Key details
Dr Gavin Rand
Associate Professor of History
Gavin Rand is Associate Professor of History and Portfolio Leader for History, Politics and International Relations.
Gavin joined Greenwich in 2005, having taught for a year in the Department of History at Lancaster University. Gavin studied Politics and Modern History at the University of Manchester before completing an MA in Cultural History and a PhD, funded by the ESRC, under the supervision of Professors Patrick Joyce and Anindita Ghosh.
Awards
From 2012-14, Gavin led a British Academy-funded project, ‘ReNewing the Military History of Colonial South Asia’, which sought to integrate cultural and military histories of empire in South Asia, leading to an edited volume, Culture, Conflict and the Military in Colonial South Asia, and an ongoing book series with Routledge, for which Gavin is co-editor.
More recently, Gavin has collaborated with London-based performing arts company Nutkhut on a Heritage Lottery-funded project exploring the partition of India, ‘Never set eyes on the land’, which produced an Educational Toolkit, and public exhibition.
Gavin is a committee member of Society for the History of War (SHoW) and was formerly a Councillor for the Army Records Society.
Gavin has been external examiner for undergraduate history degrees at Derby, Kent and Oxford Brookes, and has examined postgraduate degrees at the Universities of Cambridge, King’s College, London, Kingston and Leicester.
Research / Scholarly interests
Gavin’s research explores the history of the military in colonial South Asia. His work focusses on people, institutions and ideas which shaped the organisation and deployment of military power in, and beyond, ‘British India’. A cultural historian by training, Gavin’s research focusses on the role of indigenous labour in the imperial military, exploring how knowledge, culture and technology informed the uses and limits of colonial violence. Gavin’s work has examined how changing ideas of race impacted colonial recruitment as well as on the history of colonial frontiers. Gavin is also interested in wider histories and historiographies of violence in the colonial and postcolonial world, particularly the history of genocide.
Recent publications
Article
Rand, Gavin and , (2022), Decolonising the immortal heritage: Empire, war and history in contemporary Britain. Society for the History War - All Souls College Oxford. In: , , , . Society for the History War - All Souls College Oxford, Society for the History War . pp. 1-5 (doi: https://www.show.org.uk/post/decolonising-the-immortal-heritage-empire-war-and-history-in-contemporary-britain).
Rand, Gavin and , (2020), Review of Simner, Mark. Pathan Rising: Jihad on the North West Frontier of India 1897-1898. Stroud: Fonthill, 2016.. Society for Military History. In: , , , . Society for Military History, Journal of Military History, 84 (2) . pp. 597-598 ISSN: 0899-3718 (Print), 1543-7795 (Online) (doi: ) NB Item availability restricted.
Rand, Gavin and , (2019), Review of Barkawi, Tarak. Soldiers of Empire: Indian and British Armies in World War II. Cambridge, United Kingdom; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Brill. In: , , , . Brill, International Journal of Military History and Historiography, 39 (1) . pp. 152-155 ISSN: 2468-3299 (Print), (doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/*************1006).
Rand, Gavin and , Condos, Mark (2017), Coercion and conciliation at the edge of empire: state-building and its limits in Waziristan, 1849-1914. Cambridge University Press. In: , , , . Cambridge University Press, Historical Journal, 61 (3) . pp. 1-19 ISSN: 0018-246X (Print), 1469-5103 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X17000280).
Book section
Rand, Gavin and , (2021), Military labour markets in colonial India from the Company state to WWII. Routledge - Taylor & Francis. In: , , In: Harald Fischer-Tiné, Maria Framke (eds.), Routledge Handbook of the History of Colonialism in South Asia. Routledge - Taylor & Francis, Oxon and New York (1st) . ISBN: 9781138364844 ; 9781032052489 ; 9780429431012 (doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429431012).
Roy, Kaushik and , Rand, Gavin (2017), Introduction: Warfare, culture and society in colonial South Asia. Routledge India. In: , , In: Kaushik Roy, Gavin Rand (eds.), Culture, Conflict and the Military in Colonial South Asia (War and Society in South Asia). Routledge India, (1st) . pp. 1-31 . ISBN: 9781138206724 (doi: ) NB Item availability restricted.
Rand, Gavin and , (2017), ‘From the Black Mountain to Waziristan’: culture and combat on the North-West frontier. Routledge. In: , , In: Kaushik Roy, Gavin Rand (eds.), Culture, Conflict and the Military in Colonial South Asia. Routledge, . pp. 189-227 . ISBN: 9781138206724 (doi: https://www.routledge.com/Culture-Conflict-and-the-Military-in-Colonial-South-Asia-1st-Edition/Roy-Rand/p/book/9781138206724).
Edited book
Roy, Kaushik and , Rand, Gavin (2017), Culture, Conflict and the Military in Colonial South Asia. Routledge India. In: , , In: Kaushik Roy, Gavin Rand (eds.), Culture, Conflict and the Military in Colonial South Asia. Routledge India, Abingdon, Oxon (1st) . pp. 1-31 . ISBN: 9781138206724 (doi: ) NB Item availability restricted.
Working paper
Rand, Gavin , Williams, George, Madra, Amandeep (2020), The 'Punjab Registers' & Indian Army casualities in the First World War. Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), Non-Commemorated Committee. In: , , , . Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), Non-Commemorated Committee, Beaurains, France (doi: https://www.cwgc.org/non-commemoration-report/).