
Arts and Humanities Research Council
England’s Immigrants is a major new project, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council with a grant of £784,545, on all aspects of the immigrant experience in England in the period 1330-1550. The project draws on extensive archival evidence about the names, origins, occupations and households of a significant number of foreigners who chose to make their lives and livelihoods in England in the era of the Hundred Years War, the Black Death and the Wars of the Roses.
The project will contribute creatively to the longer-term history of immigration to Britain, and help to provide a deep historical and cultural context to contemporary debates over ethnicity, multiculturalism and national identity.
The project has its own website at http://www.englandsimmigrants.com/, which contains full up-to-date information about its activities and findings.
The project runs from February 2012 to February 2015, and includes a range of academic and public activities including workshops and conferences. The electronic database of immigrants compiled by the project team will be made freely available to all users in 2015.
The project is a collaboration between the University of York, the National Archives and the Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield.
The International Advisory Board is chaired by Prof James Bolton (Queen Mary, London)