Dr Anne Kershen , BA, MPhil, PhD, FRSA, FRHistS
Barnet Shine Senior Research Fellow

Deputy Director, Centre for the Study of Migration

Research interests:

Though I started out as an Anglo-Jewish historian, my area of interest has now expanded to cover migration with particular emphasis on immigration and settlement in London, both past and present.  My current research project is a comparative study of the impact of immigrants on a largely rural population, in this case Shropshire, with that of their impact on an inner London community, specifically, Tower Hamlets.

Publications:

Books:

Sole Author

Strangers, Aliens and Asians: Huguenots, Jews and Bangladeshis in Spitalfields 1660-2000, Taylor and Francis, London, (Routledge), 2005.

Uniting the Tailors, Frank Cass, London, 1995.

Co-author

with Romain, J, Tradition and Change A History of Reform Judaism in Britain 1840 - 1995, London, Vallentine Mitchell, 1995.

Edited Volumes

Food in the Migrant Experience, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2002, (ed.).

Language, Labour and Migration, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2000, (ed.).

A Question of Identity, Ashgate, Aldershot, 1998, (ed.).

London the Promised Land? The Migrant Experience in a Capital City, Ashgate, Aldershot, 1997, (ed.).

Journal Articles:

‘Married Jewish and Muslim Women Don’t Work’. Home Cultures, forthcoming spring 2011.

‘Synagogues and Mosques: Bagels and Curries’, Jewish Culture and History, forthcoming 2011.

‘Food in the British Migrant Experience’ in Food and History, forthcoming late summer 2010. 

'The Closing of an Open Door: Immigration Legislation in Britain 1905 to 2005', Patterns of Prejudice, 2007.

'The 1905 Aliens Act', History Today, Volume 55 (03), March 2005, pp 13-19.

'The Migrant in a Spitalfields Landscape', Landscape Research, Vo. 29, No. 3, July, 2004, pp. 261-275. 

'From Celebrationists to Confrontionists: British Jewish Historiography in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries' in Immigrants and Minorities, (2000).

'The Origin of Wholesale Clothing Industry in the East End of London', in Textile History, 28 (1), 1997.

Chapters in Books:

‘Afterwards’, in  M. Tromp, M. Bachman and H. Kaufman (eds), Fear and Loathing: Victorian Xenophobia, Ohio State University Press, (forthcoming.)

'The Migrant at Home in Spitalfields: Memory, Myth and Reality', in K. Burrell and P. Panayi (eds), Histories and Memories: Migrants and their History in Britain, London, Tauris Academic Studies, (2005), pp. 96-113.

'The Jewish Community in Britain in the Twentieth Century', in Gibney and Hansen (eds), Immigrants in Britain from 1900 to the Present, ABC Clio (2005), pp. 358-64

'Immigrants, Sojourners and Refugees: Minority Groups in Britain 1900-1939' in C. Wrigley (ed.), A Companion to Early Twentieth Century Britain, Blackwell, 2003. pp. 137-151.

'Mother Tongue as a Bridge to Assimilation', in Anne J Kershen, (ed.) Language, Labour and Migration, 2000, pp. 11-38.

'A Question of Identity' in Anne J Kershen, A Question of Identity, 1998, pp. 1-22.

'Higher Education in the London Community' in R. Floud and S. Glynn (eds), London Higher, Athlone Press, London, 1998, pp.

'Huguenots, Jews and Bangladeshis and the Spirit of Capitalism' in Anne J Kershen,(ed.), London the Promised Land? The Migrant Experience in a Capital City, Avebury/Ashgate, 1997, pp. 66-90.

' The Jewish Year Book 5657(1896): A Defence of British Jewry?' in A Centenary Facsimile of the First Jewish Year Book, Vallentine Mitchell, 1996, pp xv-xli.

'Henry Mayhew and Charles Booth: Men of Their Time' in G. Alderman and C. Holmes (eds), Outsiders and Outcasts, Duckworth, 1993, pp. 94-118.

'Trade Unionism Amongst the Tailoring Workers of London and Leeds', in D. Cesarani (ed.), The Making of Modern Anglo-Jewry, Blackwell, 1990, pp. 34-54.

Recent Papers

‘Jewish Women Don’t Work’, presented at the SSN Symposium, Manchester Science Museum, March 14th 2009.

‘Food in the Migrant Experience’, presented at the IEHCA (Institut Europeen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation) Tours, September 6th 2008.

‘Images of the Jew: Stereotyping the Outsider’ presented at National Identity and Social Cohesion, CRONEM Conference 2008 'Nationalism, Ethnicity and Citizenship: Whose Citizens? Whose Rights?',University of Surrey, 1 July 2008.

'Synagogues and Mosques, Bagels and Curries: The Experience of Muslims and Jews in Spitalfields', presented at the Forum on the Comparative Study of Muslims and Jews', held at Royal Holloway College, University of London, 22nd -23rd June 2006.

'Tinker, Tailor … Beggar Man: The Economic Mobility of Migrants', presented at the Conference of Business Historians, Queen Mary, University of London, 16th June 2006.

'Why do they get all the best flats with the showers: Host Society Reception of Immigrants in Britain', presented at the International Conference on Migration, Warsaw, 18th May 2006.

'The Closing of an Open Door - Immigration Legislation in Britain 1905-2005', presented at the National Archives conference on 1905 Aliens Act, 27th October 2005.

'The Aliens Act of 1905 - Cause and Effect', presented at the Museum of London, 12th March 2005.

'Immigrant Integration;, Huguenots, Jews and Bangladeshis in Spitalfields 1660-2002', paper given at the University of Cape Town, 8th December 2004.

'London as a multi-cultural city', Paper presented at conference at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, 19th March 2004.

'From Celebrationists to Confrontationists' paper given at Jewish Museum London, 10th July, 2003.

'Immigration in Britain in the 20th Century', paper given to meeting of United Nations Association, Church House Westminster, 12th December 2002.

Professional activities and outreach:

I am also Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Migration at Queen Mary and Series Editor of Studies in Migration and Diaspora for Ashgate.

I am regularly consulted by the media on matters relating to immigration and London history.

I have worked, and am currently working, with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets on matters relating to immigration and am currently working with Shropshire Council on recent immigration in the county.

I have advised Motorola on global migratory patterns.

I am a Trustee of the Jewish Museum, London  and chair of its Programming Committee and a member of the Council of the Jewish Historical Society of England.