Absence/presence of Durham’s Black History: exploration of institutions, archives, students and pedagogies

The purpose of these workshop series is to build on existing synergies emerging from discussion within the BAME network on the absence/presence of Durham’s ‘black’ (refers to those who see themselves as being politically black) history. It seeks to contribute to the debates on decolonising by exploring institutions, archives, black students in Durham’s history and explore the impact of these findings on pedagogies and curriculums within the University. The project also emerges from Professor Nayanika Mookherjee carrying out fieldtrips with students exploring UK’s history of slavery as part of her undergraduate module Violence and Memory since 2007.

A series of interdisciplinary conversations will be held during the academic year 2022/2023, involving academics at Durham University and beyond as well as wider societal partners, especially archivists, chaplains, Durham city council and Christian mission agencies.

These dialogues would allow the i) development of interdisciplinary concepts, ideas, theories and methods linked to the theme of the project.  These might have the potential to result in ii) Major Project proposal submissions to the IAS and iii) AHRC in the future.

The Development Project will help build on the existing research synergies to make the research cohort strong for these grant applications. The aim is to focus on the pertinent interdisciplinary themes in exploring the varied strands of what the team see as the absence/presence of the black history in Durham University and the need to examine it deeply by drawing on different disciplinary theories, concepts and methods.

What has developed from their existing synergies is to realise the need to include these varied
aspects of black history in our curriculum.

Events

Three key events to  bring together researchers, and external partners, non-academic stakeholders, research grant advisors, and guest speakers to develop our interdisciplinary focus for research funding priorities.

The potential main themes for these three interdisciplinary conversations are:

1. Open meeting/symposium on black histories, absence/presence at Durham. A broad overview and initial meeting exploring the expertise and knowledge across the university on the themes above. 
   
   
2. What is the absence/presence of black history in Durham’s archives,
   organisations and overseas educational institutions? (1 external speaker, Pulling out themes
   from our respective contributions).
   
   
3. What is the absence/presence of the stories of black students in Durham’s history
   and how do we teach them? 

Outcomes:
The main outcome of this workshop series and archival visit is a summary of the emerging themes and potential collaborations from each event to feed into a longer-term programme of work with the aim of submitting a major grant proposal to the IAS in Epiphany 2023 for the academic year 2024-2025. 

Events:

Tuesday 31^st January 2023, 2-5 pm: 
Institute of Advanced Study, Seminar Room, Cosin's Hall 

This open meeting/symposium will focus on the concept of ‘absence/presence’ and explore the expertise and knowledge across the university on the theme in relation to Black history. It will feature contributions from colleagues and students across the faculty. This symposium builds on discussions on decolonisation in Anthropology, History and Sociology and will allow us to rethink institutions, concepts, methods across disciplines and beyond academia enabling us to question our known disciplinary parameters. The meeting will be chaired and moderated by Liam Liburd (History) and Nayanika Mookherjee (Anthropology). To attend or request information please contact Dr Liburd (liam.liburd@durham.ac.uk) or Professor Mookherjee (nayanika.mookherjee@durham.ac.uk).

Wednesday 03 May 2023, 11.30-2.30pm: 
Venue to be confirmed. This event is invitation only. 

This meeting will focus on the concept of ‘archives’ and explore the concept across various disciplines and the connotations of power that it has. Along with archives we will also engage with the built environment, our surroundings, in terms of being repositories of black histories of Durham through a walking tour. It will feature contributions from an external speaker, colleagues and students across the faculties. This discussion will explore how we engage with these absent/present archives. The meeting will be chaired and moderated by Nayanika Mookherjee (Anthropology) and Sol Gamsu (Sociology). To attend or request information please contact Dr Gamsu (sol.j.gamsu@durham.ac.uk) or Professor Mookherjee (nayanika.mookherjee@durham.ac.uk). 

Tuesday 23 May 2023, 2-5pm:
Institute of Advanced Study, Seminar Room, Cosin's Hall 

Who has studied and worked at Durham? What are the colonial and/or racialised histories of Durham as a university and those who have studied and worked at the University? This meeting will explore the history and presence of racially minoritised students and staff at Durham and across universities in the North-East. We will examine the Durham’s role in the history of colonial higher education and focus in particular on the histories of student mobilities and experiences and examine what the sources and methods we might use to explore this further. It will feature contributions from external speaker, colleagues and students across the faculty.The meeting will be chaired and moderated by Sol Gamsu (Sociology) and Liam Liburd (History).

Speakers:

Dr Jo Sadgrove (Leeds) about the history of the Universities Mission to Central Africa and the United Society Partners in the Gospel and their links to colonialism.

Dr Ed Anderson (Northumbria) to talk about the history of Indian students in the North-East in the mid-20^th century.