Reclaiming Narratives Archive & Staff Panel Event - King's Race Equality Network

Come and celebrate Black History Month with King's Race Equality Network!

The theme for Black History Month this year is reclaiming narratives so we will be holding a 2 part event to celebrate just that! Open to staff, students and external guests.

Part 1: A panel discussion with Geoff Browell KCL Libraries & Collections and our very own REN network member Hannah Ishmael (Lecturer in Digital Culture and Race, qualified archivist who used to work as Collections Manager at the Black Cultural Archives) & Beverley Mason, Chief Executive of Friends of the Huntley Archives.

This part of the event will look at the role of KCL in developing colonial education and the work being undertaken at KCL Libraries & Collections to decolonise collections and at King’s broadly on decolonial education. Hannah will share her experiences from the perspective of community archives having previously working as the Collections Manager at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton and the work to challenge ideas of educational inferiority (IQ) and to rebalance the curriculum to include Black history.

Part 2: Will be celebrating work of Black Academics and PGR students at Kings on what theme of reclaiming narratives looks like for them in their work.

Our Panellists are:

Nessa Keddo (Senior Lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries) : Nessa’s research is focused on the state of diversity in the promotional industries, with a specific interest in the advertising and marketing industries. Nessa is co-author of the upcoming book Race, Racism and Diversity in the Cultural and Creative Industries (2024), which focuses on the business case for diversity, specifically since the commercialisation of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.

Keisha York (Current PHD student): Keisha is the founder of the BiPP network which works to prioritise and advance the representation and experiences of Black people in psychiatry and psychology. Her research relates to virtual reality, diversity management and technological innovations for human resource development. Specifically, she investigates the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) diversity training on UK employee’s diversity knowledge, implicit bias, and effective communication skills.

Alexander Douglas (Lecturer in Music Education): As a ‘a humanities geek in the body of a musician’, Alexander’s professional involvement in higher education stretches back to the late nineties. For most of this time he has been a guest lecturer and workshop tutor in universities and music colleges across the UK (with occasional visits abroad to institutions in the US, Continental Europe and Africa) and sacred music traditions of the Black Atlantic have collectively been the thread that has undergirded – and continues to undergird – his entire academic career. Alexander’s work at KCL primarily focusses on the philosophy and anthropology of music with more than a passing interest in the psychology (and more recently, cognitive neuroscience) of music.

Saffron Powell (Current PHD Student): Saffron’s PhD research stems from her experiences as a teacher and teacher educator, and explores the question: "In what ways does initial teacher education (ITE) in higher education institutions in England prepare teachers for an ethnically diverse society?" Her research examines how current teacher education policy fails to support initial teacher education providers to develop antiracist teachers who can empower all students and prepare them for a diverse and multicultural world, as well as make provision for racially minoritised students and colleagues.

Event Schedule:

• Doors open at 6PM
• Event runs from 6:30PM - 8:30PM
  
• Food and drinks will be provided

Location: 

Macadam Building - Room 4.2

Surrey Street King's College London London WC2R 2NS

How to get to the venue:

• From Temple Station: video directions to show how to get to the venue
• From Covent Garden/Strand: video directions to show how to get to the venue

Contact and how to join the network

For more information on REN: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/professional-services/diversity/race-equality-network#section-6

To contact the network, please email raceequalitynetwork@kcl.ac.uk

To join the network, please complete our registration form.