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What's in Store at 'What's Happening in Black British History? Transnational Workshop, on 14th October...

30/9/2020

3 Comments

 
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​In an autumn in which it feels there's not a lot to look forward to, I'm excited about the What’s Happening in Black British History? Transnational Workshop, which will be held online via Zoom on Wednesday 14th October 2020. It's a full day event- running from 10.30am- 6pm, though sadly not followed by the usual Drinks Reception - though I could be persuaded to have a chat and a drink over Zoom with anyone who's keen after the formal proceedings are over!

We're opening with a panel on Political Activism and transnational solidarity, which will provide some much-needed long term context for the events of this summer.  In chronological order, we will start over a hundred years ago with David Killingray speaking about the events leading up to and following on from the first Pan-African Conference in London in 1900, in his paper on ‘Early pan-African endeavours in the black Atlantic world, 1890-1912’; followed by Kesewa John explaining the role of Caribbean activists in Britain in the anti-imperialist activism of the 1930s in ‘Militant Diaspora: The International African Service Bureau and the Caribbean Labour Rebellions’. Then Ellie Kramer-Taylor will take up the story as she speaks about ‘The West Indian Federation and the Caribbean diaspora in Britain’, in the 1950s and 1960s.

After a break, we will then be able to benefit from the silver lining that online events allow us to hear from speakers from around the world and welcome Shireen Mushtaq, Aiman Iqbal and Arooba Ali from Kinnaird College for Women, in Lahore, Pakistan, who will present on 'Racism as structural violence: The case of British African-Caribbean People’ during the Cold War period,  before Robin Bunce ends the session with his discussion of ‘Black Sections in the Labour Party 1983-7: Apartheid, Colonialism and understandings of anti-racism in Britain’. I'm sure I'll learn a lot as the 20th century is 'not my period', and I hope the themes of this panel will help us to learn lessons from the past as we continue to fight racism today. 

After lunch (of your choice!), we can tuck into our regular New Books panel. There are so many great new Black British History books out there at the moment, so much so that we won't have time to highlight all of them (but keep an eye on our Twitter @BlackBritHist). We are thrilled to be hearing about these exciting new titles:

  • 100 Great Black Britons by Patrick Vernon & Angelina Osbourne 
  • Journeys: The Story of Migration to Britain by Dan Lyndon-Cohen
  • Henry Box Brown: From Slavery to Show Business by Kathleen Chater

And although they can't be with us on the day, we will hear from Kadie Kanneh-Mason, who will be discussing House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons with  ​Shirley J. Thompson OBE  and David Olusoga, who spoke to me about the new version of his book for young people Black and British: A Short, Essential History (for every copy sold, 50p will go to The Black Curriculum). 

The final session will be devoted to  Representing Black Women. It is  fantastic that after six years of featuring Sarah Forbes Bonetta on our publicity material, we are finally having a talk about her, entitled ‘Girl/Ship: Challenging Geographic, Historical, and Formal Historical Methods in Black British Studies’, by Samantha Pinto, whose new book, Infamous Bodies: Early Black Women’s Celebrity and the Afterlives of Rights, explores her life alongside other 'celebrity' historical figures: Phillis Wheatley, Sally Hemings, Sarah Baartman,  and Mary Seacole, who is the subject of  Jordan Harris's paper ‘Claiming Mary Seacole’. Harris will compare how Seacole is seen in Jamaica, the country of her birth, with her status in Britain, asking 'what exactly makes Seacole British, and who has the right to claim her as a national symbol?' Finally, Jeff Bowersox will introduce us to 'Josephine Morcashani: A Briton Performing Black Femininity on Stages across Europe’, an entertainer who was something of a celebrity in her day (1870-1929), but is now largely unknown.  This will allow for a fascinating conversation on who we remember and why, and how women specifically have been represented, or represented themselves. 

Really hope you can join us for what looks to be a really thought provoking and invigorating day. You can find the booking form and full agenda here. 

If you can't make it, we'll be live-tweeting @BlackBritHist #WHBBH_TN throughout the day, and the recordings will be made available after the event. 
3 Comments

Call for Papers: What's Happening in Black British History? Transnational Online Workshop, deadline 7th September.

