Black History Month: Confronting Glasgow’s Colonial Past

Glasgow University Students’ Representative Council invite you to join a fantastic panel drawn from a range of specialisms to explore how the city of Glasgow can confront its colonial past and relationship with the slave trade.

Date: Monday 30 October 2017
Time: 18:00 – 19:30
Venue: Boyd Orr Lecture Theatre 1

The evidence for links to slavery are everywhere in Glasgow, if you know where to look, and our panel will examine the ways in which the city might move towards acknowledging and addressing this. They will be discussing issues such as who should take the lead, what forms it may take, what we can learn from similar projects elsewhere in the UK and why time is of the essence. We invite participation and will open the discussion up with a short Q&A at the end.

This event is open to everyone and we encourage students, staff, members of the community and visitors to come along and be part of this important and timely conversation.

Panel:

Councillor Graham Campbell

Graham is a Glasgow African Caribbean SNP Councillor, activist, campaigner, poet and so much more! Graham has been campaigning Glasgow to acknowledge and confront it’s history for many years, and now as an elected councillor has a platform to do so from within Glasgow City Council. A vocal activist, we are excited to see the fire and passion that Graham will bring to the event.

Dr Stephen Mullen

Stephen is a historian based at the University of Glasgow. His research explores Scotland and the British-Atlantic World, in the 18th and 19th centuries and the links between Glasgow and the Caribbean. With a strong basis in academic research, Stephen will bring an evidence based approach for tackling the issue of Glasgow’s past.

Marenka Thompson-odlum

Marenka is a PhD student based at the University of Glasgow. Her PhD research is examining Glasgow Museums collections and their connections with New World Slavery. Marenka will bring a unique perspective with a focus on the provenance of Glasgow Life’s vast museum and art collections, and what role cultural institutions may be able to play going forward.

Professor Louise Welsh

Louise is the Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow and is a highly acclaimed published author. Louise brings her experience of taking a leading role in The Empire Café project which ran throughout the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The project was an exploration of Scotland’s relationship with the North Atlantic slave trade though cultural and academic events, poetry, art, film and literature and community outreach, involving many contributors from across the world.

This event is free and non-ticketed.