Cultural Studies and Humanities good news November

Thackray Museum of Medicine visit

Students from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences visited the Thackray Museum of Medicine during Making the Grade week.

The museum boasts a rich collection of objects that chart the history of medicine. It is also a fascinating example of public history, being housed inside the former Leeds Union Workhouse.

Students from the BA History, BA English and History, BA English and History and MA Social History courses spent the afternoon exploring the collection and attending a workshop about past attitudes towards health and medicine.

The trip was organised by Dr Henry Irving, who gave an impromptu talk about Robert Baker’s 1842 sanitary map of Leeds, and supported by Dr Owain Wright.

Surrey Black Scholars lecture

Dr Emily Zobel Marshall was invited to give a lecture for the Surrey Black Scholars series on ‘Carnival and Tricksters of the Black Atlantic’ at the University of Surrey. The event was hosted by Dr Gabriele Lazzari and organised by Dr Jay Rowe. The Surrey Black Scholars Speakers initiative is designed to provide Black British students with the ‘resources, support and environment necessary to achieve excellence and pursue rich and rewarding careers after graduation.’ The talk was well attended and received. It was recorded and is available on Youtube here.

Poetry and Literature Events

Dr Emily Zobel Marshall hosted several poetry and literature events in October, including the Ilkley literature festival event ‘Home is Not a Place’ with T.S. Elliot poetry prize winner Rodger Robinson and photographer Johnny Pitts. They discussed their Home is Not a Place collaboration – a unique book which examines Black British life in costal Britain through photography and poetry. 

A second blue plaque for David Oluwale was unveiled by Emily’s daughter, Rose Marshall-Brown. The event was followed by a mini-festival of Nigerian food, dance and poetry organised by the David Oluwale Memorial Association in collaboration with Leeds City Council and The Tetley. It was an uplifting event, especially after the shock of theft of the plaque installed by DOMA in April 2022. Emily is the co-chair of DOMA.

LBU Black History Month event

Drs Caroline Herbert and Helen Dampier organised a Black History Month event in partnership with literary curators Renaissance One with Caribbean poets Shivannee Ramlochan and Fred D’Aguair for the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities. Dr Emily Zobel Marshall hosted the event and the readings and discussion were moving and revitalising.  

Dr Helen Dampier's article, 'Constructing a Humanitarian Self: Emily Hobhouse's Auto/Biographical Traces, 1899-1926', co-authored with Rebecca Gill (University of Huddersfield), has been published in Cultural and Social History. The article is available here and will form part of a Special Issue of the journal on the theme of Biography and Humanitarianism, edited by Helen and Rebecca.