Tag: British World

British World Studies in Japan

Published on by CIGH Exeter
Participants at the British World research workshop, Nihon University, Tokyo, April 2026

David Thackeray (University of Exeter) and Mahito Takeuchi (Nihon University)

Last month I (David) had the pleasure of speaking at a research workshop held at Nihon University as part of an ongoing British World histories project led by Prof. Mahito Takeuchi, the first of its kind in Japan. The Tokyo and Kansai regions play host to a thriving cluster of scholars working in this field, several of whom will contribute to the project. Building on existing work which has focused on the role of networks in the development of British World ties, the project will pay particular attention to issues of racism and unequal power relations, which have sometimes been elided in existing works.

The workshop was the first of its kind that the research group have held since the pandemic. Several of the earlier English-language publications of the research group and their guests are collected here. David Thackeray explored the Empire/ Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, an organisation which following its founding in 1911 sought to promote the ‘British World’ as a cohesive political and economic community, rooted in ideas of racial kinship and shared constitutional tradition. However, the Parliamentary Association struggled to reconcile its historical focus on informal co-operation with the political realities of a Commonwealth being reshaped by decolonisation and waned in influence after 1950. Prof. Hilary Carey (University of Bristol) discussed the development of Imperial Church Congresses and their relationship with the British World. These congresses brought together tens of thousands of delegates from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. While London initially played a central role in the development of this spiritual empire America became increasingly central to the advance of Evangelicalism as a global movement. Although there were significant differences between denominations such congresses promoted ideas of a united Anglosphere.

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In Plain Sight: Decolonising the Museum

Published on by CIGH Exeter
Detail from Joy Gregory’s The Sweetest Thing (2021)

Anabelle Howorth, Alex Jones, and Tim Robertson

As students on the British World module at Exeter we recently discussed why the place of the colonial past has become so contentious over the last thirty years. In doing so, we considered the concerns of the ‘new museology’ in seeking to make museums fora for public engagement and discussion of this past. We also considered recent attempts to raise awareness of the region’s connections with colonialism, such as the ‘In Plain Sight’ exhibition at the RAMM in Exeter, which traces Devon’s connections with the Atlantic slave trade. The exhibition does an excellent job of providing a new understanding of the overlooked connections between places we see everyday and one of the darkest episodes in history. In particular, Joy Gregory’s commissioned work, ‘The Sweetest Thing’ highlights the connections between local wealthy families and slavery in the Caribbean. The tapestry includes compensation figures, which were awarded to claimants by the British government following the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. Knowledge of the huge sums awarded to former slave owners has become more widespread over recent years through the digitisation of records by the Legacies of British Slave Ownership project but it is still rare for a regional museum to feature this history prominently.

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