Professor Yasmin Khan
My research centres on warfare, migration and displacement in modern South Asia and Britain’s imperial world. I am also increasingly interested in histories of migration to Britain and the making of ‘Britishness’ as a global problem in the twentieth century. My work is linked by an interest in the social history and mobilities of modern South Asians in the twentieth century.
My research has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust. In 2019-20 I held a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship. I studied history as an undergraduate at St. Peter’s College, Oxford, and I was also a doctoral student at St. Antony's, and held posts at the University of Edinburgh and Royal Holloway, University of London, before returning to Oxford in 2012.
Research Interests
- Refugees and displacement in the British empire
- Social histories of the Second World War
- The use of alternative sources for telling South Asian histories
- British histories of race and migration
- Modern South Asia after 1947
- Narratives, story-telling and fiction in history
I have explored the connections between public history and academic research, and have worked with organisations such as the Imperial War Museum, the Memorial Gates Trust and the Historical Association to consider how the latest academic research can reach a wider audience.
I am an editor of the journals History Workshop Journal and Historical Research.
Featured Publications
The Raj at War: A People's History of India's Second World War (Penguin, June 2016)
An Imperial World at War: Aspects of the British Empire's war experience, 1939-1945 (Routledge, October 2017)
In the Media
The subaltern speaks: restoring Indian soldiers to the cultural imagination
Current DPhil Students
Teaching
I am interested in hearing from potential graduate students with an interest in any of my research interests.
As a member of the Department for Continuing Education, I'm particularly committed to the experience of graduate students in Oxford, including part-time and mature students, and questions of graduate access.
I currently teach:
- MSt in Imperial and Global History
- MSt in Historical Studies