Last term’s series of open lectures hosted by The Centre for American Studies proved to be a highly popular, diverse and engaging programme of talks. From reconciliation in the aftermath of the American Civil War, through to key contemporary issues such as the Movement for Black Lives and modern slavery, guest speakers addressed packed lecture theatres of students, staff and members of the public.
Director of Research at the Centre for American Studies, Will Norman comments;
Last term the Centre for American Studies was lucky enough to host Monica Miller and Christopher Driscoll from Lehigh University to talk about the Movement for Black Lives. Monica and Chris gave an insightful and wide-ranging account of the contexts for the movement from Jay-Z to James Baldwin, discussing hip-hop, white flight, religion and lynching culture among many topics. It was an inspiring talk, delivered to a packed lecture-hall full of school and university students, Kent faculty and members of the public.
Afterwards, Chris Driscoll and Monica Miller had this to say;
Our visit to the Centre for American Studies at the University of Kent was better than we could have imagined. Aside from the incredibly warm welcome from our host and equally kind hospitality from other faculty, grad students and undergraduates, our lecture on the Movement for Black Lives and Hip Hop (among other things) proved not simply informative to the students, but provided a moment (for many) to existentially exhale. Black lives matter, everywhere, including the UK! Black UK lives matter. And they matter to institutions of higher education, even if many institutions still struggle to express it. The world is changing, and conversations like the one we were a part of tonight speak to Kent’s and the Centre’s effort to be on the front line of those changes, embracing them, and turning to them for pedagogical as well as social redress. The students in attendance (and those around the world they represent) understand this need, but so often our institutional efforts don’t quite meet up with student need or enthusiasm. But tonight was different! And the Centre and the University should be proud of the occasion, and we are simply humbled to have been a small part of it.
Listen to an extract of Monica Miller and Christopher Driscoll’s lecture.
In early December, the Centre for American Studies welcomed Professor Zoe Trodd of the University of Nottingham to give an open lecture on contemporary slavery, as well as a guest workshop for postgraduate students. Says Will Norman;
Zoe Trodd’s visit really lit up students and staff from across the humanities faculty and beyond. Her rich lecture on showed how the conversations we have within American Studies about historical slavery are urgently relevant to contemporary, global, social challenges, while her guest workshop helped our postgraduate students to consider their research in a new light, from the perspective of both the nineteenth century and our own moment.
Professor Todd commented of her visit to Kent;
I was struck by how interdisciplinary the audience was for this public talk – staff, postgraduates and undergraduates from law, history, French, English, economics, politics, and sociology, as well as American Studies, and visitors too from Canterbury’s other institutions. Tackling contemporary slavery will require insights and impact from all these disciplines and more, and from the discussion period and post-lecture conversations it is clear that Kent has researchers and students poised to be part of this creation of a multi-disciplinary slavery lens for research and policy-making.
The open lecture series featured the following discussions:
- Thursday, 29th October 2015
The Hate that an anti-Hate Movement Produced: Subversion, Backlash and Misunderstanding in/of The Movement for Black Lives
Dr Monica Miller and Dr Christopher Driscoll, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania - Tuesday, 17th November 2015
How North and South were reconciled after the American Civil War
Professor Robert Cook, University of Sussex - Thursday, 3rd December 2015
Contemporary Slavery and the Antislavery Usable Past
Professor Zoe Trodd, University of Nottingham.