February is America’s Black History Month, and we're working with our American colleagues from our Global Academy of Liberal Arts (GALA) network on BHM events across February.
In October 2020, we launched the Black History: Black Futures suite of events. Throughout the month we had events including talks from famous and world-leading academics, journalists, writers, actors, and performers, as well as training events and celebrating successes of Bath Spa alumni, students, and staff. However, we also ran events with people of African/Caribbean heritage who were making a significant improvement at local and national levels – you can still find many of those events on our BHM 2020 playlist.
I recognise, however, that celebrating successes and commemorating the past should never be isolated to a single month of the year. As such we are going to host, or be part of, a number of events across the year.
February is America’s Black History Month, and we are working with our partners at both SUNY Geneseo and Claremont Graduate University on events across February. These will include a series of talks, discussions, and other events.
You can find a link to all of the online events below. All events are free and open to all – Bath Spa staff, students, alumni, and those not affiliated with the university. Black History is for all!
SUNY Geneseo
SUNY Geneseo are kicking off their Black History Month with The Myth of Biological Races: Race as a Social and Cultural Construction presented by Dr Melanie Medeiros (Anthropology) on Thursday 4 February.
Other highlights from their month-long schedule of events include:
- Structured reading of Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning
- Talk by Ken Morris, one of the direct descendants of Federick Douglass, on the Frederick Douglass Family Initiative
- Q+A with historian Dr Kevin Gannon who appears in Ava DuVernay's documentary "13th".
Please see their website for the full list of events.
Dr Jermaine M Ravalier is a Reader in Work and Wellbeing (Psychology) at Bath Spa.