Identities Events Series – Next Events
18 November 2026
Still Whitewashing Britain: Race, Class and the UK Citizenship Test
With Dr Anna Tuckett, Brunel University of London
Chaired by: Dr Aaron Winter, Lancaster University
In collaboration with Sociology at Lancaster University
Online event. 15.00-16.30pm GMT.
In this talk, Dr Anna Tuckett will examine how the UK citizenship test promotes an exclusionary vision of Britishness which is both classed and racialized. Reflecting on a longer trajectory of British nationality and citizenship policy-making since 1948, Dr Tuckett will show that the citizenship test must be situated within a broader ideological project that equates Britishness with whiteness. Drawing on ethnographic research at training centres which assist migrants in learning and memorizing the Life in the UK Handbook, Dr Tuckett will show that candidates must regurgitate this exclusionary version of Britishness in order to pass the test. However, the Handbook’s contents are not cleanly imparted, but rather messily refracted, as migrants’ and teachers’ own worldviews bleed into this idealized version of Britain and challenge its hegemony.
This talk is based on the Identities article, 'Still whitewashing Britain: race, class and the UK citizenship test' (Open Access).
Chaired by: Dr Aaron Winter, Lancaster University
In collaboration with Sociology at Lancaster University
Online event. 15.00-16.30pm GMT.
In this talk, Dr Anna Tuckett will examine how the UK citizenship test promotes an exclusionary vision of Britishness which is both classed and racialized. Reflecting on a longer trajectory of British nationality and citizenship policy-making since 1948, Dr Tuckett will show that the citizenship test must be situated within a broader ideological project that equates Britishness with whiteness. Drawing on ethnographic research at training centres which assist migrants in learning and memorizing the Life in the UK Handbook, Dr Tuckett will show that candidates must regurgitate this exclusionary version of Britishness in order to pass the test. However, the Handbook’s contents are not cleanly imparted, but rather messily refracted, as migrants’ and teachers’ own worldviews bleed into this idealized version of Britain and challenge its hegemony.
This talk is based on the Identities article, 'Still whitewashing Britain: race, class and the UK citizenship test' (Open Access).
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