Professor Panikos Panayi

Job: Professor of European History

Faculty: Arts, Design and Humanities

School/department: School of Humanities

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, UK, LE1 9BH

T: +44 (0)116 2078681

E: ppanayi@dmu.ac.uk

W: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/soh

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Personal profile

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.

Research group affiliations

History Research Group

Publications and outputs

Minorities at the Death of the Continental European Empires, 1918-23
Minorities at the Death of the Continental European Empires, 1918-23 Panayi, Panikos This article examines the fate of minorities in the immediate aftermath of the Great War. It outlines the different types of outsiders, their plight during the conflict and developments at the conclusion of peace. While continental empires had kept most ethic outsiders relatively invisible until the nineteenth century rise of nationalism, they represent key players in helping us to understand the First World War. The post-War settlement meant the reconfiguration of minorities because of the collapse of continental empires but only resulted in short term solutions which the Second World War and the events which followed that conflict would solve in a much more thorough and even more brutal manner.
Migration and the Making of the World Capital
Migration and the Making of the World Capital Panayi, Panikos An examination of the role of migration in the development of London.
The Elimination of Germans from the British Empire at the end of the First World War
The Elimination of Germans from the British Empire at the end of the First World War Panayi, Panikos During the course of the nineteenth century millions of Germans left their homeland to settle throughout the world. While most went towards the Americas, hundreds of thousands moved to Britain and its Empire consisting of those with agricultural and working class backgrounds, as well as elites. By 1914, despite rising Germanophobia as the Great War approached, the migrants remained an integrated group. My article will demonstrate how the development of a Germanophobic ideology, emanating from London, but present throughout British possessions in an equally virulent manner, had a devastating impact upon the German communities. The racist ideology meant that Germans faced a combination of draconian measures in the form of internment, property confiscation and deportation. The paper will focus upon the last of these, demonstrating that, while expulsions took place throughout the War, especially against women, who generally escaped the gendered internment policy, the ‘extirpation – root and branch and seed - of German control and influence from the British Empire’, as put forward by the London based Germanophobic pressure group the British Empire Union, became imperial policy. My paper will focus upon the marginalization of the Germans during the Great War and their elimination at its conclusion, which became total in some cases (such as India) and partial in others (such as Great Britain). The article will demonstrate how the plight of the Germans at the end of the First world War fits into the wider picture of minority persecution during the era of the Great War as Empires collapsed.
The bewildered peasant: family, migration and murder in the Greek Cypriot community in London
The bewildered peasant: family, migration and murder in the Greek Cypriot community in London Panayi, Panikos; Varnava, Andrekos Greek Cypriots became a key feature of early post-Second World War London. This article focuses on the case of the penultimate woman hanged in Britain, Styllou Christofi, who was executed in December 1954 for the murder of her German-born daughter-in-law, Hella. It outlines the emergence of the Cypriot community in London, tackles the image of the Cypriot in the British imperial imagination and investigates the hostility that this new community faced in Britain. The article investigates the nature of family in Cyprus and London and questions why Cypriots have received so little attention from historians, despite their numbers. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
Migrant City: A New History of London
Migrant City: A New History of London Panayi, Panikos The first history of London to show how immigrants have built, shaped and made a great success of the capital city London is now a global financial and multicultural hub in which over three hundred languages are spoken. But the history of London has always been a history of immigration. Panikos Panayi explores the rich and vibrant story of London– from its founding two millennia ago by Roman invaders, to Jewish and German immigrants in the Victorian period, to the Windrush generation invited from Caribbean countries in the twentieth century. Panayi shows how migration has been fundamental to London’s economic, social, political and cultural development. Migrant City sheds light on the various ways in which newcomers have shaped London life, acting as cheap labour, contributing to the success of its financial sector, its curry houses, and its football clubs. London’s economy has long been driven by migrants, from earlier continental financiers and more recent European Union citizens. Without immigration, fueled by globalization, Panayi argues, London would not have become the world city it is today.
Enemies in the Empire: Civilian Internment in the British Empire during the First World War
Enemies in the Empire: Civilian Internment in the British Empire during the First World War Panayi, Panikos; Manz, Stefan During the First World War, Britain was the epicentre of global mass internment and deportation operations. Germans, Austro-Hungarians, Turks, and Bulgarians who had settled in Britain and its overseas territories were deemed to be a potential danger to the realm through their ties with the Central Powers and were classified as 'enemy aliens'. A complex set of wartime legislation imposed limitations on their freedom of movement, expression, and property possession. Approximately 50,000 men and some women experienced the most drastic step of enemy alien control, namely internment behind barbed wire, in many cases for the whole duration of the war and thousands of miles away from the place of arrest. Enemies in the Empire is the first study to analyse British internment operations against civilian 'enemies' during the First World War from an imperial perspective. The narrative takes a three-pronged approach. In addition to a global examination, the volume demonstrates how internment operated on a (proto-) national scale within the three selected case studies of the metropole (Britain), a white dominion (South Africa), and a colony under direct rule (India). Stefan Manz and Panikos Panayi then bring their study to the local level by concentrating on the three camps Knockaloe (Britain), Fort Napier (South Africa), and Ahmednagar (India), allowing for detailed analyses of personal experiences. Although conditions were generally humane, in some cases, suffering occurred. The study argues that the British Empire played a key role in developing civilian internment as a central element of warfare and national security on a global scale.
Internment during the First World War: A Mass Global Phenomenon
Internment during the First World War: A Mass Global Phenomenon Manz, S.; Panayi, Panikos; Stibbe, Matthew This article introduces the globalisation of internment during he First World War
Internment during the First World War: A Mass Global Phenomenon
Internment during the First World War: A Mass Global Phenomenon Panayi, Panikos; Manz, S.; Stibbe, Matthew Although civilian internment has become associated with the Second World War in popular memory, it has a longer history. The turning point in this history occurred during the First World War when, in the interests of ‘security’ in a situation of total war, the internment of ‘enemy aliens’ became part of state policy for the belligerent states, resulting in the incarceration, displacement and, in more extreme cases, the death by neglect or deliberate killing of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world. This pioneering book on internment during the First World War brings together international experts to investigate the importance of the conflict for the history of civilian incarceration.
The Internment of Civilian Enemy Aliens in the British Empire
The Internment of Civilian Enemy Aliens in the British Empire Panayi, Panikos; Stibbe, Matthew The article examines the global nature of interment within the British Empire during the First World War.
The Uniquness of London
The Uniquness of London Panayi, Panikos While, superficially, London may seem just another destination for migrants, it has a series of unique characteristics, which my proposed essay will outline. First, its long history of immigration, due to the duration of its existence as a major city, meaning that it would be impossible to find any metropolis which can compare, including other apparently global capitals such as Frankfurt, New York or Paris. At the same time, the volume of migrants since the eighteenth century means that it differs from all other British cities. For much of the past two centuries London has counted about 50 per cent of all foreign settlers in Britain. Third, it also now has a unique level of diversity (or super-diversity), especially within the British context, which has become prominent over recent decades, although this also has longer term origins.