4/8/2020

6 Comments

 
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Our previous workshop (WHBBHXII), which was due to take place at the University of Bangor on 30
April, had to be postponed due to the COVID-19. We hope to hold this meeting in Spring 2021. In the
meantime, because of the on-going uncertainty about when it will be safe to stage large gatherings,
we would like to hold a workshop via Zoom on Wednesday 14 October.

The recent Black Lives Matter protests have given added urgency to the longstanding focus of this
workshop series. They have also pointed to the international connections between campaigns
against racism and oppression in the UK and elsewhere in the world. We would like to make
particular use of the capacity of internet platforms to link scholars from around the world to explore
Black British History in a comparative context.

Our workshop on 14 October will therefore focus on the transnational context of Black British History. We are keen to receive proposals from researchers who have examined this history in relation to developments elsewhere in the world, for example black liberation movements in Africa,
the Caribbean, the US and Europe. We would be particularly interested to hear from scholars
outside the UK
who have studied aspects of Black British History either as their main focus or as part of a comparative study. We are also keen to hear from those in the education or cultural sectors
who have produced teaching materials, exhibitions and documentaries exploring these comparative
perspectives. In addition, we are interested in exploring the links between Black British and
Imperial/Colonial History, and the different ways in which European colonial powers have dealt with
the legacies of Empire.

As in our previous workshops, we are seeking proposals for presentations lasting for around 15-20
minutes. Please submit a title and a brief description of your presentation (no more than 300
words) as an attached Word document also stating your name, contact details, and, if you have
them, Institution and Twitter handle to Philip Murphy at philip.murphy@sas.ac.uk by Monday 7
September 2020.
In addition, we would be happy to consider proposals for a complete panel
relating to the theme of the workshop above. The panel should have a coherent unifying focus,
and the proposal should include the abstracts of three related presentations and the names and
affiliations of the presenters.
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The Plague of 1592-3- echoes of today?

13/3/2020

1 Comment

 
I know it's problematic to compare the Coronavirus to the plague, but the news is reminding me of some elements of the plague that killed Jane and Edmund, two of Reasonable Blackman [a Black Tudor silkweaver from Southwark]'s children in October 1592, which I wrote about in Chapter 5 of my book, Black Tudors: the Untold Story.  So here are a few counterpoints. 

In the summer of 1592 the plague swept through London. On 10 September 1592, the Privy Council wrote to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London that ‘by the weekly certificates, it doth appear that the present infection within the city of London doth greatly increase, growing as well by the carelessness of the people as by the want of good order to see the sound severed from the sick’. Thomas Dekker likened the advent of plague to Death pitching his tents in the ‘sinfully polluted suburbs’, from where he commanded his army of ‘Burning Fevers, Boils, Blaines, and Carbuncles’. These generals led his rank and file: ‘a mingle-mangle’ of ‘dumpish Mourners, merry Sextons, hungry Coffin-sellers, scrubbing Bearers, and nastie Grave-makers’.
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Woodcut from John Taylor's The Fearful Summer (1636)
Numbers
An estimated 658,000 died of plague in England 1570–1670 (433,000 in London). Outbreaks occurred on average every 14 years. The so–called ‘Great Plague’ of 1665 resulted in 68,596 deaths (12% of the population), while the plagues of 1563 killed 20% of London’s population, and that of 1603 killed 18%. In comparison, the plague that killed the Blackman children in 1592 was, with its 8.5% mortality rate, a relatively minor outbreak.

Crazy behaviour
James Balmford, the curate of St Olave’s, Tooley Street, observed that some sufferers lost their minds, leaping out of windows or running into the Thames. He put much of the blame for the spread of disease on the ‘bloody error’ that many people made, in thinking that the ‘Pestilence’ was not contagious. He dedicated his A Short Dialogue concerning the Plagues Infection of 1603 to his parishioners: a publication in which he ‘set down all that I have publicly taught’ and tried to disabuse them of this fatal misconception that led ‘men, women and children with running sores’ to ‘go commonly abroad and thrust themselves into company’.

Although plague burials took place at dusk when there were fewer people around to minimise the chance of the disease spreading, not all took heed.  Balmford grieved to see how ‘the poorer sort, yea women with young children, will flocke to burials, and (which is worse) stand (of purpose) over open graves, where sundry are buried together, that (forsooth) all the world may see that they feare not the Plague.’

