Understood as a watershed moment, few events have divided and shocked the nation on the same level as ‘Brexit’. Since the result, researchers (as well as commentators and politicians) have grappled to understand the outcome. Researchers at the University of Salford have, for example, sought to understand the meanings and motivations behind the ‘Brexit’ vote in Salford, where 56.8% of the electorate (62,385 people) voted in favour of leaving the EU. Their work challenges early analyses that have offered a one-dimensional and class-centric focus on the ‘left behind’, a narrative that has gained much political purchase. Instead, Dr Tina Patel and Dr Laura Connelly’s work – published in The Sociological Review – argues that post-colonial anxieties and a yearning for Empire-like conditions are key to understanding ‘Brexit’, even in a so-called ‘post-racial’ epoch. Fostering dialogue and collaborative working, they discussed their key findings as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science in 2017, with members of the public, representatives from Salford City Council and the voluntary sector, academics and others. By continued collaborative and inter-disciplinary working, researchers at Salford hope to continue to explore the impacts of the Referendum on social inclusion and exclusion.