Documenting, Preserving, and (Re)presenting Histories of Black Struggle in Britain
Submissions due by November 9, 2024
Scholarly interest in Black Power has grown over the last decade with the movement increasingly situated as a key conjuncture in modern British history and an important site in the global history of Black Power. Yet there is still more to know about how Black Power operated at the grassroots in communities across Britain; how people gave the movement meaning through their organizing efforts, political demands, intellectual pursuits and cultural practice; and the extent of the movement’s impact and legacy. Black Power at the Grassroots, aims to bring together a range of voices to explore how histories of Black Power in Britain are being made, preserved, taught, passed on and reimagined by scholars, activists, community historians, heritage practitioners, teachers and students of the movement. Hosted by the Race, Roots & Resistance Collective, this symposium will take place on Friday 31 January 2025 at the University of Manchester and is part of an AHRC-funded multi-year project, “Grassroots Struggles, Global Visions: British Black Power, 1964-1985” led by Drs. Kerry Pimblott (PI, University of Manchester) and Kennetta Hammond Perry (Co-I, Northwestern University).
While there are many lenses through which to view histories of the movement, this symposium intends to foreground the local and regional dynamics of Black Power in Britain with an eye toward looking beyond London to understand how considerations of place and region might transform knowledge about this history. How do we account for the ways that regional and geographical differences informed the meaning of ‘Black Power’ and its impact on political struggles in Britain and beyond? In what ways have local communities engaged in preserving and shaping the legacies of Black Power? And how might we think more dynamically about methods of recovering, archiving, memorializing and studying histories of Black Power for the present and as we build towards anti-racist futures?
We hope to highlight some of the latest scholarship on Black Power in Britain. Likewise, this symposium seeks to amplify historical work and heritage practices rooted in local Black and Asian communities and anti-racist networks past and present to collect, preserve, educate, and celebrate the many legacies of Black Power struggles and their role in effecting social, political and community change over time.
We welcome submissions of abstracts of up to 250 words for individual papers, themed panels or roundtable discussions for consideration. Proposal abstracts for full panels and roundtables should include a title for the session as well as the titles of individual papers and or an explanation of themes that each panelist will address. To remain as inclusive as possible, we are open to panel and roundtable proposals that include diverse presentation formats including but not limited to the delivery of formal papers and interactive discussions on a selected topic. Submissions may consider a range of topics relevant to the conference theme, however we would also welcome submissions exploring such topics including:
What is the ‘Black’ in Black Power?
Recovering unexplored grassroots Black Power organisations, actors, and formations
Local and regional varieties of Black Power
New temporalities of Black Power including questions of movement origins and decline
Globalizing Black Power in Britain
Black Power’s anti-colonial and radical internationalist visions
Contested notions of ‘Black Power’
Black women and Black Power
The Black Parents Movement at the local level
Coalition-building, alliances, and united front politics
Black Power, trade unions, and the Left
Black Power and the ‘new social movements’
Religion and Black Power
Black Power and the State
Policing Black Power
The role of Black history in Black Power politics
Archiving histories of Black activism in Britain
Methodological approaches to histories of Black Power
The sights and sounds of Black Power
Oral histories of Black Power and the ‘power of the telling’
Black Power pedagogies
Teaching Black Power
The legacies of Black activism during the era of Black Power
Histories of Black Power and contemporary Black struggles for justice
The Race, Roots & Resistance Collective is particularly interested in building an intellectual community that challenges traditional boundaries rooted in rank, career-stage, or position within/outside universities. With that in mind, we strongly encourage submissions from postgraduate and advanced undergraduate researchers, early-career academics, and independent and community scholars. Limited travel bursaries are available for students and unaffiliated scholars.
Submissions can be made using our Proposal Submission Form and are due by November 9, 2024.
If you have any questions about the conference please email racerootsresist@gmail.com
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