Government medical advice 
The official government advice against catching the plague, 
first issued in 1578, with the catchy title of :
Orders, thought meete by her Maiestie, and her priuie Councell, to be executed throughout the counties of this realme, in such townes, villages, and other places, as are, or may be hereafter infected with the plague, for the stay of further increase of the same Also, an aduise set downe vpon her Maiesties expresse commaundement, by the best learned in physicke within this realme, contayning sundry good rules and easie medicines, without charge to the meaner sort of people, aswell for the preseruation of her good subiects from the plague before infection, as for the curing and ordering of them after they shalbe infected.
suggested a whole host of preventative measures and cures, such as potions and lotions made up of ingredients like vinegar or various herbs and spices, or what to burn to purge the air. If you could not afford the ingredients, this was no obstacle: ‘The poor which can not get vinegar nor buy Cinnamon, may eat bread and Butter alone, for Butter is not only a preservative against the plague, but against all manner of poisons.’

Unofficial medical advice
Various remedies against the plague were proscribed in the twenty-three books published on the subject between 1486 and 1604. It was popularly thought that beer and ale had medicinal qualities, and alehouses were notably busier at times of plague.

Perhaps the most mind-boggling remedy, from Simon Kellwaye’s 1593 tract, A defensative against the plague, suggested applying live plucked chickens to the plague sores to draw out the disease. A later pamphlet gave more detailed advice as to how this would work:

Take a cock chicken & pull all the feathers of his tail very bare, then hold the bared part of the pullet close upon the sore & the chicken will gape and labour for life & will die; then do so with another pullet till it die, & so with another: till you find the last chicken will not die cannot be killed by the infection being altogether extracted, for when all the venom is drawn out the last chicken will not be hurt by it & the patient will mend speedily: one Mr Whatts hath tried this on a child of his, & 8 chickens one after another died & the ninth lived, & the sore being hard & hot was made soft by the first chicken as papp, the 2nd drew it clean away. 


Quarantine
Infected houses were shut up and marked with a red cross to warn others away. Shakespeare describes the way plague victims were quarantined in Romeo and Juliet:

the searchers of the town,
Suspecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
Seal’d up the doors, and would not let us forth.’

This added to their misery. As James Balmford put it, those who were isolated in this way ‘think it an hell to be so long shut up from company and their business: the neglecting whereof is the decay of their state.’ The loss of business was a very real concern for those of modest means. Balmford callously dismissed such concerns, remarking that those infected should be ‘content to forbear a while, since in the Plague they usually mend or end in short time.’

Containment
As the contagion spread, more general measures were put in place to combat it. Bonfires were lit in the streets ‘to purge and cleanse the air’. Dogs, thought to be carriers of infection, were culled by parish authorities. Clothes belonging to the deceased were also suspect. In Kent, in 1610, a man sold a coat belonging to his lodger, who had recently died of the plague. Unfortunately, the man who bought it died soon afterwards, as the coat was ‘not well aired or purified’.

Great efforts were made to stop crowds from gathering. Theatres, many of which were located in Southwark, were closed on 23 June, and did not open again until August 1594. The Westminster law courts were prevented from beginning their new term in October, and by the end of the month it was decided to hold them in Hertford instead. The High Court of Admiralty, which usually met in Southwark, was relocated to Woolwich. On 11 October, the usual ceremonies held to inaugurate the new Lord Mayor of London were cancelled, and the Queen suggested the money was spent on relieving ‘those persons whose houses are infected’ instead.


Rich and poor
Unsurprisingly, the poorest areas of London were the worst hit. By contrast, wealthier people retreated to their houses in the country to wait it out. Balmford enjoined them to be charitable:
 'the good they can do (as they be rich men) is to relieve the sick and needy: which they may do well enough, without their residence [in London], if they were so well minded.'

