Call for Papers | Schooling for Empire, c. 1750-c. 1945

20 June 2025 - 09:00 am - 17:00 pm

Schooling for Empire, c. 1750-c. 1945
CALL FOR PAPERS
20 June 2025, Senate House, London
 

Keynote speakers: Professor Catherine Hall FBA FRHistS and John Agard FRSL

As part of an award-winning research project exploring the historical intersection of education, class, colonialism, empire, gender, and race, the Schools of Empire Project and the Institute of Historical Research are hosting a one-day research conference on 20 June 2025 at the IHR/Senate House in London and warmly invite proposals for research papers.

Schools and colleges were integral cogs in the colonial machines of western empires in the period c. 1750–c. 1945. A broad range of educational institutions, such as the public school, the grammar school, the college and university, the missionary school, the military training college and civil service examinations, all played complementary and overlapping roles. Informal education in the home also exerted an important influence. Schools and colleges facilitated the administration and expansion of empire by educating sons and daughters of colonial administrators, soldiers and politicians while they were overseas. They were also settings for the schooling of early international students in western epistemic traditions. In turn, educational institutions produced their next generation, propagating the ethos instilled in the classroom, on the playing field and through national Empire Days. Schools and colleges in “mother countries” benefitted in an array of ways: endowments, donations, reflected prestige, political and ecclesiastical endorsement. Artefacts and natural history specimens collected across the globe – intended to fulfil didactic purposes – formed the core of museum and archival collections. The connections between education and empire are deep-rooted, multifaceted and complex; they need to be drawn out and analysed in a careful, nuanced, and collaborative manner. It is the overriding aim of this event to bring different voices, experiences, and approaches to understanding “schooling for empire” into dialogue with one another.

Proposals for 20-minute research papers are invited on the core theme of “schooling for empire”, conceived of in its broadest sense, encompassing both formal and informal educational institutions and initiatives across western countries and in international and colonial contexts. Potential topics and themes include, but are by no means limited to:

• Imperial attitudes instilled during schooling as part of the curriculum, examination, sport, and religious instruction
• Student culture, societies, and self-produced literature such as magazines, essays, and poetry
• The intersection of religion, muscular Christianity, missionary activities, and schooling
• The didactic functions of imperial museum, natural history, art, and archival collections in schools, colleges and universities
• Imperial values in built environments, such as stained glass and monuments
• Schooling as a tool of cultural imperialism and the imposition of western epistemic traditions; the experiences of early international students in schools, colleges and universities
• Gendered and racialised education and ideologies
• Imperial networks and clubs composed of former students
• ·Disruption to the schooling of First Nation peoples

We encourage proposals on these and other related themes from research students, independent and established scholars. This will be a one-day, non-residential conference and the delegate fee will be set with graduate students and early career and independent researchers in mind. Papers will be delivered in person, but there will be the possibility of online attendance. There will be some funding available to support UK travel expenses of accepted speakers. Some of the audience will be drawn from non-academic bodies. It is hoped that the event will lead to the publication of select papers in a special journal issue.

Please send paper proposals as well as informal enquiries to schoolsofempireconference@gmail.com before 15 January 2025. Paper proposals should include an abstract (c. 250 words), a brief biography (c. 100 words), and full contact details.

For more information about the Schools of Empire Project, please visit:

www.schoolsofempireproject.org