Peter Gatrell

Specific research interests:

My research and teaching interests fall into two broad categories: population displacement in world history and the history of modern Europe. These twin interests are also brought together in my commitment to the cultural history of modern war. I would welcome enquiries from prospective graduate students in these fields.

My interests in population displacement derive in the first place from research I carried out into the mass movements of civilians in the Russian empire during the First World War.

Current research projects:

Common Ground [provisional title]: Migration in/to Europe since 1945, for Penguin Books and Basic Books

"Rehabilitation' and population displacement in the post-war world, 1945-1960s', funded by The Leverhulme Trust.

The Korean refugee crisis in the 1950s

The second main element of my research and teaching is modern European history, especially the economic and social history of modern Russia. I published Government, Industry and Rearmament in Russia, 1900-1914: The Last Argument of Tsarism (CUP, 1994). I have an interest in the broader economic history of Russia, which led to the publication of The Tsarist Economy, 1850-1917 (Batsford, 1986). My most recent book in this field was Russia's First World War: An Economic and Social History (Pearson, 2005)., but I have also published on the Russian fiscal state, 1600-1914; on the Russian economy in the 20th century; and on reconceptualising the Russian industrial revolution. See under Publications.

My interest in the cultural history of modern war originates from trying to understand the dynamics of World War 1 in Russia. I collaborate with other members of the research centre on the cultural history of war and the interdisciplinary Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI).  I am on the editorial board of "1914-1918 online", an international venture based at the Free University of Berlin.

Expertise

My expertise is in the history of refugees and the history of humanitarianism in the modern world, and additionally in the cultural history of modern war and the history of modern Russia.

Social engagement

I have worked with various external partners including the Society of Friends (Quakers) and the American Friends Service Committee, as well as UNHCR (Geneva). My students and I have worked with the Manchester Refugee Support Network.

I am involved in the Model UN project (Schools Linking Network) and in the Schools University Partnership Initiative on 'tomorrow's citizens'. See http://www.manchester.ac.uk/undergraduate/schoolsandcolleges/secondary/rcukschool-universitypartnershipinitiative/

Current teaching

My research interests inform my Level 3 course unit entitled 'Refugees in Modern World History' which, like the research projects mentioned elsewhere, draws upon a broad range of social and cultural theory. The course addresses case-studies in twentieth-century European and non-European history and explores such issues as how one can write 'refugee history'. My students work in small groups to produce posters and discussion logs on relevant topics. Many of them have written dissertations arising from this course unit; their research has taken them to libraries and archives in Geneva, Paris, New York, Dublin and Tel Aviv, as well as in the UK.

My teaching interests in modern history take the form of course units in the cultural history of modern war, Russian economic history, and the social and cultural history of the Russian revolution. I have aIso offered lectures at Level 2 on the economic history of Russia and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century.

At MA level I have contributed to the MA programme in Humanitarianism and Conflict Response and the MA in the Cultural History of Modern War.

In 2019 I was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (section: Modern History since 1850).

In 2011 I was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Between 1995 and 1997 I held a Research Readership awarded by the British Academy.

Additional academic activities:

I have served on the following panels:

• REF 2014 Chair of Sub-panel 27 (Area Studies), and member of Main Panel D (Humanities)
• (Until 2007) AHRC Postgraduate Panel 4 (Medieval and Modern History)
• ESRC Research Grants Board
  http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/research/
• RAE Sub-panel 50, European Studies

I am on the editorial board of the MUP series on the cultural history of war and the journal Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. I am a member of the editorial team for the online encyclopedia "1914-1918 online".