Xenophobia and Discrimination
Some blamed immigrants for bringing the plague to London. The ‘filthy keeping’ of foreigners’ houses was identified by the city authorities as ‘one of the greatest occasions of the plague’. This might have helped to trigger the anti-immigrant feeling expressed by London apprentices in the spring of 1593. The trouble began in April when they set up ‘a lewd and vile ticket or placard’ on a post in London threatening violence against ‘the strangers’. A series of ‘divers lewd and malicious libels…published by some disordered and factious persons’ appeared in the following weeks. One castigated the ‘beastly brutes, the Belgians, or rather drunken drones, and fainthearted Flemings: and you, fraudulent father, Frenchmen’ and threatened that if they did not ‘depart out of the realm’ by 9 July, over 2,000 apprentices would rise up against them. The verse set upon the wall of the Dutch church at Austin Friars in the City of London in early May did ‘exceed the rest in lewdness’: ‘Strangers that inhabit in this land!…Egypt’s plagues, vexed not the Egyptians more/Than you do us; then death shall be your lot’. The threatened violence never actually erupted. Some of the culprits were rounded up and ‘put into the stocks, carted and whipped, for a terror to other apprentices and servants’. The Privy Council encouraged the Lord Mayor to use torture if necessary to prevent these ‘lewd persons’ from their ‘wicked purpose to attempt anything against strangers’. For ‘out of such lewd beginnings, further mischief doth ensue’. 

You can read the full extract from the book (with all the footnotes) here. Or buy your own copy of Black Tudors here: (hey you might have plenty of reading time in the next few months).


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Call for Papers: 'What's Happening in Black British History? 'XII, at Bangor University: deadline 16th March: Welsh topics encouraged!

7/2/2020

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This CFP is also available in Welsh.

Following the success of our previous events in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Preston, Huddersfield and Leicester, we would like to invite you to the twelfth of the Black British History Workshops (WHBBHXII), which will be held at Bangor University in North Wales on Thursday 30th April 2020. The Institute of Commonwealth Studies is delighted that the event will continue to be co-sponsored by our fellow institute at the School of Advanced Study, the Institute of Historical Research.
 
The aim of the series is to foster a creative dialogue between researchers, educationalists (mainstream and supplementary), artists and writers, archivists and curators, and policy makers. It seeks to identify and promote innovative new research into the history of people of African origin or descent in the UK and facilitate discussion of the latest developments in the dissemination of Black British history in a wide variety of settings including the media, the classroom and lecture hall, and museums and galleries, thus providing an opportunity to share good practice.
 
We welcome proposals for papers and presentations on a wide variety of themes relating to the history of people of African origin or descent in the UK. As we will be in Wales, proposals relating to Black Welsh History are particularly welcome.
 

We would be delighted to hear from researchers, educationalists, archivists and curators or others interested in offering a presentation, lasting for 15-20 minutes. Please submit a title and a brief description of your presentation (no more than 300 words) as an attached Word document also stating your name, contact details, and, if you have them, Institution and Twitter handle to Professor Philip Murphy at Philip.Murphy@sas.ac.uk by Monday 16th March 2020.
 
In addition, we would be happy to consider proposals for a complete panel. The panel should have a coherent unifying theme, and the proposal should include the abstracts of three related presentations and the names and affiliations of the presenters. We would also be very interested in providing A-level students, undergraduates or graduate students with an opportunity to give presentations on projects relating to Black British History.
 
The day will run from 11am to 6.00pm, followed by a Reception. There will be a registration fee of £24 (£12 for students/unwaged) which includes lunch and refreshments. We are able to offer a small fee and travel bursaries to those speakers without institutional affiliation or support. Please register at https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events.
​
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What's in store at What's Happening in Black British History? XI...

23/10/2019

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I'm really looking forward to What’s Happening in Black British History? XI, which will be at the University of London on Thursday 14th November 2019. It's a full day event- running from 10am- 6pm, followed by a Drinks Reception. 

We're opening with a special Retrospective session In Memoriam of Ian Duffield and Imtiaz Habib, two pioneers in the field, and supporters of WHBBH, who have sadly passed away in the last year. We're delighted that some of their peers and co-collaborators, Barbara Bush, Audrey Dewjee, Duncan Salkeld and Marika Sherwood are able to join us for a panel discussion to reflect on their work, its impact, and how far Black British History has come since they began their careers. 

Then onto our regular slot highlighting New Publications, where we'll hear about the updated 2nd edition of 
Stephen Bourne's Black Poppies: Britain's Black Community and the Great War; Rodreguez King- Dorset book on Black Classical Musicians and Composers, 1500-2000; Robin Walker's  Black History Matters and the inclusion of 24 New Black Lives in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

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After lunch we have a session on Queer Black British History, a topic we have long wanted to include in the WHBBH programme. Shaun Wallace will speak about Black Queer Artistic production in the UK from 1980-to the Present; then Veronika Mackenzie, Director at Reel Brit Productions,  and Sue Lemos will give complimentary presentations on BAME LGBTQ+ Political Activism in the 1980s and the Black Lesbian Movement in Britain. 

