Imagining

the West Indian soldier

  • kenniscentrum
  • lezing

Over

Onder de titel "Gateways to the First World War" organiseren het In Flanders Fields Museum en de Universiteit van Kent (School of History) in het academiejaar 2019-2020 een reeks van acht seminars.
De lezingen vinden plaats op donderdagavond en zijn gratis toegankelijk
voor alle geïnteresseerden. De voertaal is Engels.

De vier lezingen die doorgaan in Ieper vinden plaats om 19u
in de leeszaal van het In Flanders Fields Museum, Sint-Maartensplein 3.

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Imagining the West Indian soldier
from empire to multicultural commemoration
Richard Smith (Goldsmiths, University of London)

The role of the 16,000–strong British West Indies Regiment in the First World War has been recuperated from a marginalized afterthought in accounts of the British imperial war effort to occupy a more central, even symbolic, position in contemporary interpretations of the conflict. This process gained momentum during the recent centenary commemorations in which West Indian participation was remembered across a wide range of media, creative initiatives and community projects. This seminar will explore a variety of historical and contemporary representations of the British West Indies Regiment to consider the extent to which citizenship in multicultural Britain is framed by past imperial military service.