Professor Panikos Panayi

Panikos Panayi is Professor of European History. He has worked at De Montfort University since 1990 and has held a personal Chair since 1999. He has published widely and his research fits into the following areas: the history of immigration and interethnic relations; the history of food; the First World War; German history; the history of London; and the history of the Cypriot people.

History Research Group

View a full listing of Panikos Panayi‘s publications and outputs.

With Stefan Manz, Enemies in the Empire: Civilian Internment in the British Empire during the First World War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).

Migrant City: a New History of London (London: Yale Univerity Press, 2020, 2022).https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300264722/migrant-city/

(Eds), With Stefan Manz and Matthew Stibbe (Eds), Internment during the First World War: A Mass Global Phenomenon (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018)

The Germans in India: Elite European Migrants in the British Empire (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017)

Fish and Chips (London: Reaktion, 2014, 2022).https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/fish-and-chips

(Ed.), Germans as Minorities During the First World War: A Global Comparative Perspective  (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014).

With Stefan Manz (Eds), Refugees and Cultural Transfer to Britain (Abingdon: Routledge, Hardback, 2013: Kindle 2013; Paperback, 2015).

Prisoners of Britain: German Civilian and Combatant Internees during the First World War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012 [hardback]; 2014 [paperback]).

With Pippa Virdee (Eds), Refugees and the End of Empire: Imperial Collapse and Forced Migration during the Twentieth Century  (Basingstoke:Palgrave, 2011; Kindle, 2011).

An Immigration History of Britain: Multicultural Racism Since c1800 (London: Longman, 2010; Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).

Life and Death in a German Town: Osnabrück from the Weimar Republic to World War Two and Beyond (London: IB Tauris, 2007).

With Kathy Burrell (Eds), Histories and Memories: Migrants and their History in Britain (London: IB Tauris, 2006).

(Ed.) Weimar and Nazi Germany: Continuities and Discontinuities (London: Longman, 2001).

Ethnic Minorities in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Germany: Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Turks and Others (London: Longman, 2000).

An Ethnic History of Europe Since 1945: Nations, States and Minorities (London: Longman, 2000).

The Impact of Immigration: A Documentary History of the Effects and Experiences of Immigrants and Refugees in Britain Since 1945 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999).

Outsiders: A History of European Minorities (London: Hambledon, 1999).

(Ed.) Germans in Britain since 1500  (London: Hambledon Press, 1996).

With Klaus Larres (Eds) The Federal Republic of Germany Since 1949: Politics, Society and Economy Before and After Unification (London: Longman, 1996).

German Immigrants in Britain during the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914 (Oxford: Berg, 1995).

Immigration, Ethnicity and Racism in Britain, 1815-1945 (Manchester: Manchester University Press 1994).

(Ed.) Racial Violence in Britain, 1840-1950 (Leicester:  Leicester University Press, 1993). Second Edition appeared as Racial Violence in Britain in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (London: Leicester University Press, 1996).

Minorities in Wartime: National and Racial Groupings in Europe, North America and Australia during the Two World Wars (Oxford:  Berg, 1993).

The Enemy in Our Midst: Germans in Britain During the First World War (Oxford: Berg, 1991). 

The history of immigration and interethnic relations; the history of food; the First World War; German history; the history of London; and the history of the Cypriot people.

European history; German history; the history of immigrants in Britain; nationalism, racism and genocide in twentieth century Europe

BA History, Ph.D History

Panikos teaches on the following undergraduate modules

Ideology, War and Society in the 20th Century 

Multicultural Societies in History

Nation, Empire and Revolution in the 19th Century 

My numerous research projects have been funded, over many decades, by the following bodies, in some cases on several occasions: the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; the Arts and Humanities Research Council; the British Academy; the Gerda Henkel Foundation; the Higher Education Innovation Fund; the Leventis Foundation; the Leverhulme Trust; the Royal Historical Society; and the Scouloudi Foundation.

Reviews editor of Immigrants and Minorities

Member of the international editorial board of the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

I am currently working on two projects.

1. 'The Cypriot Peasant', funded by the Leventis Foundation and De Montfort University, which takes a new approach to the history of Cyprus by focusing upon the population of the island, rather than seeing the inhabitants as victims of ethnic conflict. 