Next we have a session on Engaging with the Community, hearing from Melissa Bennett and Iyamide Thomas 
about how they included objects belonging to Krios Londoners in the Museum of London exhibition on The Krios of Sierra Leone; Jasmine Breinburg and Frankie Chappell on how the Young Historians Project has uncovered the Hidden History of African Women and the British Health Service and Olivia twitter.com/oliviawyatt1999Wyatt on how she is telling the stories of  Caribbean women and the Leeds “riots” of 1975 and 1981, both using oral history; and finally Machel Bogues on Engaging Young Londoners through the Bernie Grant Trust’s Marginalised No More Project. 

We'll finish with the usual final reflections session, chaired by Michael Ohajuru, where we will invite the audience to contribute their thoughts too. 

And the discussion and networking will continue informally at our Drinks Reception - always a highlight!

Really hope you can join us for what looks to be a really thought provoking and stimulating day. You can find the booking form and full agenda here. 

If you can't make it, we'll be live-tweeting @BlackBritHist #WHBBHXI throughout the day... ​
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Call for Papers:What's Happening in Black British History? XI -deadline 16th September 2019

29/7/2019

1 Comment

 
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Following the success of our previous events in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Preston, Huddersfield and Leicester, we would like to invite you to the eleventh of the Black British History Workshops (WHBBHXI), which will be held at Senate House, University of London on Thursday 14th November 2019. The Institute of Commonwealth Studies is happy to announce that the event will be co-hosted by our fellow institute at the School of Advanced Study, the Institute of Historical Research.
 
The aim of the series is to foster a creative dialogue between researchers, educationalists (mainstream and supplementary), artists and writers, archivists and curators, and policy makers. It seeks to identify and promote innovative new research into the history of people of African origin or descent in the UK and facilitate discussion of the latest developments in the dissemination of Black British history in a wide variety of settings including the media, the classroom and lecture hall, and museums and galleries, thus providing an opportunity to share good practice.
 
We welcome proposals for papers and presentations on a wide variety of themes relating to the history of people of African origin or descent in the UK. This time we are particularly interested in featuring Queer Black British History, the role of Food in Black British History, and projects that digitise Black British History, making it more accessible to the public online.
 
We would be delighted to hear from researchers, educationalists, archivists and curators or others interested in offering a presentation, lasting for 15-20 minutes. Please submit a title and a brief description of your presentation either in writing (in which case, of no more than 300 words) or in some other form (for example a clip or podcast) to Dr. Miranda Kaufmann at miranda.kaufmann@sas.ac.uk by Monday 16th September 2019.
 
In addition, we would be happy to consider proposals for a complete panel. The panel should have a coherent unifying theme, and the proposal should include the abstracts of three related presentations and the names and affiliations of the presenters. We would also be very interested in providing A-level students, undergraduates or graduate students with an opportunity to give presentations on projects relating to Black British History.
 
The day will run from 11am to 6.00pm, followed by a Reception. There will be a registration fee of £24 (£12 for students/unwaged) which includes lunch and refreshments. Thanks to new sponsorship from the Institute of Historical Research, we are now able to offer a small fee and travel bursaries to those speakers without institutional affiliation or support, and you can register at https://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/event/20183
​
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I'm going to America to talk about Black Tudors!

11/7/2019

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The “Muster of the Inhabitants of Virginia,” c.1625, that lists "Angelo, a negro woman on the Treasurer" The National Archives, Kew, London, TNA CO1/3, 136v.
So, in just under a month, I'll be in Jamestown, Virginia, speaking about Black Tudors at an event on Saturday 10th August programmed to mark the 400th anniversary of the first arrival of Africans in the first English colony in North America, and particularly to honour Angelo, the first named African woman in Virginia. 

Captured during warfare in the Angolan kingdom of Ndongo, Angelo (also referred to as “Angela”) arrived in 1619, just days after the arrival of Virginia’s first documented Africans, described as numbering “20. and odd.” Not much is known about her life in the colony, but her name is recorded in the 1625 “Muster of the Inhabitants of Virginia,” (illustrated above) on loan from The National Archives for the first time in 400 years (so we'll both be crossing the Atlantic!). 

