Broadcast: Events

What does it mean to be a Black academic within a university still shaped by the echoes of empire? And what can the stories of Black academics tell us about where we have been, where we are now, and the futures we might collectively create?

Drawing on my doctoral research,Echoes of Empire: A Collective Story of Black Brit-ish Academics Working in Higher Education Institutions in England, this talk explores the collective experiences of Black academics navigating the contemporary English university. Bringing together the stories of 19 Black Brit-ish academics alongside my own experiences as a Black academic and researcher, I consider how colonial histories continue to reverberate through university structures, cultures and everyday academic life.

However, this is not only a story about exclusion. It is also a story of resistance, survival, community, joy and possibility. Using the collective story developed through my research, I reflect on the generations of Black scholars who have challenged the boundaries of the academy, those navigating its contradictions in the present, and what might be required to create different futures for those who come next.

Part of this discussion will honour the life, legacy and academic work of Professor Jason Arday, providing an opportunity to consider the significance of Black academic presence, contribution and legacy and the harms and violence we are exposed to. Jason's scholarship, leadership and journey invite us to think about what becomes possible when Black academics not only enter spaces from which we are excluded, but reshape those spaces and create pathways for others, and the cost of this.

Moving between past, present and future, this talk asks us to understand Black academic life as a collective story: one shaped by those who came before us, written by those here now, and unfinished for those still to come.