
Dr Saima Nasar
Phd (Birm.), MA (Birm.), BA (Birm.)
Current positions
Senior Lecturer in the History of Africa and its Diasporas
Department of History (Historical Studies)
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
Contact details:
Office: 1.4, 26/27 St Michael's Park
Email: saima.nasar@bristol.ac.uk
Phone: 0117 331 7001
To arrange a meeting during my office hours, please email: saima.nasar@bristol.ac.uk.
Research
I am a social and cultural historian who works on histories of race, empire, and immigration. Committed to multi-archival and interdisciplinary research, my previous and future work contributes to developing comparative and interdisciplinary approaches in the fields of migration and imperial studies. My first book (forthcoming) examines the transnational trajectories of Britain’s East African Asian population. I have also worked on the history of trauma in relation to post-war Irish diasporic communities.
I am currently leading a five-year Leverhulme Trust funded project on 'Welfare Citizenship and Intersectional Feminism'.
I am Reviews editor of ‘Immigrants & Minorities: Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration and Diaspora’ and was previously Special Issues editor. I sit on the international board of 'Twentieth Century British History'.
I am on the Brigstow Institute's steering committee. I was previously co-director of the Centre for Black Humanities.
Teaching
I teach across our undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes, including our first year 'American Century' unit, our second year 'Global History' and 'Decolonisation' units, our third year 'Black Lives Matter' unit, and our MA unit on 'Themes in the History of Colonialism'. My past and current teaching has included 'Introduction to African History', 'Making of the Contemporary World', 'Inter-war British History', 'Making Multiculturalism in Britain', 'Research Methods', and 'African American History'. I also supervise a range of dissertation projects.
Postgraduate Supervision
I currently supervise PGR projects on colonial violence, popular culture and activism, and Black Power.
Please feel free to get in touch about projects relating to race, empire, and immigration.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Welfare Citizenship and Intersectional Feminism in Britain, 1940-2000
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of History (Historical Studies)Dates
01/09/2023 to 31/08/2028
Publications
Recent publications
06/02/2025Review: Rob Waters. Colonized by Humanity
American Historical Review
Black lives and the ‘archival pulse’
Rethinking History
Stuart Ward’s Untied Kingdom: A Global History of the End of Britain
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
Decolonizing Britain: An Exchange
Twentieth Century British History
50 Years after the Ugandan Asian Expulsion
New Lines Magazine