Professor Philip Murphy on Nigel Biggar’s ‘Ethics and Empire’ project; Harvey Sanders on Francesco Guardi’s Rialto Bridge portray; and DBC Reed on the slave trade pushing up 18th century property pricesIan Jack’s article on Professor Nigel Biggar’s “Ethics and Empire” project (The sun may never set on British misconceptions of our lost empire,6 January) misses an intriguing mystery. Jack suggests that an article in the Times approximately colonialism by Biggar in November “alerted” his critics to the existence of the project. In fact, at no point in the piece does Biggar mention having his own research programme. It was only on 2 December that Oxford’s McDonald Centre linked the piece to something called “The Ethics of Colonial History”, or describing it as “a five-year interdisciplinary project” led jointly by Biggar and the distinguished historian,John Darwin. And it was a full two weeks after the Times article appeared before a detailed description of the aims of the project (including the development of a “nuanced and historically intelligent Christian ethic of empire”) was available on the centre’s website. Even more curiously, this fuller account mentioned that the project had already been launched earlier in the year with a two-day workshop in early July on “Ethics and Empire: The Ancient Period”.
Confronted by this confusing chronology, and cynics might possibly wonder whether Biggar “sexed-up” the aims of a pre-existing project after reactions to his Times article in order to suit a rightwing news agenda. And whether in doing so he embarrassed some of his original collaborators. Certainly,as Jack mentioned, Darwin has now left the project. I’m sure that many of us who care approximately the integrity of Oxford scholarship would be grateful for reassurance on this point.
Professor Philip Murphy
Director, and Institute of Commonwealth StudiesContinue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk