Black History Month
We are devoted to the pursuit of firm positive changes against racial injustice.
The Black History Month Steering Group is aimed at maximising the promotion, enhancement, and delivery of works that create impact towards the core values of:
- Social Justice
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
The Steering Group is devoted to the pursuit of firm positive changes against racial injustice. Newcastle University is highly committed to this challenge and strives to meet it in all aspects of our society.
Through an intersectional lens, The Black History Month Steering Group promotes debate, listening, and sharing. These are ways we can raise awareness of racial discrimination and learn from different perspectives.
Objectives
The objectives of the Steering Group include:
- the organisation of an Annual Named Lecture for Black History Month. This is part of the INSIGHTS Public Lectures programme
- the delivery of an annual call for projects and events to run both during the Black History Month and throughout the year
- contributing to maintain and enhance Newcastle University as a safe place for people fleeing persecution and conflict. As recognised in 2021 with the award of our institution as a University of Sanctuary
- being committed to continue the legacy of the activist Frederick Douglass and his family. His fight for social justice was commemorated with the opening of Newcastle University’s Frederick Douglass Centre for learning and teaching. It aims at contributing to tackle and remove any barriers that negatively affect Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff and students. A goal pursued by Newcastle University as part of the Advance Higher Education Race Equality Charter
- pursuing the expansion of Newcastle University’s Race Equality Network (NU-REN)
Our partners and resources
We are proud to be developing our partnerships and collaborations:
- across our university community and beyond
- in the city, the region, nationally and internationally
We're always looking for new partners and ideas so if you are interested in working with us, please get in touch.
Please find some useful links and connections below:
Members of the Black History Month Steering Group:
- Annie Tindley, SHCA, Chair and key contact of the Group
- Mady Baugh, NUSU Student President
- Aleena Ikram, NUSU Welfare & Equality Officer
- Trevor James, NU Race Equality Network Lead
- Sharron Kuznesof, SAGE EDI Lead
- Keith Magee, SHCA, Professor of Practice in Social Justice
- Umbereen Moir, Public Lectures & Events
- Naomi Oosman-Watts, Director of Student Life
- Neelam Srivastava, SELLS
Black Lives Matter
The Steering Group was established in 2021, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. This occurred after the dramatic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. A series of events and activities were delivered by Newcastle University and its Student Union. These took place during the:
- commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King’s doctoral award
- 2021 Black History Month
The latter in strict connection with the challenging themes brought forward by the Black Lives Matter movement. The Black History Month Steering Group takes responsibility for:
- delivering a yearly ‘core’ programme
- curating events and activities to take place during the Black History Month and beyond
Events
The group supports and sponsors a range of staff and student-led events. Typically around Black History Month itself but also throughout the year. We sponsor an annual Black History Month lecture as part of the University’s INSIGHTS lecture series also.
Black History Month Lecture: Why history matters by Professor Hakim Adi
Professor Hakim Adi, University of Chichester
Date/Time: Thursday 27 October 2022, 5.30pm
Venue: Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, Newcastle University
Venue: Special Collections & Archives, Philip Robinson Library
Working in collaboration with the School of History and using material from the University Archives, the University Library Education Outreach Team will plan and deliver a programme of activities for A-level History students.
They will focus on the Civil Rights movement in the USA and will be based on archival material relating to Martin Luther King’s visit to Newcastle University in 1967 to receive his honorary degree.
Each day a different A-level History class will spend a day on campus where they will take part in a variety of activities in the University Library and in the School of History.
First the students will visit the Philip Robinson Library where they will use documents and photos from the University Archives to explore the African American civil rights movement. For example, in one activity they will work collaboratively to piece together the story of Martin Luther King’s ’s visit to Newcastle University in 1967 to receive his honorary degree.
Next, they will visit the Martin Luther King Memorial before visiting the School of History where they will have a lecture about Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement in the USA. This will be delivered by a lecturer from the School of History, Dr Ellie Armon-Azoulay.
