Foregrounding marginal groups in historical analysis

Abstract

David Pomfret's seminal work Youth and Empire has convincingly shown the value of integrating historically marginal groups of people, such as children, in transnational research on the fashioning of empire, social aspects of imperialism and ideas of global modernity and mobility. Pomfret’s bottom-up approach, inventive use of source material, and conceptualisation of childhood allow him to successfully frame children not only as objects who were “acted upon” by adults but as historical agents in their own right. In this masterclass, professor Pomfret invites PhD candidates and research master students to reflects on ways in which marginalised groups of people can become the central actors of one's research project. What approaches, sources, methodologies, theories or concepts can be used? How can concepts like agency be operationalised in order to contribute to 'inclusive' research on (historical) processes of marginalisation? What research questions or topics are afforded by dismissing ‘marginal’ as an identity, and instead considering social, economic and cultural positioning as contingent across time and place?