Professor Robbie Aitken
Professor of Imperial History
- Department Of Humanities
- Department of Culture and Media
- Sheffield Creative Industries Institute
- Humanities Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Centre
- Culture and Creativity Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Institute
Summary
I am an historian of Black Europe and of Empire and I have written widely on the development of a Black community in Germany. My current research focus is on the Black experience of Nazi Germany and Black compensation claims made in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
About
I joined SHU in 2010 after having previously worked at the University of Liverpool. I am an historian of Black Europe and my research and teaching interests include the history of the Black Diaspora in Germany, European colonialism, and constructions of race in pre-1945 Europe. My first book project, Exclusion and inclusion: Gradations of whiteness and socio-economic engineering in German Southwest Africa, 1884-1914 (Lang, 2007) looked at constructions of race in the settler colony of German Southwest Africa. I have since published widely on Germany's first Black community including Black Germany: The Making and Unmaking of a Diaspora Community, 1884-1960 (with Eve Rosenhaft, Cambridge University Press, 2013, 2015). My current research focuses on the Black experience of Nazi Germany as well as post-war compensation claims made by Black victims.
I have also worked on a number of museum and memorialisation projects in Germany and I have developed my own travelling exhibition, Black Germany 1884-1945, which has been shown in the UK, Germany and Cameroon and used with a number of school groups.
Currently I am a book review editor for H-Black Europe and I am an active contributor to the website Black Central Europe.
African Diaspora in Germany/Europe
German and European colonialism
Constructions of race and conceptions of
blackness and whiteness
Modern German and European history
Teaching
Department of Humanities , Department of Culture and Media , Sheffield Creative Industries Institute
College of Social Sciences and Arts
Black Germany, 1884-1960
British Trading Firms in colonial Cameroon
Subject Area
Department of Humanities.
Courses
BA History
Modules
- Empires and Encounters
- Ideas into Action
- Germany 1890-1933
- Race: Difference and Power
- Citizenship, Violence and Race: Germans and Africans in Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters
Ï㽶ÊÓƵ
- Humanities Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Centre
- Culture and Creativity Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Institute
I am currently working on the experiences of people of African heritage during the Nazi period and their efforts to receive compensation from the West German state in the aftermath of World War Two.
Featured Projects
Collaborators and Sponsors
Publications
Journal articles
Aitken, R. (2025). . Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Aitken, R. (2018). . Journal of American Studies, 52 (2), 447-473.
Aitken, R. (2016). . Immigrants and Minorties, 34 (3), 233-255.
Aitken, R. (2015). . German History, 33 (1), 30-51.
Aitken, R. (2012). Advertising Empire: Race and Visual Culture in Imperial Germany. By David Ciarlo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2011. Pp. xviii + 419. Cloth $49.95. ISBN 978-0-674-05006-8. Central European History, 45 (3), 565-567.
Aitken, R. (2010). . Immigrants & minorities, 28 (2-3), 203-223.
Aitken, R. (2009). Religious Conflict and the Evolution of Language Policy in German and French Cameroon, 1885–1939. By Kenneth J. Orosz. New York: Peter Lang. 2008. Pp. xii+345. Cloth $82.95. ISBN 978-0-8204-7909-5. Central European History, 42 (4), 774-776.
Aitken, R. (2008). . Journal of Contemporary History, 43 (4), 597-616.
Aitken, R. (2007). Looking for Die Besten Boeren: The Normalisation of Afrikaner Settlement in German South West Africa, 1884–1914*. Journal of Southern African Studies, 33 (2), 343-360.
Book chapters
Aitken, R. (2019). . In Garrido, F.E., Koegler, C., Nyangulu, D., & Stein, M.U. (Eds.) Locating African European Studies: Interventions—Intersections—Coalitions. Routledge:
Aitken, R. (2018). . In Black Diaspora and Germany (BDG), (Ed.) The black diaspora and Germany:Deutschland und die schwarze diaspora. (pp. 84-100). Munster, Germany: Edition Assemblage:
Rosenhaft, E., & Aitken, R. (2013). . In Rosenhaft, E., & Aitken, R. (Eds.) Africa in Europe: studies in transnational practice in the long twentieth century. (pp. 1-16). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press
Rosenhaft, E., & Aitken, R. (2013). . In Rosenhaft, E., & Aitken, R. (Eds.) Africa in Europe: studies in transnational practice in the long twentieth century. (pp. 1-16). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press
Aitken, R. (2013). . In Honeck, M., Klimke, M., & Kuhlmann, A. (Eds.) Germany and the Black diaspora, : points of contact, 1250-1914. (pp. 213-230). New York: Berghahn
Aitken, R. (2008). Germany, Blacks in. In Encyclopedia of Blacks in European History and Culture: Volumes 1-2. (pp. 240-243).
Books
Aitken, R., Stroh, S., & Ellerbe, C. (Eds.). (2018). Black Diaspora and Germany: Deutschland und die Schwarze Diaspora. (1). Munster Germany: edition assemblage.
Aitken, R. (2013). Africa in Europe: Studies in transnational practice in the long twentieth century. Liverpool University Press.
Aitken, R., & Rosenhaft, E. (2013). Black Germany. Cambridge University Press.
Aitken, R., & Aitken, R.J.M. (2007). Exclusion and Inclusion Gradations of Whiteness and Socio-economic Engineering in German Southwest Africa, 1884-1914. Peter Lang.
Theses / Dissertations
Porter, K.E. (2022). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Aitken, R., Petersson, N., & Stibbe, M.
Burke, S.J. (2021). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Collins, B., & Aitken, R.
Exhibitions
Aitken, R. (2015). Black Germany, 1884-1945. [1 banner stand, 3 large pop-ups, 6 smaller pop-ups]. Multiple locations.
Aitken, R. (2015). Black Germany, 1884-1945. [1 banner stand, 3 large pop-ups, 6 smaller pop-ups]. Multiple locations.
Aitken, R. (2015). Black Germany, 1884-1945. [1 banner stand, 3 large pop-ups, 6 smaller pop-ups]. Multiple locations.
Aitken, R. (2015). . [1 banner stand, 3 large pop-ups, 6 smaller pop-ups]. Multiple locations.
Other activities
I am currently a book review editor for H-Black Europe and I am an advisory board member for the Peter Lang Book series, Imagining Black Europe.
Postgraduate supervision
I am currently supervising the following PhDs:
- The Aid Spain movement in interwar Britain
- Everyday Life in Diaries from the Ghettos of Warsaw and Åódź
Media
My research focuses on the development of a Black Community in Germany from the onset of realised colonialism in the 1880s up to and beyond the Second World War. I also have an active interest in the history of European colonialism.