Kathleen Commons
@kabcommons.bsky.social
Researching immigration control in 17C England, and what it tells us about citizenship now and then. Co-convenor @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar. Co-Director, Room to Heal, trustee @afrilcharity.bsky.social, Abigail Housing.
Pinned
Kathleen Commons
@kabcommons.bsky.social
· Nov 26
New post on refugeehistory.org: were there refugees in 16thC England? Answer: it's complicated - migrants and the state were in the process of negotiating a form of refugee protection, which helps us to complicate notions of Britain's "proud history of welcome": tinyurl.com/bdyevr4d
When is a refugee not a refugee? — Refugee History.
England’s ‘proud history’ of welcoming refugees is regularly invoked in contemporary debates about refugees in Britain. Public and academic histories of pre-modern migration to England support this no...
tinyurl.com
As the UK moves towards redefining what constitutes a refugee (in questionably legal ways), I want to highlight my piece looking at previous English experiments in refugee protection. There is a long (long) prehistory of exclusion - and if refugee resistance to this
The next @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar is on 3rd March - @conniethomas.bsky.social will be presenting 'Public activism and the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts' - of (huge) interest to those interested in migration, citizenship & US history. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/3s6yym7t
Performing Citizenship: Public activism and the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts
tinyurl.com
February 9, 2026 at 1:11 PM
The next @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar is on 3rd March - @conniethomas.bsky.social will be presenting 'Public activism and the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts' - of (huge) interest to those interested in migration, citizenship & US history. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/3s6yym7t
The next @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar is on 3rd March - @conniethomas.bsky.social will be presenting 'Public activism and the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts' - of (huge) interest to those interested in migration, citizenship & US history. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/3s6yym7t
Performing Citizenship: Public activism and the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts
www.history.ac.uk
February 9, 2026 at 12:27 PM
The next @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar is on 3rd March - @conniethomas.bsky.social will be presenting 'Public activism and the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts' - of (huge) interest to those interested in migration, citizenship & US history. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/3s6yym7t
It was a real pleasure and privilege for the @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar to host a showcase of postgrad students' work in migration history with @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social last night - some fascinating papers on academic mobility, gender, vikings and Irish "displaced patriots"
February 4, 2026 at 9:12 AM
It was a real pleasure and privilege for the @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar to host a showcase of postgrad students' work in migration history with @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social last night - some fascinating papers on academic mobility, gender, vikings and Irish "displaced patriots"
I am once again imploring people to not abuse Calvin's Case to argue against birthright citizenship in the US: it simply summarised a bunch of (contested) legal thinking. More important is that in 17thC legal practice, birthright subjecthood most certainly *was* a thing tinyurl.com/2rjyvwnb
History Matters - Why is a 17th century English court case being used to justify Donald Trump
Kathleen Commons | 2 May 2025
◇ American History | Birthright Citizenship| English Legal History | Immigration Law
tinyurl.com
January 28, 2026 at 7:22 PM
I am once again imploring people to not abuse Calvin's Case to argue against birthright citizenship in the US: it simply summarised a bunch of (contested) legal thinking. More important is that in 17thC legal practice, birthright subjecthood most certainly *was* a thing tinyurl.com/2rjyvwnb
Less than a week to sign up for our exciting showcase of new research directions in migration and mobility history, ft. Vikings, Germans in interwar Turkey, Cumann na mBan & female Indian scholars in England with @ihr.bsky.social @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social 3rd Feb, book here: tinyurl.com/3bxsdy32
Migration and Mobility History
The IHR Migration and Mobility seminar provides a space for historians and scholars from other disciplines to come together to discuss migration and mobility in history.
tinyurl.com
January 28, 2026 at 11:02 AM
Less than a week to sign up for our exciting showcase of new research directions in migration and mobility history, ft. Vikings, Germans in interwar Turkey, Cumann na mBan & female Indian scholars in England with @ihr.bsky.social @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social 3rd Feb, book here: tinyurl.com/3bxsdy32
Reposted by Kathleen Commons
Hello, I have a new book out in the spring with Picador and I would love it if you could help me spread the word.
