On October 27th I am collaborating with the Connected Sociologies Curriculum and colleagues in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University, in a one day workshop “Who do we think we are?”.

This workshop for educators and students (16+) on race, migration and belonging in the UK.

It foregrounds approaches to these topics that are attuned to the relationships between past and present, and between local and global geographies, and will examine some of the legacies of colonial and global histories in contemporary British society.

The workshop will focus on the ways in which historical research, family histories, personal biographies, lived experiences can be put to work when exploring these topics. Further, it highlights how we can uncover these methodologically through creative and visual methods.

The workshop aims to give educators and students new tools to support and enhance learning on these topics, both inside and outside formal classroom settings.

---

I will be leading a session with Lela Harris and Geraldine Onek. Titled “Seeking Freedom: Imagining 18th Century Black Lives in Northern England”

In this session, Lela, Geraldine and I will discuss our current collaborative project on imagining 18th century Black Lives in Northern England, through historical research, the creation of art works, and the production of resources for museums, schools and teachers.

Introducing the community group, Lancaster Black History Group (formed in the wake of the 2020 BLM protests), we will discuss the importance of anti-racist pedagogy, and outline how they combine historical, autobiographical and creative methods to teach histories (and legacies) of Trans-Atlantic slavery in ways that centre Black agency.

In the second part of the session we will lead a creative workshop that will demonstrate how to use our new key stage 2 resources in classroom settings.

---

This collaborative project builds on and has been inspired by Glasgow University/Leverhulme funded project “Runaway Slaves in Britain: bondage, freedom and race in the eighteenth century”.

Geraldine Onek is a primary school teacher and community activist. A child refugee from South Sudan, Geraldine is a proud Black Lancastrian, and a mum to 3 young sons. After participating in the 2020 BLM protests, Geraldine determined to make the BLM protests “into a movement not a moment” and co-founded the Lancaster Black History Group (LBH) with the aim of fighting racism through education in the local area. Geraldine is passionate about using childhood education as a vehicle towards racial justice and equality.

Lela Harris is a Kendal based designer and artist, who was brought up in Moss Side in Manchester. In 2020 she illustrated the Folio society edition of Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” (runner up in the 2020 V&A Book Cover illustration prize). In 2021 she was commissioned by Lancaster Black History Group and Lancashire Museums to produce a series of portraits of 18th Century Black Lancastrians. These portraits are now part of the permanent collection at the Judges Lodging Museum in Lancaster, where they are currently displayed alongside portraits of Lancastrians involved in the “slavery business”. The LBH/Lancashire Museums commission had a deep personal impact on Lela, prompting her to trace her own Afro-Irish family history for the first time.

---

The workshop is supported by the Connected Sociologies Curriculum Project and the Sociological Review Foundation.