In the afternoon the students will take part in a seminar led by PhD students from the School of History. In this seminar they will have the opportunity to engage further with material from the archives and experience the process by which historians use primary source material to create new knowledge and understanding of the past.
Find out more about the Civil Rights Movement Archives Workshops
Venues: School of English, Philip Robinson Library and Seven Stories
Although Black presence in Britain stretches back centuries, awareness of that presence by white Britons became heightened during the period of abolition. This was also the period in which literature written and published specifically for children proliferated.
Newcastle University Library and its partner, Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books, hold unique and distinctive collections that document the history of children’s publishing for and about Black people in both the colonies and as Black people became an increasing part of the British population after the Second World War.
Across October and November 2022, parallel exhibitions about Children’s Literature and Black Britain at the University Library and at Newcastle City Library, where the archives of Seven Stories are held, to tell this story to both the university community and the wider public.
Find out more about Children’s Literature and Black Britain: A City-wide Exhibition
Venue: School of Modern Langauges
The aim of this project is to make accessible fairer and more diverse academic and non-academic resources and to map their implementation in School of Modern Languages modules, in collaborative and co-creation with their students and with the University Library.
The team are developing reading lists for the different language and cultural areas taught in the School of Modern languages (Chinese [Mandarin], Francophone, Germanophone, Hispanophone, Japanese, Lusophone), which foreground texts and other formats of knowledge production by academics and cultural producers of colour.
They are developing a cross-school curated list focusing on race and coloniality from a variety of perspectives across the world, as well as specific lists related to cultural/language areas or modules taught in the school.
The principal aims are to foreground multiple histories and accents of race and coloniality, to expose and challenge structures of inequality and to explore other projects of future.
We are holding three public events, beginning with a project launch in October 2022; a book festival in spring 2023 and a symposium to develop plans going forward in October 2023.
The BAME Welcome Pack is a 24-page booklet sectioned into food, places of worship, hair and beauty, nightlife, societies and report and support.
The pack was created with the hope that it may ease the transition into the student community the welcome pack aims to create the best start for students arriving in the city for the first time and to help them find the spaces outside of campus where they can find a sense of belonging and build support networks in places they identify with.
This year NUSU’s Digital and Communications Team worked with the current and incoming BAME Officer, International Officer and Faith and Belief Officer with support from NUSU President, Welfare and Equality Officer and Activities Officer to refresh the Welcome Pack with authenticity and student voice as priorities.
The welcome pack is available in both digital and print form for distribution during Induction week, at International Student Welcome Events, during the NUSU Black History Month Campaign and displayed in NUSU’s Support and Advice Hub for students to pick up at any time.
Projects and funding
Our group is delighted to be able to offer a funding programme for any Black History Month events, activities and projects you may be planning. This funding stream has been committed by Newcastle University. This supports our staff and students in developing and delivering events, activities or projects related to Black History Month. Not only during October but also throughout the year.
Strategic priorities:
The expectation is that applications will showcase one or more of the eight strategic priorities.
These include:
- advancing our reputation for academic excellence in interdisciplinary working. This will be across disciplines in research, teaching and engagement
- enhancing our Engagement and Place strategy. We can offer our city and regional partners and communities an opportunity to co-create and take part in the programme
Raising awareness:
- our world-class teaching and learning facilities, including virtual platforms
- our long-standing commitment to social justice and EDI
- our aspiration to be a leading university for race equality
Useful opportunities:
- share more of the work going on around the social justice theme of ‘race, religion and migration’
- anti-racist research by colleagues across the University
- showcasing the leading campaigning work of NUSU in these areas
Who can apply
- any member of staff of Newcastle University
- any student: undergraduate, taught postgraduate, research postgraduate
If you are working with an external partner/organisation:
- an application must be submitted by a staff member or student of Newcastle University working in partnership with them. If successful, the funding will be administered by NU colleagues
Deadlines for applications
The scheme encourages plans for projects, activities and events each October but also throughout the year. Ass such there are three application deadlines per academic year:
- 1 March
- 1 June
- 1 November
Application form
To apply, please download our application form: