Black History Month: At the Crossroads?

Join Peter D’Sena, a Learning and Teaching Specialist at the University of Hertfordshire and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, London for a talk about the role and relevance of Black History Month.

It is over 90 years since Carter G Woodson’s original idea for an annual event to celebrate and support black history in American public schools, but increasingly there has been debate and disagreement about the role and relevance of what we now call Black History Month. Where should we stand on this? What might new methodological approaches in historical enquiry do to move black history from the margins to the centre?

This talk will explore these debates and suggest how some recent work in migration studies, ethnomusicology and Blues music may take teaching, learning and, more generally, knowing about black history forward.