Just over a week ago, Dr Sophia Labadi, Lecturer of Heritage at the University of Kent’s School of European Culture Languages, Director of the Centre for Heritage, and recent speaker at the summer school at the University of Kent, Paris spoke about her research on the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration in Paris.
This museum featured in the Paris summer school programme following Dr Labadi’s session on ‘Immigration and integration’.
Dr Labadi, an expert in heritage and former UNESCO employee, concluded through her research that this museum is essentially ineffective in its aims to represent France’s immigrant population.
During the trip to the museum, summer school students were asked to consider and discuss Dr Labadi’s conclusions, making their own critical assessment of the museum based on their own impressions as visitors.
The conference ‘Memory Matters: African diaspora heritage’ on 20th July at the University of East London, organised by the University of Kent and the Congolese Refugee group discussed ‘historical, cultural and postcolonial connections and disconnections between the UK, the Congo and beyond’ . There were speakers from the Congolese community, youth activists, academics, artists and project members/volunteers.
Dr Labadi told us:
When I presented my work on the cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration at the conference I talked about some of the interesting discussions we had during the summer school visit. Thanks again to all of the summer school students for their critical engagement!