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Cultural Studies and Humanities Good News - January 2021
The latest good news from the School of Cultural Studies & Humanities in January 2021.
Lecturer invited to speak for MACfest
In December Emily Zobel Marshall was an invited speaker for MACfest, the Muslim Arts and Culture festival organised by author Qaisra Shahraz alongside authors Leila Aboulela and Peter Kalu. Emily presented research on cultural resistance to legacies of colonialism and enslavement in the context of the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement. She read her poetry to explore how poetry, writing and reading can engender both psychological and political methods of resistance to oppression. The event can be viewed here.
Emily has also been working with Phoenix Dance Theatre on a Digital Educational Heritage Resource entitled ‘Black Waters’ which introduces children at primary and secondary school to the histories of colonialism and enslavement via the histories of the Zong slave massacre and the Kala Pani prison in the Andaman Islands (where prisoners were tortured and detained indefinitely following the Indian rebellion of 1857). Colonial histories are often glaringly absent from the school curriculum. The resource will be available as a free teaching aid, housing the project's research materials and cross curricular lesson content, in line with the KS2, 3 and 4 national curriculum for PSHE and Humanities.
New sculpture to be installed in the new Aire Park in the Centre of Leeds supported by lecturer
Yinka Shonibare CBE, the internationally acclaimed British-Nigerian artist, will be creating a sculpture in memory of the Nigerian migrant David Oluwale to be installed in the new Aire Park in the centre of Leeds, close to the point where David was drowned in 1969. David was hounded to death by two Leeds policemen. Yinka Shonibare says he hopes his forthcoming memorial to David Oluwale will ‘remind people that we live in a multicultural society and diversity is important'.
Emily Zobel Marshall is Vice Chair of The David Oluwale Memorial Association and DOMA have spent a long time developing this project. DOMA state; ‘it’s only now that all the pieces have come together and we can finally announce the contribution we can make to David’s memory, to the prestige of the city and, above all, to assisting all those in Leeds who work so hard to heighten compassion, support social inclusion, embrace diversity and campaign for social justice’ (Max Farrar, DOMA Secretary).
The Guardian published a piece on David Oluwale and Yinka’s sculpture on Jan 5th 2021.You can the full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jan/05/yinka-shonibare-to-create-leeds-memorial-for-nigerian-david-oluwale-police-harassment-1960s
Lecturer appeared on Channel 4
On 19 December Dr Simon Morgan appeared in the final episode of the current series of Britain’s Most Historic Towns (Channel 4), where he talked to Professor Alice Roberts about the contribution of Richard Cobden to the history of radical Manchester. Simon explained Cobden’s role in the Anti-Corn Law League, a pressure group which aimed to remove customs duties on imported food, and his negotiation of a free-trade treaty with France which helped to create the largest peacefully achieved European free-trade zone before the establishment of the Common Market.
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
The latest news and events from the School.
