Celebrating Black History Month
Staff and students are marking Black History Month throughout October through a series of events that will provide space for members of the University community to articulate their experiences.
The events will explore and celebrate the invaluable contributions of African and Caribbean communities throughout history and address the ongoing challenges they face in Britain and around the world.
Throughout the month, the University’s historic Old College will fly the Pan African flag, or UNIA flag – a symbol of Black freedom and pride.
History of slavery
Professor Daniel Smail, Professor of History at Harvard University, will present the annual Lecture on the History of Slavery on 11 October.
In it he will explore the passage from slavery to freedom in Mediterranean Europe during the height of the slave system.
Before the event Professor Smail will be joined in a roundtable discussion by academic colleagues from the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Ghent.
Find out more about the roundtable discussion
Find out more about the lecture
Examining abolition
The Edinburgh Race Equality Network is collaborating with RACE.ED, a University-wide network focussed on race and decolonisation, and the BAME Staff Network to run a free workshop on 16 October to examine the abolition of slavery.
This introductory event aims to deepen participants’ understanding of abolition through a Black, queer, feminist lens, organisers say.
The workshop will draw on film, music and popular texts, providing opportunities for small and large group discussions.
Find out more and book tickets
Black Lives Matter
‘Navigating Blackness in the shadow of Black Lives Matter’ is a free online event for staff and students organised by the University’s Moray House School of Education and Sport.
A panel discussion on 18 October will bring together speakers with different connections to the notion of ‘Blackness’, as African American, Black immigrant and British African.
The panel will discuss how their diverse experience of Blackness in different contexts has been affected since the Black Lives Matter movement and will offer insights on potential challenges.
Lived experiences
The Centre for Research Collections will host six University of Edinburgh academics on 24 October for 'Black History Month in the UK-Views from Home and the Diaspora'.
Having lived in the UK and abroad, the African-American, African, and British scholars will discuss their perspectives on teaching, research and their lived experiences. As "insiders" and "outsiders" to the debate surrounding Black British history and actively engaged in research across various sectors, their informed conversation will broaden understanding of an aspect of British history that we all share. Highlights from the University's Heritage Collections will also be on display.
Leadership
The Edinburgh Futures Institute is collaborating with RACE.ED to host the event ‘Leaning into the Meta-Physics of Liberation’.
On 27 October, a panel of inclusion and diversity experts will share their opinions on the challenged idea and risks of leadership - a long-discussed topic in Black and Afrocentric movements across the world.
Historical walks
Lisa Williams, an Honorary Fellow in History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, will be leading three family friendly Black history walking tours of Edinburgh.
The walk from the New Town to the Old Town will include little-known stories of Edinburgh's many visitors and residents of African, African American and Caribbean heritage from the 16th century to the present day.
Related links
Edinburgh University Students Association events