Nationality and Shared Identities in Maritime Communities, 1707-1797

This project will offer a novel interpretation of shared and national identities within maritime communities during the eighteenth century. In the light of ongoing public discussions of Britain's imperial past and its present and future position in the world, the project will re-evaluate both the social composition of maritime communities and the role that they played in the development of new and distinctive local and national identities in Britain.

In doing so it will place particular emphasis on people in these communities who have received less attention in mainstream maritime history, including women and members of ethnic minority groups, exploring their agency in and contributions to emergent ideas about what it meant to be British, and their legacies for British identity in the present day.

Maritime communities occupied a unique position. Seafaring labour and international trade were essential to the growth of the British empire, especially during its rapid early modern expansion on the global stage, when coastal towns were sites for massive state investment and infrastructure and the Royal Navy played a central role in national mythmaking.

At the same time, maritime communities had a distinct social dynamic as places where people from many different backgrounds - within and beyond Britain - congregated, worked, and lived together, forming some of the most mobile and diverse social groups with established connections to the rest of the world. Maritime communities were far from homogenous, ranging from large port cities to small fishing villages, but were all defined by their relationship with the maritime environment and with seaborne travel.

This project will therefore adopt a comparative perspective across different locations to consider how the maritime world and its peoples affected the development of shared identities and perspectives on nationality during Britain's formative political existence, from the Acts of Union in 1707 to the naval mutinies at Spithead and the Nore in 1797.

Drawing inspiration from the concerns of history from below, the project will explore these questions by engaging with a range of evidence that has rarely been studied together, or from this angle. It will combine the archival and object collections of Royal Museums Greenwich, as well as other national and local archives and museums, to build a picture of the people who inhabited these communities, their social and material worlds, and their ideas about local and national identities.

The student will work with a selection of case studies from across Britain, considering different locations from sprawling dockyards to coastal hamlets, and as determined by that evidence will address relevant theoretical frameworks, such as conceptual analysis of race and gender, and suitable research methodologies, potentially including digital network analysis and Geographic Information System software. They will produce academic work including their thesis, conference presentations, and academic articles, as well as providing greater understanding of RMG's collections and producing resources for museum displays and public outreach.

Through their analysis of multiple locations, the student will connect with other institutions, including REACH partners the National Trust and the British Film Institute, and with members of the Maritime Heritage Network, to develop new collaborations and to consider how their research can contribute to current and future maritime heritage initiatives.