analysis of the representation of interracial relations within mixed-heritage families, (3) gather data on and generate new critical insights into counter-narratives to dominant presentations of mixed-heritage relations.
Our network combines interdisciplinary academic perspectives (from historical, social and media sciences) with stakeholder participation from NGOs, user groups and independent research, justice and cultural organisations (e.g. Runnymede Trust, The Mixed Museum, London) and will reach out to a wider public and key stakeholder groups using innovative user-engagement events including a creative ideas workshop for NGOs/community groups co-lead by the Runnymede Trust at LU in London, an Mixed-Heritage Arts, showcase and digital methods event in collaboration with mixed-heritage artists and doctoral researchers and an early career researcher-led public seminar/workshop on mixed-heritage relationships-racialised boundaries in Bergen.
1) To strengthen and enhance collaboration in our new international research network to generate substantial knowledge on the complex histories, identities, lived experiences and representations of black and white mixed-heritage families in Europe;
2) To develop an interactive and communicative research agenda to enable the network to actively engage with people in mixed-heritage relationships/of mixed-heritage, drive knowledge transfer, to create wider public impact/engagement activities of benefit to this group and to raise awareness amongst a broader public;
3) To work in partnership with the Runnymede Trust and other NGOs/cultural institutions (eg Mixed Museum London, Joliba, Afro-German Women's association) to generating wider public and cultural impact from this research.
Our research design combines two main innovative research strands:
a) An empirical study combining interviews with digital methods to examine the complex and changing lived experiences, identities and concepts of belonging across multiple generations in mixed-heritage families in European societies. These will be examined via narrative life history interviews with the descendants of first-generation interracial couples, children/grandchildren (where possible), and an analysis of their self-representations on social media platforms which, we hypothesise, act as a space to counter stereotypical narratives of 'mixed race' and 'mixedness', to voice alternative narratives and construct 'digital diasporas' (Ponzanesi 2020);
b) A historiographic, rhetorical analysis of the historical legacy of racialised media/wider public discourses and racially structured discriminations associated with mixed-heritage couples/families in European history and their contemporary repercussions. Combining these two research strands will enable us to (1) interrogate the legacy of mixed relationships in the earlier period for subsequent generations, (2) gather data from a wider range of sources than is customary to enable diachronic analysis of the representation of interracial relations within mixed-heritage families, (3) gather data on and generate new critical insights into counter-narratives to dominant presentations of mixed-heritage relations.
Our network combines interdisciplinary academic perspectives (from historical, social and media sciences) with stakeholder participation from NGOs, user groups and independent research, justice and cultural organisations (e.g. Runnymede Trust, The Mixed Museum, London) and will reach out to a wider public and key stakeholder groups using innovative user-engagement events including a creative ideas workshop for NGOs/community groups co-lead by the Runnymede Trust at LU in London, an Mixed-Heritage Arts, showcase and digital methods event in collaboration with mixed-heritage artists and doctoral researchers and an early career researcher-led public seminar/workshop on mixed-heritage relationships-racialised boundaries in Bergen.