IF WE TOLERATE THIS draws on years of work, to help readers understand why British politics is hurtling rightwards and what to do about it.
Pre-orders: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...
IF WE TOLERATE THIS draws on years of work, to help readers understand why British politics is hurtling rightwards and what to do about it.
Pre-orders: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...
January 26, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Hello, I have a new book out in the spring with Picador and I would love it if you could help me spread the word.
IF WE TOLERATE THIS draws on years of work, to help readers understand why British politics is hurtling rightwards and what to do about it.
Pre-orders: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...
IF WE TOLERATE THIS draws on years of work, to help readers understand why British politics is hurtling rightwards and what to do about it.
Pre-orders: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...
Wonderful paper yesterday from Nadia Joseph @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar on mobility, Apartheid, exile, & the personal and political. Next up, an exciting showcase of new research on migration in partnership with @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social! 3rd Feb, book here: tinyurl.com/3bxsdy32
Migration and Mobility History
The IHR Migration and Mobility seminar provides a space for historians and scholars from other disciplines to come together to discuss migration and mobility in history.
www.history.ac.uk
January 21, 2026 at 2:45 PM
Wonderful paper yesterday from Nadia Joseph @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar on mobility, Apartheid, exile, & the personal and political. Next up, an exciting showcase of new research on migration in partnership with @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social! 3rd Feb, book here: tinyurl.com/3bxsdy32
Thank you Sheffield (and my mum)!
January 13, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Thank you Sheffield (and my mum)!
!!!!!
I just heard a law professor claim in a recording that in early modern England, there wasn’t any significant migration to the British Isles, which is just plainly wrong.
January 8, 2026 at 11:49 AM
!!!!!
Really delighted to have Nadia Joseph at the first @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar of 2026 speaking on anti-apartheid activism and mobility. Sign up here! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Migration and Mobility History
The IHR Migration and Mobility seminar provides a space for historians and scholars from other disciplines to come together to discuss migration and mobility in history.
www.history.ac.uk
January 5, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Really delighted to have Nadia Joseph at the first @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar of 2026 speaking on anti-apartheid activism and mobility. Sign up here! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
In addition to academic stuff about migration, I am Director of a small charity providing group therapies to torture survivors: vital work as the govt seeks to marginalise & isolate refugees. We have a match funding campaign this week, pls give if you can: donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...
Therapeutic support for refugee torture survivors – Big Give
Funding will enable us to offer therapeutic support, practical help and community for 150 + refugees and asylum seekers so they can rebuild their lives. We provide trauma-informed therapy, specialist ...
donate.biggive.org
December 4, 2025 at 10:54 AM
In addition to academic stuff about migration, I am Director of a small charity providing group therapies to torture survivors: vital work as the govt seeks to marginalise & isolate refugees. We have a match funding campaign this week, pls give if you can: donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...
From the government that first refused to allow unaccompanied children seeking asylum to access family reunion, then suspended *all* family reunion.
Great to hear Rachel Reeves acknowledge that "there are many reasons why people choose to have children then find themselves in difficult times. The death of a partner. Separation. Ill health. A lost job. I don’t believe that children should bear the brunt of that."
So why should migrant children?
So why should migrant children?
November 26, 2025 at 8:59 PM
From the government that first refused to allow unaccompanied children seeking asylum to access family reunion, then suspended *all* family reunion.
As the UK moves towards redefining what constitutes a refugee (in questionably legal ways), I want to highlight my piece looking at previous English experiments in refugee protection. There is a long (long) prehistory of exclusion - and if refugee resistance to this
New post on refugeehistory.org: were there refugees in 16thC England? Answer: it's complicated - migrants and the state were in the process of negotiating a form of refugee protection, which helps us to complicate notions of Britain's "proud history of welcome": tinyurl.com/bdyevr4d
When is a refugee not a refugee? — Refugee History.
