A New Britain: The Disunited Queendom
Virginia McCombs, Ph.D.
Chair, History Department
Director, University Honors Program
Oklahoma City University
In June 2006 I was privileged to attend the CIEE seminar, “Britain: The Disunited Queendom.” The seminar was an intensive, week-long study of the challenges of diversity in the United Kingdom, a nation long associated with a mystique of royal pomp, bowler hats, and quaint English country sides. Through lectures, discussion, and fascinating field excursions, our group engaged in a lively conversation about Britain, past and present.
I confess that when I applied for the seminar I believed that it would be a look at the cultural melting pot of London. Indeed, the seminar description that pointed to London as one of the most diverse cities in Europe, and the tentative schedule that included sites as diverse as Brick Lane and Irish pubs, seemed to point in that direction. However, by the time I arrived in London and received the final seminar materials, it became clear the seminar defined diversity in a much more expansive fashion. Although I was disappointed in this different focus at first, I did grow to appreciate this alternative definition.
I am tempted to title this reflection, “What I Learned On My Summer Seminar,” but I do not mean to trivialize the value of the experience. We did consider ethnicities to a degree. Far more meaningful for me in stretching the definition of diversity was our study of the challenges of tradition versus modernism, the changing concepts of community and identity, the benefits and trials of technology, and the choices that communities make—willingly or not—in the name of progress. All of these are elements in the creation of more diverse communities large and small.
An example from the seminar serves to illustrate these new challenges. One of the highlights of the seminar for me was the visit to the Docklands. Like many of my colleagues, my reaction was “I had no idea that this was here!” The Docklands were so out of place in my mental picture of London; the buildings and workers in the area looked like they belonged in Houston, not jolly old England. Projects such as the Docklands challenge conceptions of architectural appropriateness and uniqueness, and call up fears of the homogenization—if not Americanization—of work and lifestyles, leading to the question, “where will this all end?” Will London lose its distinctiveness? Will Big Ben be overshadowed by skyscrapers? The replacement of working class neighborhoods and work sites with flashing steel and glass buildings inhabited by urban professionals injects a type of diversity into former enclaves. And yet this London version of urban renewal dislocates one population for the benefit of another. Is this diversity, both architectural and demographic, a boon or blight to the greater community?
Another illustration of the challenges facing Britain as well as other nations is the proliferation of technology, particularly the trend toward targeting specific audiences to satisfy their unique identities. Our session with the BBC commentator provoked a lively discussion. As the dominant voice of British media, the BBC has tied Britons together in the past, yet the contemporary explosion of media technologies and outlets challenges any notion of a national voice, let alone national character, in media. This begs the question, are nations and communities benefited by “identity” programming, or does such targeting splinter the collective into competing fragments?
I hope to incorporate such questions as I develop an Honors Jr.-Sr. Seminar on diversity and nationhood, specifically the type of diversity we studied during the seminar. At Oklahoma City University all Honors students must enroll in at least one interdisciplinary Jr.-Sr. Seminar as part of their graduation requirements, and this seems an excellent opportunity to implement what I learned in London.
Although far from the diversity of a European capital and world city, Oklahoma City does provide the foundation for a variety of field experiences such as we had in London. The city has large Hispanic, Native-American, African-American, and Vietnamese populations, the latter of which is located very close to the university. We also have a sizable Indian and Pakistani community as well as growing numbers of Muslims from various parts of the world. Studying the literature, culture, and local communities of these diverse groups, focusing particularly on questions of tradition and cultural uniqueness versus acculturation and the melting pot, will challenge students to think about national identity and the future. Given that immigration will be an enduring political issue for some time to come, and Oklahoma City has a growing population of immigrants from Mexico, a Jr.-Sr. seminar on ethnic diversity should be very timely.
Of course, just as we considered in London, diversity challenges to national identity come in more varied forms than ethnicities. Given that Oklahoma City is “on the buckle of the Bible belt” and generally a conservative community, other opportunities to study diversity include sexual orientation, political perspectives, and religion. We also have several excellent art galleries in the area as well any number of local media outlets and newspapers that target diverse populations in the city and vicinity. In addition, Oklahoma City has its own, smaller version of Docklands-type developments, neighborhoods where poorer, urban populations are being moved out to make way for gentrification and economic development.
The high point of the Honors seminar would be an international trip that would challenge students to apply what they have learned about diversity and nationhood in their own community to other, larger communities. My first choice for such a trip certainly will be London.
To design and teach such an interdisciplinary seminar I will enlist a colleague from another liberal arts discipline. A sociologist would be an obvious possibility. However, one of my colleagues in the English department, an excellent Honors professor whose field is visual rhetoric, would seem to be an excellent partner in this course.
I am very enthusiastic about the development of this Honors seminar on diversity in its multifaceted forms and questions of nationhood. My experience at the CIEE Seminar, Britain: The Disunited Queendom, was an invaluable opportunity to consider these many questions and the ways in which they might challenge students. My thanks to the Ping Fellowship committee for helping to make this seminar a reality for me.