Click here for a full listing of Panikos Panayi‘s publications and outputs.

Key research 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).

(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).

(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).

Research interests/expertise

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.

Areas of teaching

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

Qualifications

BA History, Ph.D History

Courses taught

Panikos teaches on the following modules

Twentieth Century Europe

Germany during the Second World War

Englishmen and Foreigners: Immigration, Ethnicity and Racism in Britain during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Nationalism, Racism and Genocide in Twentieth Century Europe

The Origins of Multicultural Britain

Honours and awards

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.

Membership of external committees

I sit on the editorial board of Immigrants and Minorities.

Membership of professional associations and societies

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Projects

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.

Current research students

Karl Arthur, 'Sedition and State Overwatch: Radicalism, Racial Politics and Britain’s Black Communities'.

Jessica Cretney, 'The Concentration Camp, Spatial Experience and Architectural Modernism, 1933-1945'.

Danielle La Scala, 'The Burger in Britain: A Symbol of Americana'.

Shehnaz Rawat, 'Colonial legacies and postcolonial identities: Gujarati Muslims in Leicester 1970-1991.'

Pat Redmond, 'The Black and Minority Ethnic Footballer in Ireland (1958-2018): Racism, Identity and Migration'.

Externally funded research grants information

2020-22: €3,000 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’

Internally funded research project information

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’.

Newspaper Articles

'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).

PhD Supervision

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.