England’s ‘proud history’ of welcoming refugees is regularly invoked in contemporary debates about refugees in Britain. Public and academic histories of pre-modern migration to England support this no...
tinyurl.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:22 PM
As the UK moves towards redefining what constitutes a refugee (in questionably legal ways), I want to highlight my piece looking at previous English experiments in refugee protection. There is a long (long) prehistory of exclusion - and if refugee resistance to this
Reposted by Kathleen Commons
"Palestinians experience the displacement of the 2020s genocide not as a singular event, but as part of a repeated cycle."
Anne Irfan on the importance of writing Gaza's history.
Anne Irfan on the importance of writing Gaza's history.
Writing history in a time of genocide
Anne Irfan asks, what does it mean to write the history of a place as it is being destroyed before our very eyes?
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
November 20, 2025 at 12:05 PM
"Palestinians experience the displacement of the 2020s genocide not as a singular event, but as part of a repeated cycle."
Anne Irfan on the importance of writing Gaza's history.
Anne Irfan on the importance of writing Gaza's history.
Great paper at the @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar yesterday by Ben Braber on media depictions of migrants in 19th & 20thC British media. We'll be back in 2026 with...
November 26, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Great paper at the @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar yesterday by Ben Braber on media depictions of migrants in 19th & 20thC British media. We'll be back in 2026 with...
Cannot wrap my head around the fact that Labour's new policies for refugees are both performatively cruel but also obviously nonsensical. People seeking asylum won't get financial support if they "can work" but the ban on asylum seekers' working won't be lifted? Meaningless and stupid "announcement"
November 16, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Cannot wrap my head around the fact that Labour's new policies for refugees are both performatively cruel but also obviously nonsensical. People seeking asylum won't get financial support if they "can work" but the ban on asylum seekers' working won't be lifted? Meaningless and stupid "announcement"
Reposted by Kathleen Commons
To reiterate, this is about making life immeasurably more miserable and stressful for some of the most vulnerable people, in the almost certainly vain hope of winning over the votes of racists.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Asylum in UK to be made temporary under Home Secretary’s plans
Shabana Mahmood will lay out reforms modelled on the Danish system on Monday.
www.independent.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:14 AM
To reiterate, this is about making life immeasurably more miserable and stressful for some of the most vulnerable people, in the almost certainly vain hope of winning over the votes of racists.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Our next @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar will be on 25th November. We will be welcoming Ben Braber to present on depictions of immigrants in British media between 1841 and 2021 - sign up link here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Depictions of immigrants in British newspapers between 1841 and 2021
www.history.ac.uk
November 10, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Our next @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar will be on 25th November. We will be welcoming Ben Braber to present on depictions of immigrants in British media between 1841 and 2021 - sign up link here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Reposted by Kathleen Commons
New post on refugeehistory.org: were there refugees in 16thC England? Answer: it's complicated - migrants and the state were in the process of negotiating a form of refugee protection, which helps us to complicate notions of Britain's "proud history of welcome": tinyurl.com/bdyevr4d
When is a refugee not a refugee? — Refugee History.
England’s ‘proud history’ of welcoming refugees is regularly invoked in contemporary debates about refugees in Britain. Public and academic histories of pre-modern migration to England support this no...
tinyurl.com
October 23, 2025 at 8:08 AM
New post on refugeehistory.org: were there refugees in 16thC England? Answer: it's complicated - migrants and the state were in the process of negotiating a form of refugee protection, which helps us to complicate notions of Britain's "proud history of welcome": tinyurl.com/bdyevr4d
Great session of @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar - fantastic paper from Anne Irfan on the displacement-immobility nexus and Palestinian refugees - and some great questions in the Q&A afterwards
October 29, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Great session of @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar - fantastic paper from Anne Irfan on the displacement-immobility nexus and Palestinian refugees - and some great questions in the Q&A afterwards
New post on refugeehistory.org: were there refugees in 16thC England? Answer: it's complicated - migrants and the state were in the process of negotiating a form of refugee protection, which helps us to complicate notions of Britain's "proud history of welcome": tinyurl.com/bdyevr4d
When is a refugee not a refugee? — Refugee History.
