Building on Westminster’s long-term commitment to teaching and researching languages, cultures, and transnational mobilities, HOMELandS (Hub on Migration, Exile, Languages and Spaces) was launched in 2014 as an innovative and vibrant research group with a distinctive focus on the intersection between migration, languages and spaces in the UK and in the global context. Based in the School of Humanities, it has grown into a university-wide research hub that is aimed at promoting theoretically informed, interdisciplinary-oriented and empirically based research to generate critical understanding of new mobilities in increasingly dynamic and intersected diasporic worlds.
HOMELandS brings together colleagues and doctoral researchers from different Schools and Colleges by organising ground-breaking university-wide capacity building activities. These have included: ‘The Many Faces of Migration: An Interdisciplinary Unconference’; the first ‘Doctoral Researcher Symposium on Migration and Diaspora’; ‘Migration Research Grant Writing Workshops’; regular research and knowledge exchange events (visit our Past Events page for the full list of activities); the publication of a journal special issue; and an edited volume to showcase the collective output of HOMELandS research as well as collaboration in the supervision of doctoral researchers in the field of migration and diaspora. These activities are conducted in line with the research strategies of the University of Westminster, which is driven by a mission to champion cultural and linguistic diversities, social inclusion, equity and wellbeing, and to become an institution ‘where we make a difference and where that difference is valued for the impact it makes’ (BeingWestminster 2022-29 Strategy).
Sitting at the heart of global London and with many colleagues and students coming from different parts of the world, our research is characterised by active engagement with diverse migrants and diasporic communities in London and beyond. Our research is underpinned by transnational and comparative perspectives that are aimed at bridging segregated research of different migrant groups in urban spaces and further stimulating dialogues between academics and wider communities including activists, practitioners and policy makers. A number of broad themes cut across our research into and with migrants and diaspora in diverse geographic, social and cultural contexts:
- Migration and advocacy
- Migration and the city
- Migration and the digital
- Migration, diversity and in/exclusion
- Migration, education and language
- Migration, film and visual culture
- Migration and governance
- Migration, cultural heritage and memory
- Migration and labour
- Migration and media
- Migration and peripheral populations
In 2023, HOMELandS was upgraded to the status of a Research Centre of the University of Westminster, a recognition of its research innovation and excellence in promoting interdisciplinary research into migration and diaspora across the University and beyond. We are committed to creating a Westminster brand of migration research and cultivate a vibrant and inclusive research environment and enhance the impact of our research.
Contact us
- Dr. Cangbai Wang (Co-Director): [email protected]
- Professor Terry Lamb (Co-Director): [email protected]