Stateless in Manchester - the strange case of the "D.P. Student": Reading Race, Collecting Cultures - The Roving Reader Files

The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre is an open access University of Manchester facility. The Roving Reader Files category of blog posts is produced by Alison Newby (under the pseudonym The Roving Reader) in collaboration with Hannah Niblett (Collections Access Officer). The Roving Reader Files are designed as public engagement materials, the intention being to introduce research skills and terminology to the general user/reader in an entertaining yet informative manner by revealing hidden stories, making unusual connections and sharing insights into using the Centre's collection for research. The blog post 'Stateless in Manchester - the strange case of the "D.P. Student"' uses rare contemporary Student Union publications to reconstruct the so-called 'D.P. Controversy' as it played out in the University of Manchester Student Unions from 1949 to 1950. Whilst my post 'Contextualising the 'D.P. Controversy': UK student responses to European migration after WWII' published on the University Histories blog in 2016 charted for an academic audience the larger context of UK student responses after the Second World War to potential Displaced Student migration to Britain from Germany, this post for the AIU Centre focuses more on local Manchester student activities and debates on the subject, framed to enthuse non-specialist audiences with the excitement of historical research.