What do Peter Rabbit, West Indian Carnival culture, and a new public sculpture in Leeds city centre have in common?

The answer is Professor Emily Zobel-Marshall, Professor in the School of Cultural Studies, whose research focuses on reclaiming stories about the experiences of Black British people, and other Black people across the globe, to highlight racial injustices and promote greater cultural understanding.

Stories have the power to shape how we see the world. By telling different stories through previously unheard Black voices, Professor Zobel-Marshall shows how we can challenge the societal norms that engrain prejudice and instead write a different, more inclusive future.

Take The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter; a well-known children’s story about a rabbit that frequently outfoxes other animals and humans. Less well-known, however, is the evidence that Peter Rabbit originated in African oral histories about Brer Rabbit – a classic “trickster” figure, brought to America and the Caribbean by enslaved African people.

By shining a spotlight on the origins of these stories, Professor Zobel-Marshall helps us better understand the context in which they became popular and challenges conventional narratives about Black people’s lives.

Characters who turn the table on stronger opponents using brains rather than brawn, tricksters provided practical tactics to help enslaved people survive the brutality of plantation life and inspired acts of rebellion. Trickster figures have been appropriated by white authors, masking the important role they played in enslaved societies.

Professor Zobel-Marshall draws a straight line from these trickster folktales to the present day – examining how the trickster figure appears in modern UK Carnival culture as a subversive response to the status quo, helping Black British people – particularly women - carve out their own spaces and identities.

Closer to home, Professor Zobel-Marshall has played a key role in bringing lesser-known Black stories to popular attention, and celebrating the contributions that Black communities have made to the city. As Co-Chair of the David Oluwale Memorial Association, Professor Zobel-Marshall is helping the city confront moments from its less tolerant past and shape a more hopeful, equal, and inclusive future.

A new sculpture erected in his memory, Hibiscus Rising by acclaimed British-Nigerian artist, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, celebrates the resilience, energy, beauty, and creativity brought to Leeds by migrants like David Oluwale, who came to the city with bright hopes but who drowned in the River Aire at the hands of two policemen following sustained racist harassment.

The first public sculpture to reflect the cultural diversity of Leeds’ people, situated at the heart of a significant city centre regeneration, Hibiscus Rising symbolises the power of art and storytelling to challenge injustices and bring communities together.