Angelo's story is also being told as part of Jamestown Settlement’s special exhibition “
TENACITY: Women in Jamestown and Early Virginia” – a legacy project of the 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution.

The full schedule for the day is listed below. 

In my talk, Before Virginia: Free Africans in Tudor and Stuart England, I'll be explaining that when the first Africans arrived in Virginia in August 1619, there had already been Africans living freely in England for over one hundred years. Just five months previously, a free African sailor, John Anthony of Dover, had set out for Virginia aboard the Silver Falcon. The ship only made it as far as Bermuda, but a few months later, John Anthony successfully petitioned for his wages, and was paid with interest to compensate for the delay.

I''l be showing how his experience, and those of over 300 Africans I've identified living in England between 1500 and 1640, provides a fascinating contrast to the well- established (and yet still contested) narrative of the African experience in Colonial Virginia. I'll be exploring the lives of these Black Tudors and Stuarts; how they came to England, what occupations and relationships they found there and how they were treated by its church, its law courts and its people.

So, if you happen to be in the area that weekend, or know anyone who will be, do come along/spread the word!

You can read more about the event and buy tickets via the Jamestown Settlement website. 

I'm also very excited to visit Historic Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg while I'm there. I'll try to find time to blog again when I get home and tell you all about it...

EVENT DETAILS:

 Finding Angelo: Honoring the First African Women in Virginia

Saturday August 10, 2019 • 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

9:30 a.m. ○ Check-In/Coffee at the Group Arrivals Atrium, follow the signs at front of museum.
• ROBINS FOUNDATION THEATER •
10 a.m. ○ “Before Virginia: Free Africans in Tudor and Stuart England” morning lecture by Dr. Miranda Kaufmann, senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Dr. Kaufmann is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Black Tudors: The Untold Story, which was shortlisted for both the Wolfson History Prize and the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding in 2018.
11:10 a.m. ○ “Fugitives Politics, Gender and the World of Seventeenth-Century Angola” lecture by Dr. Jessica Krug, assistant professor of history at George Washington University. A historian of Black politics, imagination, gender and cultural practices, with a particular interest in West Central Africa and maroon societies and Black transnational cultural studies, Dr. Krug is the author of Fugitive Modernities: Kisama and the Politics of Freedom, which is currently a finalist for the Harriet Tubman Book Prize.
12:10 p.m. ○ Lunch on your own or with pre-ordered box lunch.
1:15 p.m. ○ “What’s in a Name” afternoon presentation by Katherine Egner Gruber, special exhibition curator at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. One of the brains behind Jamestown Settlement’s “TENACITY: Women in Jamestown and Early Virginia” special exhibition, Gruber introduces the historical documents that bear Angelo’s name and explores what they tell us about her world.
1:30 p.m. ○ “Between Two Shores: The Heart of Angela” living-history performance by Valarie Gray Holmes, whose research informs a moving portrayal of “Angela” and her world.
2 p.m. ○ “American Heartbreak: American Memory and Racial Amnesia” presentation by Mark Summers, public historian for Preservation Virginia. Summers situates the commemoration of Jamestown within the civil rights struggle to acknowledge black history, revealing why “Angela’s” story is only now emerging, 400 years after she arrived at Jamestown.
3 p.m. ○ Break and opportunity to view “TENACITY” special exhibition.
3:45 p.m. ○ Panel discussion with the day’s presenters, moderated by Barbara Hamm Lee, executive producer and host of WHRV-FM’s Another View. Book signings by Dr. Miranda Kaufmann, author of Black Tudors, and Dr. Jessica Krug, author of Fugitive Modernities, will follow the panel discussion, with both books available for purchase.
Throughout the Day ○ Interpretive portrait of Angelo created ‘real-time’ by artist Austin Miles, in view of attendees and informed by ongoing presentations. A graduate of VCUarts who was first introduced to murals in 2017 while collaborating on Richmond’s first mural created by and specifically for black girls, Austin’s work embodies her own stories and aims to contribute to the conversation surrounding black female experiences.
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What's in store at 'What's Happening in Black British History?' X in Leicester on 2nd May...

