Feb 20 - ‘Bordering On Britishness’ Conference
This coming Friday 24 and Saturday 25 February, the Garrison Library will host the ‘Bordering on Britishness’ conference.
‘Bordering on Britishness’ is an oral history project on Gibraltarian identity which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
During the project, nearly 400 interviews have been conducted with people living in Gibraltar and across the border in La Línea. By giving voice to locals from diverse ethnic, religious, and national backgrounds, the project’s findings explore the ways in which the inhabitants of Gibraltar have developed an explicitly British Gibraltarian national identity over the last century. It also looks at the way in which a distinct ‘Gibraltarianness’ has arisen - a national identity different from that of the Spanish neighbours and, partly, from that of the United Kingdom. Questions are also posed on how the closure of the border helped to generate a move towards Gibraltarians seeing themselves as ‘more British than the British’.
Conference sessions will focus on:
Naturalism and Ethnicity in the Mediterranean
Language Shift and Bilingualism
Tangible and Intangible Borders, Identities, Borderlands and Borders
Colonialism, Post-Colonialism and Post-Coloniality
A View through the Gates: Gibraltar and Spain in the 20th Century
The conference will be jointly chaired by Professor Andrew Canessa (University of Essex) and by Dr Jennifer Ballantine Perera (Gibraltar Garrison Library / University of Gibraltar). The first speaker, at 9.30 on Friday will be the Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Joseph Garcia.
Entrance is free and open to all. There is no need for anyone to register in advance but if anyone wishes to do so, they should contact Chris Tavares at chris.tavares@gibraltargarrisonlibrary
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