This PhD project will extend my existing work on ‘imperial’ institutions and their complex interactions with colonial agendas. Using the journals and archives of the Hakluyt Society, this project aims to investigate the relationship between the Society, travel writing, and colonialism. This will help us answer wider questions surrounding institutional knowledge production and imperialism. To answer a number of these questions, network analysis will be a critical methodology I will apply. To what extent did the personal backgrounds and connections of Hakluyt Society members steer its agenda? How many of them held vested interests or positions in colonial economies, for example? I will also explore how connected the Society was to religious institutions, at both an individual and Society-wide level. This builds upon my previous research into missionaries as agents of empire. Knowledge production is another key aspect of this project. Oftentimes, it was only these (semi-)elite institutions that had access to primary material. Thus, how they chose to disseminate this information is critical.

To understand how impactful colonialism was on Hakluyt Society output, a detailed survey of the journals will be conducted. Making this more accessible is key – the Society’s journal numbers over 300. One option is to breakdown subject matter by region. For example, many of the initial publications concern Latin America. I want to investigate why these particular accounts were chosen, and how were they edited and portrayed in the Society’s journal. To analyse institutionally published travel writing most effectively, an interdisciplinary approach will be taken. Literature from sociology, anthropology, area studies, and English literature will be combined with existing historiographies to situate this project confidently. Ultimately this project aims to contribute to the historiography of the institute, as well as wider debates on cultural imperialism.