As a historian, I’m curious about where we came from, how we got here and what made us the way we are. My main area of interest is integration of immigrants and their descendants into western European societies during the modern era.
At present, I research attitudes to immigrants in Great Britain between 1921 and 2021 and the language used to put these feelings into words. In this study I apply a linguistic historical approach to throw new light on past events and developments.
I’m also interested in the subject of Jewish resistance to the Holocaust and a member of the forum Jews Saving Jews at the Faculty of Jewish Studies of Bar-Ilan University. My latest book is on individuals and small groups in Jewish resistance in the Netherlands.
My work on these subjects has been acknowledged through an appointment as Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Humanities of the University of Glasgow.
Experience
2006–present
Honorary Research Fellow in History, University of Glasgow
Education
1993
University of Glasgow, PhD
1985
University of Amsterdam, Graduated
Publications
2022
Individuals and Small Groups in Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust. A Case Study of a Young Couple and their Friends, London / New York, Anthem Press
2021
From Tangier to Locarno: The Experience of War in Nottingham and Language Use in Local Newspapers, 1905-1925, Midland History, volume 46
2021
Changes in Attitudes to Immigrants in Britain, 1841-1921. From Foreigner to Alien, London / New York, Anthem Press
2017
Living with the enemy: German immigrants in Nottingham during the First World War, Midland History, volume 42
2013
This cannot happen here. Integration and Jewish resistance in the Netherlands, 1940-1945, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press (Studies of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies)
2012
Open Windows: Jewish Refugee Artists in Scotland during the Twentieth Century, Immigrants & Minorities, volume 30
2012
The influence of immigration on the growth, urban concentration and composition of the Scottish population 1841-1911, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, volume 32
2009
Within Our Gates: A New Perspective on Germans in Glasgow during the First World War, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, volume 29
2007
Jews in Glasgow 1879-1939. Immigration and Integration, London, Vallentine Mitchell
2003
The trial of Oscar Slater (1909) and anti-Jewish prejudices in Edwardian Glasgow, History, volume 88