17/4/2019

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Photo courtesy of Dr. Paul Campbell.
It's that time of year again, and I'm really looking forward to What’s Happening in Black British History? X, which will be at the University of Leicester on Thursday 2nd May 2019. It's a full day event- running from 11am- 6pm, followed by a Drinks Reception. 

We'll kick the day off with what is becoming a regular slot: New Books, where we'll get a glimpse of the latest publications in the field. This time we'll be hearing about: Black British History: New Perspectives from the Roman Times to the Present Day, edited by Hakim Adi; Kate Morrison's  A Book of Secrets and Thinking Black: Britain, 1964-1985 by Rob Waters. 

Then we'll move on to hear about the exciting new Archeological Evidence of Africans in Britain. Naoise Mac Sweeney will take us From Carthage to Cornwall to learn about the Africans in Ancient Britain; Mathew Morris - the archeologist who found Richard III's body under a Leicester car park in 2013 - will discuss the evidence for Africans in Roman Leicester. Then Rebecca Redfern from the Museum of London will take us to Medieval London, before Jess Scorrer and Katie Faillace discuss the new findings of North African ancestry amongst the Skeletons of the Mary Rose.

After lunch, we'll be exploring the Dual Heritage Experience in Britain, starting with Liam McCarthy  on the American 'occupation' of Leicester in the Second World War; then Sue Bishop will talk about  Black Caribbean and white British romantic relationships in postwar Leicester; Annabelle Gilmore will discuss Parallels of mixed-race identity in the eighteenth and twenty-first century and Paul Ian Campbell will address the topic through the prism of  local football in Leicester c 1970-2010, with a focus on Cavaliers FC. 

Last, and certainly not least, we'll have our Keynote, delivered by Kennetta Hammond Perry, the Director, of the new Stephen Lawrence Research Centre at De Mortford University in Leicester, followed by Q&A and the usual final reflections session, where we will invite the audience to contribute their thoughts too. 

And the discussion and networking will continue informally at our Drinks Reception - always a highlight!

Really hope you can join us for what looks to be a really thought provoking and stimulating day. You can find the booking form and full agenda here. 

If you can't make it, we'll be live-tweeting @BlackBritHist #WHBBHX throughout the day... 
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Teaching Black Tudors

2/4/2019

7 Comments

 
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Smiles all round at our Teaching Black Tudors Workshop in Oxford in September 2018
Ever since I first became involved in the world of Black British History, I have, like everyone else in the field, been passionate about getting the subject taught in schools. Back in 2012, I spoke at the Department of Education about this, and the following year, when Michael Gove threatened to remove Olaudah Equiano and Mary Seacole from the curriculum, I wrote in The Times that we 'need to retell the story of our island, taking the new perspectives of Britons of all skin colours into account'. So I was absolutely thrilled in 2018, when a group of secondary school teachers responded to one of my tweets saying they'd like to work with me to figure out how to get the histories I'd written about in my book Black Tudors: The Untold Story into the classroom. 
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Workshop in action: sharing great thoughts!
In September 2018, we all got together for a Teaching Black Tudors workshop, kindly hosted by Jason Todd at the Department of Education in Oxford, and supported by the Historical Association. We began with a short talk on Black Tudors from me, then three teachers (Josh Garry, Chris Lewis and Gemma Hargraves) showed us the lessons they were already teaching. Then we had some thoughts from Jason and veteran of the cause Martin Spafford on the reasons why it was important to include these histories (which Jason has written up here), before workshop-ing how this would work in practice. ​
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Natasha Henry brought us a digital marketing perspective
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Writing on big pieces of paper is always good!
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Chris shows me his student's work
The day was a real highlight of my career to date. I was blown away by the enthusiasm of everyone involved, how they were already using my work in ways I couldn't have imagined, and seriously excited about how we could work together to bring the work into many more classrooms across the country. ​
PictureWork at King Edward's School for Girls, Birmingham
Since then, the teachers have continued to teach Black Tudors. Chris Lewis has written about how he does this at Brookfield Community School in Southampton in the December issue of Teaching History- one of the Historical Association's magazines (you can read his articles on his rationale here and the details of his lesson plans here). One of the great things about what Chris is doing is that he incorporates the stories of Africans in Tudor England into all his lessons on the Tudors, rather than "doing" them as a one-off. And of course, I particularly enjoyed the homework he set his students to write a letter to the BBC explaining why they should commission me to make a documentary about Black Tudors!
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​One angle I didn't expect was that Black Tudors is being used in English lessons too- 
Wendy Lennon is giving her students at Brockington College, Leicester the short fictional paragraphs I wrote at the beginning of each chapter imagining a moment in each Black Tudor's life to read and then asking them to continue the story in their own words!

