Speakers announced for Black History Month event

Colleagues from the University of Northampton will be speaking at an event which is being hosted by the institution to mark Black History Month.

The Black in the Ivory conference, which takes place on Wednesday 20 October, aims to recognise and celebrate the experience of people of colour. It will be held both as a physical event at Waterside campus, and also online, to allow as many people as possible to take part.

It has been organised by the University’s Global Ethnic Majority (GEM) network. The network – which is independent of the University – holds a number of functions, including offering commentary about policy, consulting on GEM measures that will impact on staff and also provides advocacy work.

Keynote speaker for the opening session of the conference, which starts at 1pm, will be the Head of the Race Equality Charter of Advance HE, Dr Arun Verma. This will be followed by paper presentations commencing at 3pm at the Town Hall room in the Creative Hub. This segment will feature three presentations from academics at the University of Northampton who have conducted research on race and ethnicity at Higher Education sector. The presenters are:

Professor Andrew Pilkington from the department of Sociology & Applied Social Studies, who will kick off this segment with his paper on Promoting race equality and supporting ethnic diversity in the Academy: The UK experience over two decades.

Dr Emel Thomas of the Faculty of Health, Education & Society will present her paper on Transformative Racial Dissonance: The Voices of Staff and Students on the Fringes of HE.

Dr Nick Cartwright of the Faculty of Business and Law will close this session with a paper on Dominance and Subordination: Race, Identity and Pedagogy in Higher Education.

GEM Co-Chair, Dr Marcella Daye, said: “After the ferment of last year’s conference in the aftermath of the George Floyd protest, with our Black in the Ivory conference this year, we wish to continue to engage our own staff, students and the wider community in conversations on the critical role of education in dismantling racial disparities in the society.”

The Black in the Ivory conference is free and open to the public. Find out more and register to attend in person or online, via the event page.