My name is Nick Sprenger and I am a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Rutgers University.  My colleague Emily Anderson (Rutgers, English) and I have founded an interdisciplinary British Studies Working Group and we invite the participation of any and all interested parties! Our group meets once a month to discuss issues relating to British Studies. We define “British studies” widely and welcome participation from anyone whose scholarship engages with any aspect of Britain/Britishness, imperialism/colonialism, migration/diaspora, or global Britain approaches.

Our theme for this semester is “Materials of Empire” and our first meeting on this theme is Tuesday, February 8 from 3-4pm EST via Zoom. We are reading selections from Dan Hicks, The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution (London: Pluto Press, 2020), as well as a review of Hicks and Combating Empire’s Blinkered History: The Landmark Repatriation of Tweed MS150 (lareviewofbooks.org).

I want to emphasize that this is a relaxed, informal group. This group is meant to be fun and genial, rather than stressful or burdensome. If you cannot do the readings but would like to come socialize, that is perfectly okay! If you have suggestions for things you would like to see read, discussed, or circulated, then please let us know. Really, we want to gather and be nerds about British studies. If any of this sounds good to you and you would like to participate in the British Studies Working Group, and/or would like to be added to our Canvas site, please let me know. I can be reached at nicholas.sprenger@rutgers.edu. I am happy to answer any questions you may have about the group, its goals, and what Emily and I are planning! Please do not hesitate to reach out.

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