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

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).

This Development Project – through a series of workshops – seeks 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.

Three key events will bring together researchers, and external partners, non-academic stakeholders, research grant advisors, and guest speakers to develop an interdisciplinary focus for research funding priorities. https://www.iasdurham.org/project/absence-presence-of-durhams-black-history/