Race, Ethnicity and Telecommunications in Britain and its Empire, 1850-Present

这个项目是一个系统的研究黑人，中东和南亚/东亚的人工作，并与英国电报和电话（有线和无线）服务从19世纪后期开始。它涵盖了广泛的职业和工作，包括工程师、操作员、文员、半熟练和非熟练工人。它的时间、空间和主题焦点部分反映了英国电信档案馆的许多尚未开发的优势，以及需要更好的编目要求的地方，以及历史编纂的弱点。它涵盖了政府（特别是邮局）和私人（例如有线和无线）服务，国内和海外的电报和电话运营站点，以及从19世纪50年代开始的时期，当英属印度电报服务开始时，直到今天，尽管只有在20世纪早期到中期，大量的黑人，中东和南亚/东亚人被招募到英国电信。该项目旨在了解人们的经历和代理，尽管他们对“帝国神经”的建设和运行做出了重大贡献，但在历史编纂中被边缘化或缺席，他们的经历在很大程度上受到白人和主要欧洲人的影响。被殖民的电信工人在无数的员工照片中凝视着我们，这些照片美化了许多历史，但他们的声音在很大程度上是缺席和被遗忘的。我们对电信业实现更大平等、多样性和包容性的长期变化缺乏令人满意的了解。本项目通过以下问题解决了所有这些不足：与英国电信服务相关的历史资料在多大程度上强化、复杂化或挑战了西方文化、民族和种族等级的意识形态？这些等级制度在多大程度上影响了为电信服务工作的黑人、中东和东南亚人的招聘、培训、职业发展和日常生活？这些等级制度对长期的职业道路有什么影响？我们能在多大程度上恢复黑人、中东和东南亚人的经历和理解，而不受白人作者的影响？不同的种族/民族背景在多大程度上影响了这些经历？4 .黑人、中东和南亚/东亚工作人员对这些服务的发展作出了哪些技术和其他创新贡献？5 .黑人、中东和南亚/东亚电信员工的经历如何随着时间的推移而变化（例如，随着就业法和权利的变化、工会化、全球冲突、非殖民化、1947年有线和无线的国有化以及1984年PO电信的私有化）？英国相关资料的收藏彼此之间以及与海外同类资料之间的紧密联系能达到何种程度？该项目涉及位置，以及对BT档案馆，PK Porthcurno和其他地方的历史文本，图像和其他原始材料的密切和批判性研究。考虑到该项目对20世纪的强烈关注，CDP学生也将被鼓励参与现有和退休电信工作者的组织，包括英国电信的少数民族网络，养老金重新连接网站和前英国电信/GPO员工的Facebook页面，以及Porthcurno的PK记住Facebook页面，为前有线和无线员工服务。这些组织将提供关于黑人、中东和南亚/东亚员工的问题的答案，这些问题无法通过上述各种来源轻松回答。CDP学生还可以创造大量新的档案材料（例如数字化的口述历史记录和电信工作者的照片），这将有利于档案和电信社区组织。

This project is a systematic study of Black, Middle Eastern and South/East Asian people working for and associated with the British telegraph and telephone (both wired and wireless) services from the late nineteenth century onwards. It embraces a wide range of careers and jobs including engineers, operators, clerks, and semi-skilled and unskilled labourers. Its temporal, spatial and thematic foci partly reflect many of the untapped strengths of BT Archives and where better cataloguing requirements are necessary, as well as the weaknesses of the historiography. It covers government (notably, the Post Office) and private (e.g. Cable and Wireless) services, domestic and overseas sites of telegraphic and telephonic operation, and the period from the 1850s, when the British Indian telegraphic service started, to the present day, although it was only in the early to mid-twentieth century that significant numbers of Black, Middle Eastern and South/East Asian people were recruited into British telecommunications. The project seeks to understand the experiences and agencies of people who, despite their major contributions to the construction and running of the 'nerves of empire', are marginalised in or absent from the historiography and whose experiences are heavily mediated by white and mainly European perspectives. Colonised telecommunications workers stare back at us in countless staff photographs gracing many histories but their voices are largely absent and forgotten. We lack a satisfactory understanding of the long-term changes leading towards greater equality, diversity and inclusivity in telecommunications. This project addresses all these deficiencies via the following questions:1. How far do historical sources relating to British telecommunications services reinforce, complicate or challenge Western ideologies of cultural, ethnic and racial hierarchies?2. How far did these hierarchies shape the recruitment, training, career progression and daily lives of Black, Middle Eastern and South/East Asian peoples working for telecommunications services? What impacts did these hierarchies have on longer-term career paths?3. To what extent can we recover the experiences and understandings of Black, Middle Eastern and South/East Asian people independently of representations by white authors? And how far did different racial/ethnic backgrounds shape those experiences?4. What were the technological and other innovative contributions made by Black, Middle Eastern and South/East Asian staff to the development of the services?5. How did the experiences of Black, Middle Eastern and South/East Asian telecommunications staff change over time (e.g. with changes in employment laws and rights, unionisation, global conflict, decolonisation, nationalisation of Cable and Wireless in 1947 and privatisation of PO telecommunications in 1984)?6. How far can British-based collections of relevant material be strongly connected to each other and to similar materials in overseas collections?This project involves the location, and the close and critical study of historical texts, images and other source materials in BT Archives, PK Porthcurno and elsewhere. Given the project's strong twentieth century focus, the CDP student will also be encouraged to engage with organisations for current and retired telecommunication workers including BT's Ethnic Minority Network, Pensioners Reconnect website and former BT/GPO employees Facebook page, and Porthcurno's PK Remembered Facebook page for former Cable and Wireless employees. These organisations will afford answers to questions about Black, Middle Eastern and South/East Asian employees that cannot be easily answered by the kinds of sources discussed above. The CDP student might also create a wealth of new archival material (e.g. digitised oral history recordings, and photographs of telecommunications workers) that would benefit archival and telecommunications community organisations.