DeCol Collective Teaching and Research Seminar Series 2021/22

Semester 1 Programme

Ms Teams, JOINING CODE: msg2t5k

27th October 2021

Time: 13:00-14:00

Revealing the multicultural history of the University of Brighton

For Black History Month, join Veneta Roberts, Tony Kalume, Marina Castledine and Christian Høgsbjerg to discuss a new project originating with the Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories (CMNH) which aims to recover the diverse hidden history of students and staff at the University of Brighton and its forerunner institutions. Come and learn about some of the individuals uncovered so far, and also how they relate to wider local black history as the panel will include a special presentation by Tony Kalume on his Heritage Lottery Funded project ‘Celebrating African Caribbeans in Sussex past and present’. There will be time for questions and discussion and opportunities to find out how you can get involved with this new project as it develops yourself.

10th November

Time: 13:00-14:30

Book Launch of This is the Canon: Decolonise Your Bookshelf in 50 Books

The DeCol Collective is delighted to host a virtual book launch of This is the Canon: Decolonise Your Bookshelf in 50 Books (Quercus, 2021). Professor Joan Anim-Addo (Goldsmiths), Dr Deirdre Osborne (Goldsmiths) and Kadija Sesay (Brighton) have curated a decolonised reading list that celebrates the wide and diverse experiences of people from around the world. The book disrupts the all-too-often white-dominated ‘required reading’ collections that have become the accepted norm and highlights powerful voices and cultural perspectives that demand a place on our shelves and on our curriculum. Join us for a panel discussion chaired by Dr Vedrana Velickovic and Q&A with our guest speakers.

24th November

Time: 13:00-14:00

This will be our first hybrid event. Venue FALMER CAMPUS, room: A501, CHECKLAND BUILDING

Dr Henghameh Saroukhani (Saint Mary’s University, Canada), ‘Windrush and the Anti-National Polemics of Andrea Levy’s Small Island’

The critical consensus around Andrea Levy’s award-winning Windrush-era novel Small Island (2004) is that it depicts, as Mike Phillips encapsulates in his Guardian review, “some of the most un-pleasant racist aspects of the period, without displaying any sense of polemical intent.” This lecture works against the notion that Levy’s writing is unpolemical. By drawing attention to the neglected anti-national polemics of Small Island, I examine the way in which the novel offers a particularly condemning, though uneven, view of the national mythos surrounding post-war Commonwealth migration from the colonies and the seemingly progressive enactment of nationalization projects, such as universal social welfare in 1948.

8^th December

Time: 13:00-14:00

TBC