The Think Kent Campaign, recorded over several months, was devised to highlight University of Kent research. Think Kent featured three academics from the School of English; Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah, Professor David Herd and Professor Caroline Rooney. You can now see the videos hosted on the University of Kent YouTube channel.
Indian Ocean Journeys: Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah
Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah, acclaimed novelist and Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, considers the contrast between this way of thinking and the more familiar narrative of a mythologised terrain into which rapacious Europeans broke out of medieval wars towards the fulfilment of their capital-driven destiny. Rather than thinking of the Indian Ocean as another chapter in the grinding and inevitable consolidation of European power, this lecture re-imagines it as a cosmopolitan site which preceded and survived colonialism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92YgRBFUevM
Walking with Refugee Tales: Professor David Herd
Professor David Herd, Professor of Modern Literature and Head of the School of English at the University of Kent. David explains the 9 day walk in solidarity with refugees, asylum seekers and detainees from Dover to Crawley via Canterbury. This has been organised by Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group and in collaboration with Kent Refugee Help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X_CEKvH3qE
Beirut, Lebanon and White Flags: A Short Introduction, Professor Caroline Rooney
White flags are usually taken to be signs of truce or surrender. This lecture, based on the experience of making an arts documentary entitled White Flags in the context of post-conflict Lebanon, explores how Lebanese citizens from different professional and religious backgrounds bring a range of conceptual, ethical and artistic meanings to the white flag. This atypical flag may be considered to unfurl here as a marker of utopian yet realistic initiatives towards the peaceful rebuilding of civil societies shattered by violent allegiances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDllnpkmcnE