Call for Papers – Glasgow and its rivals for the self-proclaimed title of the “Second City of the Empire” in the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries

A one-day conference at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, on Wednesday 2 September 2026

(funded by a Royal Society of Edinburgh collaborative project award)

In his chapter “‘The Second City of the Empire’ Glasgow – Imperial municipality” in Driver and Gilbert ed. Imperial Cities (2003), John Mackenzie argued that although population was the principal criterion for a city staking a claim to be the “Second City of the Empire” it could also rest on the “degree of economic integration into the imperial enterprise.” In both respects Glasgow laid claim to this title. It was not alone. At various times Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Manchester, as well as Sydney, Kolkata and many other cities in countries that were colonised by Britain similarly claimed to be the Second City of the Empire. Despite the perceived civic status associated with this title, only two of these cities (Kolkata and Liverpool) were included by Tristram Hunt in Ten Cities that Made an Empire (2014), his exploration of “the civic fabric” of key cities through which the British imperial project “had asserted its colonial vision.” This focus on the post-colonial turn and impact of imperialism “at home” which was early identified in the introduction to Driver and Gilbert ed. Imperial Cities has more recently been explored in popular works exploring imperial nostalgia, notably Sanghera’s Empireland (2021) and suggests that the enduring legacy of Empire is evident in the fabric of many of Britain’s major cities.

This conference seeks to explore key aspects of the empire at home via papers on any of the many cities which claimed to be the “Second City of the British Empire” from the 19^th into the mid-20^th century. It asks whether the jostling to be recognised as the “Second City of the Empire” was only of symbolic importance or if it spoke to something more essential about these cities.

Themes and Scope

Contributions may address but are not limited to the following themes:

• Civic status and imperial identity;
• City relationships with Empire through trade and industry;
• Inter-city rivalry;
• Urban imaginaries;
• The staging and impact of imperial and international exhibitions; and
• Imperial inter-connectedness via the settlement, successes and/or exploitation of colonised peoples in any of the putative Second Cities.

We warmly invite proposals from postgraduate students, early-career researchers, and established scholars.

Submission Guidelines

In your paper proposal, please include:

• Title of your paper

• Brief abstract (max 200 words)

• Biography including affiliations (max 100 words)

• Email address

• Social media handles

Please send paper abstracts and biographies (plus all requests to attend the conference) to: j.j.smith@stir.ac.uk

The submission deadline is Friday 5 June 2026 at 12 noon.

Further details regarding the programme, accessibility, and travel will be circulated once the programme has been confirmed. For any other queries, please email the address above.

The conference is free for speakers and attendees but booking is essential and numbers are limited by venue size. Lunch and coffee/tea will be provided free of charge. A conference dinner will be provided to speakers.

This conference is staged as part of the RSE collaborative project reference no. 4971 “Parading the ‘Second City of the Empire’ – exploring Glasgow’s municipal governance during key British imperial events, c.1880s-1930s.” Principal Investigator Dr Jacqueline Jenkinson, Senior Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Stirling. Collaborators: Dr Irene O’Brien, Chief Archivist, Glasgow City Archives; Dr Stephen Bowman, Lecturer in History, University of Stirling; Dr Kieran Taylor, Lecturer in Education, Queen Mary University, Edinburgh. 

Image: Anchor Line Poster 1926, Anchor Line Display Guide,  ID Number T.1982.2.34, Riverside Museum, Glasgow,