2. 'Immigrants in Britain during the Long Nineteenth Century: A Documentary History of Realities and Perceptions' consisting of four volumes commissioned by Routledge. 

 

Karl Arthur, ‘A History of Surveillance and Control of Britain’s Black Communities: A Caribbean Perspective’

Damien Green, ‘Understanding Organisational Change: A Case Study of Institutional Stability and Transformation within Peabody Housing’

2020-22: €6,000 from the Leventis Foundation for a project on 'The Cypriot Peasant'.

2016-17: £5,980 from the British Academy for a project on ‘Real Londoners: Immigration and the Making of London’.

2016: £9,474 from the AHRC for a project on ‘Knockaloe in Local, National and Global Context’

2014-15: €13,000 from Gerda Henkel Foundation for a project with Stefan Manz (Aston) on ‘Interning German “Enemy Aliens” in the British Empire during World War I: Global, National and Local Perspectives’.

2014: €10,950 from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for a project on ‘The Germans in India, c1800-1918’

2009-10: £7,480 from the British Academy to fund research on ‘Prisoners of Britain: German Civilian, Military and Naval Internees during the First World War’

2012-15: £30,000 from the Higher Education Innovation Fund for a project on ‘Internment during the First World War: Remembering, Forgetting and Experiencing on a Local, National and Global Scale’.

'The Top Ten Books about Londoners', Guardian, 8 April 2020.

'Cod's Gift to British Cuisine’, Jewish Chronicle, 4 December 2014.

Immigration Has Made Britain a Stronger Country’, Mirror (7 February 2011).

‘Pride and Prejudice: The Victorian Roots of a Very British Ambivalence to Immigration’, Independent (2 July 2010).

‘Make Mine a “Full Muslim”’, The Times Higher (29 June 2007).

I welcome applications for Ph.D supervision in the following areas: the First World War; the history of migrants and ethnic minorities in Britain and Germany; Germany during the Second World War;  the history of food.

29 October 2025, 'German Missionaries in Colonial India', Episode 4 of Series 'Glimpses of German History' , Geman History Society, Glimpses of German History S2E4: German Missionaries in India

18 December 2024, ‘The Migrant Story’, for International Migrant Day in conjunction with Westminster Libraries and Archives, The Migrant Story with Professor Panikos Panayi. Season 4, Episode 1 - 'Under The Covers' From Westminster Libraries | Podcast on Spotify

12 July 2023, 'Fish & Chips: The Unexpected Origins of Britain’s Favourite Dish', HistoryPodblast.com,  https://historypodblast.com/fish-chips-the-unexpected-origins-of-britains-favourite-dish/  

‘Migration and Diversity in Britain’, five online lectures produced by MASSOLIT, 13 March 2023, https://massolit.io/courses/migration-and-diversity-in-britain

‘A Surprisingly un-British Story: The History of Fish and Chips’, Food Matters Live, 24 February 2023, https://foodmatterslive.com/podcast/the-history-of-fish-and-chips-food-podcasts/

‘The Cypriot Peasant at Home and Abroad’, bαhçές histories* of Cyprus, online interview, 23 November 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xgd1hG4rKk

'Migrant City' presentation, interview and discussion at the 'Write Idea’ Literary Festival at Tower Hamlets Library, 5 November 2022, https://t.co/On43BQ3ubd

With Chris Zembe, ‘Decolonising History at DMU’, March 2022, https://open.spotify.com/episode/5hh04TY395mlP4QcTLLfVE

BBC Radio 4, Thinking Allowed, ‘Migrants in London, 26 May 2021 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wc5l

 ‘Migrant City: A New History of London’, Webinar to the London Society, 1 October 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBxi57jHszc 

 'Internees and Prisoners of War', The Home Front: The United Kingdom, 1914-1918, 24 October 2018, Chrome Radio, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb6suFNAiow&t=8s

‘German Internees in Britain during the First World War’, BBC History Magazine Podcast, 14 March 2013, https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/history-extra-podcast-3124/episodes/german-prisoners-and-nelsons-n-42032894