England’s ‘proud history’ of welcoming refugees is regularly invoked in contemporary debates about refugees in Britain. Public and academic histories of pre-modern migration to England support this no...
tinyurl.com
October 23, 2025 at 8:08 AM
New post on refugeehistory.org: were there refugees in 16thC England? Answer: it's complicated - migrants and the state were in the process of negotiating a form of refugee protection, which helps us to complicate notions of Britain's "proud history of welcome": tinyurl.com/bdyevr4d
Quick bump for this - a great opportunity for PGRs and ECRs to share their research on migration and mobility!
📢 Reminder about our CFP for the Mobility and Migration Seminar in collaboration with @ihr.bsky.social!
Please see below for more information on the CFP, abstracts are due on 15th November! Please share widely!
Please see below for more information on the CFP, abstracts are due on 15th November! Please share widely!
📢 New Seminar Series!
We are thrilled to be working alongside @ihr.bsky.social on a brand new seminar series titled Migration and Mobility. We are coming together for a special edition of the seminar to showcase the work of PGRs and ECRs on migration and mobility history (1/3)
We are thrilled to be working alongside @ihr.bsky.social on a brand new seminar series titled Migration and Mobility. We are coming together for a special edition of the seminar to showcase the work of PGRs and ECRs on migration and mobility history (1/3)
October 22, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Quick bump for this - a great opportunity for PGRs and ECRs to share their research on migration and mobility!
Just over a week until the next Migration and Mobility Seminar - we will be hearing (online and in-person - for free!) from Anne Irfan on Structural displacement and enforced immobility: Palestinian refugee history in Gaza since 1948: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Structural displacement and enforced immobility: Palestinian refugee history in Gaza since 1948
www.history.ac.uk
October 17, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Just over a week until the next Migration and Mobility Seminar - we will be hearing (online and in-person - for free!) from Anne Irfan on Structural displacement and enforced immobility: Palestinian refugee history in Gaza since 1948: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Reposted by Kathleen Commons
Astonished at all the fab work scholars keep producing, despite all pressures & uncertainty.
Or because of? Good & bad: trying to save our job & knowing this matters so much that people try to stop us
@historyworkshop.org.uk podcast on #ScholarSunday: www.historyworkshop.org.uk/podcast/chan...
Or because of? Good & bad: trying to save our job & knowing this matters so much that people try to stop us
@historyworkshop.org.uk podcast on #ScholarSunday: www.historyworkshop.org.uk/podcast/chan...
October 5, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Astonished at all the fab work scholars keep producing, despite all pressures & uncertainty.
Or because of? Good & bad: trying to save our job & knowing this matters so much that people try to stop us
@historyworkshop.org.uk podcast on #ScholarSunday: www.historyworkshop.org.uk/podcast/chan...
Or because of? Good & bad: trying to save our job & knowing this matters so much that people try to stop us
@historyworkshop.org.uk podcast on #ScholarSunday: www.historyworkshop.org.uk/podcast/chan...
It was brilliant to kick off the Migration and Mobility Seminar with great papers from @profpanayi.bsky.social @endeeekay.bsky.social @bengidley.bsky.social @marcloureiro.bsky.social - a lot to think about in terms of how we do migration history, especially in the current moment
This was a great first session. Looking forward to many more to follow.
Enjoyed first seminar of @ihr.bsky.social Migration + Mobility seminar series led by the fantastic @kabcommons.bsky.social, starring legend @profpanayi.bsky.social and great presentations by @endeeekay.bsky.social (see pic for book out soon w/ @punctumbooks.bsky.social) & @marcloureiro.bsky.social
October 1, 2025 at 6:52 AM
It was brilliant to kick off the Migration and Mobility Seminar with great papers from @profpanayi.bsky.social @endeeekay.bsky.social @bengidley.bsky.social @marcloureiro.bsky.social - a lot to think about in terms of how we do migration history, especially in the current moment