Since at least the seventeenth century ‘Maritime Greenwich’ has been profoundly shaped by Britain’s colonial and imperial engagements and their legacies. From naval dockyards and mercantile wharves, through flourishing networks of mariners, merchants and investors to the globalised, racially and ethnically diverse communities of the present, the places and people of Greenwich bear the imprint of empire. This project will harness these rich, complex and sometimes troubling histories to assess how the local and the global made Greenwich, and to explore how Greenwich is confronting the legacies of empire and debates around decolonisation.

Applicants should formulate their own proposal to interrogate how empire shaped, and continues to shape, the Royal Borough and its inhabitants. Possible themes for exploration could include:

• Colonial wealth, enslavement and Maritime Greenwich • Navy, power and empire

• Space, place and time on the imperial meridian • Imperial bodies: race, gender, class, disability

• Material culture and the buildings of empire

• Migration, mobility and the makings of Greenwich

• Imperial heritage and the afterlives of empire

We particularly welcome applications which harness our unique location and networks, including projects which involve in partnership working with public and community organisations and institutions. In addition to the rich archival holdings at the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust, the Caird Library and Archive and the National Archives, applicants are encouraged to engage with Greenwich’s built environment and visual and material culture, as well as with community and heritage organisations based around the borough, including Charlton House, Severndroog Castle, the Migration Museum, and MoSaF (Memorial of Slavery and Freedom), Deptford.

Informal enquiries are encouraged; please contact lead supervisor Dr Hannah Young [email protected]