News

As part of the University’s continuing pledge to promote awareness and celebrate our campus, local, and regional Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) communities, we are hosting a symposium on 23 February titled Deemed Dirty: Are current representations of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities as an environmental problem based on facts or myths? 

The event will focus on the British Academy-supported work of Professor Roberta Piazza, Professor of English Language and Linguistics in the School of Media, Arts and Humanities and Romany artist, journalist and activist Jake Bowers. 

Discussing the notion of ‘dirt’ in association with Roma and Traveller communities, the event will explore extended themes of representation. It draws upon the voices, expertise, and experience from our student body, academics, partitioners, and social justice activists and advocates for a community that is marginalised by society. This event will welcome those interested in the inclusion and positive representation of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, including GRT community members, environmental and social justice activists, students, academics and people directly working with GRT communities. View the event programme. 

We are also excited to celebrate the arrival of ‘Priscilla, the Queen of the South’, a sculpture of a Gypsy horse by Jake Bowers, on 23 February. Part of the National Trust project, ‘Changing Chalk Cultural Heritage’, the installation will be temporarily hosted on campus outside the Jubilee Building, reflecting the lived history of our immediate landscape.

This sculpture will represent the University’s commitment to race equality and will feature as a point of reference for campus visits delivered by the University’s Widening Participation Team.