Black History Month Events

This month, and every month, we celebrate Black history and Black activism. We’re inviting students and staff to join us for a series talks.

We’re an anti-racist university, and we’ll continue working with you and for you in tackling racial inequality. By standing together as one community, we can create lasting change. As part of our commitment, we’ve put together a series Black History Month talks, which we hope you take every opportunity to join. We each must educate ourselves about Black history and culture in order to confront racism and stand in solidarity against it.

Calendar of events

We hope you join any of these one hour sessions, which will be hosted virtually on Microsoft Teams. Simply join the group for the Black History Month talks on Teams.

11:00am Wednesday 6 October – Proud to be an Anti-Racist, Bill Acharjee
University of Brighton Equality & Diversity Adviser, Bill Acharjee will share examples of his lived experiences of racism within the UK and how he has navigated through them, as well as detailing strategies to support anti-racism work at the University of Brighton.

11:00am Thursday 7 October – Proud to be Me!, Victoria Ugwoeme, Community Project Leader
Victoria Ugwoeme is a social innovator who’s been carrying out positive social action within her local community and the wider society speaking up for the voiceless!

11:00am Tuesday 12 October – Being Black within the Music Industry, Keith Harris OBE
Music industry professional, Keith Harris OBE will share stories of his trials and tribulations of working with Stevie Wonder and heading the UK Music Race Equality task force.

11:00am Wednesday 13 October – BHM South Lead, Lou Taylor
Black History Month South Organiser, Lou Taylor will talk through the history of the slave trade and key milestone events of Black activism throughout the years within the UK.

1:00pm Thursday 14 October – Why I hate BHM Month: Belonging from the oustide, Annie Richardson
Senior Lecturer Annie Richardson will share her thoughts of why BHM should not simply be celebrated for one month only each year, and the importance of facilitating difficult conversations around identity and belonging in East Sussex.

1:00pm Tuesday 19 October – Black Women within Higher Education, Gwen Gordon
Join Gwen Gordon, University of Portsmouth Employee Relations Advisor to hear stories of working within HE from a Black women’s perspective and discussing some of her anti-racist work within HE.

11:00am Wednesday 20 October – Human Rights, Roger McKenzie
General Secretary for Liberation, one of the oldest human rights organisations that campaigns against neo-colonialism and imperialism. Roger will share his views and experiences of what it means to be anti-racist.

11:00am Wednesday 27 October – Why S/HE Needs a FACE?
Join HE fashion academics and the creators of Fashion Academic Creating Equality (FACE) to find out what they do and why it is important to support the anti-racist agenda within UK universities today! Featuring Nada Koreish, Sharon Lloyd, Ezinma Mbonu, Benita Odogwu- Atkinson and Mylinh Nguyen.