Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR)

Profile

Working Title – ‘Our Sailor Lads’, Identity, Citizenship and Empire in Portsmouth c. 1850 – 1900

My PhD research will investigate sailors as a social and cultural force in the urban, naval, port-town of Portsmouth c. 1850 – 1900. Recent historiographical debate has focussed on Atlantic contexts and rarely have sailors and port-towns been considered as urban inhabitants and entities. There is also significant debate surrounding sailors’ representation of Britishness at a time of rising threats from Europe and challenges to empire. However, there is little discussion as to how sailors perceived their own role in this process and within an urban context. My research will explore the urban interface between sailors and inhabitants in terms of how they negotiated and balanced urban living against local, national, imperial identities and ideals of citizenship and empire. To this end, the study is situated within the emerging field of research termed coastal history, which aims to illuminate the differing experiences of those linked to urban, coastal borderlands and the sea. Sailor diaries will be used to assess how they saw their role in shaping, selecting and negotiating identities and ideals. The presence and influence of sailors on key groups within Portsmouth in terms of their responses to differing ideals and identities will also be examined. Particular focus will be given as to whether local identity and street citizenship, (a term the project aims to define and explore further), took precedence over national identity and imperial citizenship as the main ties of coexistence within Portsmouth. More widely, the extent to which Portsmouth, as a port-town, reflected national, contemporary discourses surrounding identity and ideals will be evaluated.

First Supervisor – Dr Brad Beaven
Second Supervisor – Dr Karl Bell