The next step was sharing what we're doing with the wider teaching community, which we did at a series of conferences in spring and summer 2019. Kerry Apps and Josh Garry spoke at a Historical Association Teaching the Tudors Day in York last month; Jason Todd and Chris Lewis ran a workshop on 'Bringing the Untold Stories of Black Tudors into the classroom' at the Historical Association Annual Conference in Chester on Saturday 18th May and I gave a keynote on 'Teaching Black Tudors: bringing untold stories into the history classroom' at the Schools History Project Summer Conference in Leeds on Saturday 6th July, which was followed by a workshop on 'Using Miranda Kaufmann’s Black Tudors to refresh the teaching of the Early Modern World' led by Josh Garry and Wendy Lennon. 

So, if you're keen to learn more, check out the resources shared by some of the teachers I'm working with, who are already teaching Black Tudors on this Shared Google Drive. We'd love you to give us your feedback, and/or add your own lesson plans to the drive.  

The ultimate aim is to produce Schemes of Work and lesson plans inspired by Black Tudors that any teacher can download and take straight into their classrooms. These will be published by Hodder Education in late 2021.

I have also collaborated recently with OUP on this "How Can We Find Out About the lives of Black Tudors?" enquiry.

Other relevant resources include the Our Migration Story site, which I contributed this piece to, and the Institute of Historical Research's guide to over 100 resources for teaching Race, Migration and Empire. 

Excitingly, for teachers who was to do some CPD and develop a really in-depth knowledge of the history, I have recently launched a free, online ,6 week Black Tudors: The Untold Story course with FutureLearn. 

If you want to be kept informed of all things Teaching Black Tudors, please enter your email address in the form below. ​

    Sign up to the Teaching Black Tudors newsletter here: 

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What's Happening in Black British History? X Call for Papers, deadline 15th March

6/2/2019

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Following the success of our previous events in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Preston and Huddersfield, we would like to invite you to the tenth of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies’ Black British History Workshops (WHBBHX) at the University of Leicester, on Thursday 2nd May 2019.

The aim of the series is to foster a creative dialogue between researchers, educationalists (mainstream and supplementary), artists and writers, archivists and curators, and policy makers. It seeks to identify and promote innovative new research into the history of people of African origin or descent in the UK and facilitate discussion of the latest developments in the dissemination of Black British history in a wide variety of settings including the media, the classroom and lecture hall, and museums and galleries, thus providing an opportunity to share good practice.

We welcome proposals for papers and presentations on a wide variety of themes relating to the history of people of African origin or descent in the UK. As we will be in Leicester local and regional or family histories from Leicester and the Midlands will be especially welcome. And, taking inspiration from Leicester archaeologists’ famous identification of the skeleton of Richard III, we would be particularly interested to hear from anyone using archaeology or anthropology to unearth medieval or earlier Black British History or to identify African skeletons.

We would be delighted to hear from researchers, educationalists, archivists and curators or others interested in offering a presentation, lasting for 15-20 minutes. Please submit a title and a brief description of your presentation either in writing (in which case, of no more than 300 words) or in some other form (for example a clip or podcast) to Dr. Miranda Kaufmann at miranda.kaufmann@sas.ac.uk by 15th March 2019.

In addition, we would be happy to consider proposals for a complete panel. The panel should have a coherent unifying theme, and the proposal should include the abstracts of three related presentations and the names and affiliations of the presenters. We would also be very interested in providing A-level students, undergraduates or graduate students with an opportunity to give presentations on projects relating to Black British History.

The day will run from 11am to 6.00pm, followed by a Reception. There will be a registration fee of £24 (£12 for students/unwaged) which includes lunch and refreshments. Registration is open now, here. 

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    Author

    Miranda Kaufmann is a historian and freelance journalist living in North Wales. You can read a fuller bio here, and contact her here.

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