by the Past & Present editorial team

Three of the 2023-25 Past and Present postdoctoral fellows Drs. Lamin Manneh, Ana Struillou and Malika Zehni (Institute of Historical Research, London) have edited a virtual issue of the journal on the subject of Immobility.

In their introduction they explain that:

“Increasingly, since the early years of the twenty-first century, some have questioned the relevance of historians’ ‘fetishization of mobility’ in an era of closing borders. This has led to greater attention being placed on systems of ‘regulation and intervention’ that shape global migration. Shifting away from the narratives centred on movement and fluidity, we argue that immobility is not a mere lack of movement: it is about the power relations and barriers that enforce, experience, and resist stillness. By delving into the archives of Past and Present, we aim to construct a conversation around the processes of enforcing, experiencing, and challenging immobility. We have found that immobility shapes the experiences of both the historical actors found in the journal and the historians and scholars who write these histories.”

Outlining the basis of their interest in the topic and why this should be a matter of interest to historians working in the contemporary moment.

Thanks to our publisher Oxford University Press all non-Open Access articles in the virtual issue are currently free to read.

If you are interested in previous virtual issues of Past & Present the full archive is avaliable here.

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