The Black and Asian Studies Association and Black Studies in Britain

Event Report

Past event summary

This is a unique opportunity for members of different area studies constituencies to discuss congruencies and opportunities for collaboration in teaching and curriculum development in the context of an international meeting that will bring together members from the Black and Asian Studies Association, Caribbean Studies Association, British Association for American Studies as well as more loosely grouped Latin Americanists. The roundtable, will feature a presentation from Sean Creighton about the importance of a black British presence in area studies curricula and enable discussions about teaching this neglected area in different syllabi.

This round table discussion is part of the conference Liberating Sojourn 2: Black Abolitionists in Britain, 1845-1860, 23-25 April.

Please email Alan Rice (arice@uclan.ac.uk) to register and for further details. This event is sponsored by the Subject Centre's guest speaker fund.

Event Report

Alan Rice, University of Central Lancashire

As part of the Liberating Sojourn 2 Transatlantic Black Abolitionists 1845–1860 symposium at the University of Liverpool April 23–25 jointly organised by Fionnghuala Sweeney from Liverpool and Alan Rice from UCLAN, Preston, the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies helped to sponsor a session for members of different area studies constituencies to discuss congruencies and opportunities for collaboration in teaching and curriculum development. This was a unique occasion as it brought together subject associations on Area Studies and Black Studies who hitherto have rarely coalesced. These included the organisation the Black and Asian Studies Association (BASA) which is a more community–based organisation and the more academic bodies such as the Caribbean Studies Association (CSA), the British Association for American Studies (BAAS), as well as more loosely grouped Latin Americanists. Additionally, because of the international nature of the gathering there were contributions from the European–wide Collegium for African American Studies (CAAR) and the Multi–Ethnic Literature Association from America (MELUS) and its sister organisation in Europe, MESEA. The organisers of the conference will ensure that a report on the conference and the session is included in BASA, BAAS & CSA newsletters and reports will be delivered at the MESEA and CAAR meetings next year.

The Subject Centre sponsored the contribution from Sean Creighton, Secretary of BASA. After outlining various ways of bringing Black British studies into various curricula, the talk focused on the importance of a black British presence in area studies curricula which too often neglects it. A lively debate ensued which highlighted the fact that there were pockets of such study in a number of the institutions represented including the Universities of Liverpool, Sheffield, Central Lancashire, Edinburgh and Birmingham but these often happened in different subject groupings including Literature, Media Studies and History and so are sometimes missed when researchers are looking for Black British studies. During the debate it became clear that many teaching in American Studies contexts brought in Black British examples, but that this is not often the thoroughgoing archive–led treatment of the subject that is the mode recognised most by BASA and its members. The swapping of various ideas for developing the curriculum to include Black British historical and cultural examples was a key outcome of the ensuing discussion.

This was a most useful session bringing together researchers and teachers from the United States, Ireland and Britain to exchange work on the black Atlantic in its widest sense. As well as the institutions mentioned above, representatives from the Universities of Nottingham, Brighton, Stirling, Leeds, Edinburgh, Royal Holloway, Cambridge and Durham as well as the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Swansea University contributed to this debate and others at the symposium. Independent scholars and archivists were also amongst the forty delegates at a symposium which in part thanks to this session moved beyond discussing only Transatlantic Abolition to discussing concerns about the teaching of Black British Studies in its numerous contexts within British academia. Already, a subsequent meeting to take some of the curriculum ideas forward has been called for Preston in July. It will look at Inquiry–Based Learning as a mode of teaching slavery using Alan Rice’s Dramatic Tableau based on the slave trade as a template. This meeting sponsored by CILASS, Sheffield and Research–Informed Teaching at UCLAN will hopefully make a practical contribution to add to the important discussions that were had in Liverpool.