Michael Collins

Dr Michael Collins is Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary British History.

He joined UCL History as a probationary lecturer in 2007, was awarded his D.Phil. (PhD) in History by the University of Oxford in 2009, became a permanent member of UCL History staff in 2010, and was promoted to associate professor in 2016.

He previously studied the history of political thought at Cambridge University and political science at the London School of Economics.

Research

Dr Collins has two main research themes:

The historical development of political ideas in Britain since c. 1940. This work focuses on how ideas are formed and deployed by elites to respond to specific problems and challenges, for example the decolonisation of the British Empire, migration and social change, Britain’s late-1950s orientation towards European political and economic integration, and the rise of identity politics within the United Kingdom.
The social and cultural history of migration and settlement in post-war Britain since c. 1940. This research focuses more on the experiences of migrants and settlers themselves and how migration and settlement have contributed to our understanding of national identity, reconfiguring the meanings of Britishness and Englishness. Dr Collins has a particular interest in migrations from the Anglophone Caribbean and from South Asia.
During his research leave (2022-23), he is writing a book - Windrush Cricket: Caribbean Migration and the Remaking of Postwar England - which will be published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in 2024. This book looks at the way in which cricket formed an integral part of the Windrush generation’s efforts to settle and build communities in English cities after 1945. It also considers the way in which the English cricket ‘establishment’ reacted to the presence of black cricketers, including the children of Windrush migrants from the 1970s onwards, and what this can tell us about the cultural politics of Englishness by the 1990s.