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Birkbeck Social Science Week 2015: Race and Diaspora

The themes of race and diaspora will be under the spotlight during Birkbeck's Social Science Week 2015.

A boy with the globe painted onto his face

The themes of race and diaspora will be under the spotlight during Social Science Week – the School of Social Science, History and Philosophy’s annual programme of events for the public – which begins this week.

Social Science Week runs from Monday 15 June to Wednesday 17 June, with events open to all and free to attend.

With this year marking the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first Race Relations Act, the Week will focus on issues of Race and Diaspora. It will begin with a showing of the Stuart Hall Project, a documentary about Stuart Hall, a Jamaican who immigrated to the UK to take up a place at the University of Oxford and who later became a founding figure of cultural studies.

The week continues with an event on Tuesday 16 June to examine the history of race relations law in the UK and how it might develop in the future.  On Wednesday, a discussion, led by Les Back, will consider how racism and intellectual segregation has limited and divided the sociological tradition, rounding off the Week’s events.

The events taking place as part of Social Science Week this year include:

Screening of the Stuart Hall Project (Monday 15 June 6pm)

  • In association with the Raphael Samuel History Centre, the screening of this film tells the story of Stuart Hall, who  emigrated from Jamaica to the UK in 1951 to take up a place at the University of Oxford, and became a founding figure of cultural studies with a resounding and ongoing influence on British intellectual life.
  • Comprised of archive footage and set to the music of Miles Davis, this documentary by the director John Akomfrah matches the agility of its subject, playing on memory, identity and the changing landscape of the late 20th century.
  • The film will be introduced by Dr Rob Waters who teaches black British culture and modern British studies at Queen Mary and Birkbeck.
  • Birkbeck cinema, 43 Gordon Square, London
  • Book tickets for the 15 June event, which is free and open to all.

Race, Equality and the Law: an event to mark the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first Race Relations Act (Tuesday 16 June 6.30pm)

  • Organised by the Pears Institute for the study of Anti-Semitism in collaboration with the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, this event marks the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first Race Relations Act.
  • Three scholars working in the field – Dr Omar Khan of the Runnymede Trust; Dr Camilla Schofield of the University of East Anglia; and Dr Anastasia Vakulenko, of the University of Birmingham, will reflect on the history of race relations law in Britain and offer their perspectives on what has been achieved, and looking forward, what still needs to be done.
  • Room B33, Malet Street main building, Birkbeck, University of London
  • Book tickets for the 16 June event, which is free and open to all.

'For a Sociological Reconstruction: W.E.B. Du Bois, Stuart Hall and Segregated Sociology' (Wednesday 17 June, 6pm)

  • As this year’s MA Culture, Diaspora and Ethnicity and Race Forum at Birkbeck Annual Lecture, Professor Les Back, from Goldsmiths College, University of London, Department of Sociology, will explore how racism and intellectual segregation limits and divides the sociological tradition.
  • Through a detailed discussion of the writings of W.E.B Du Bois and Stuart Hall and their respective dialogues with figures like Max Weber and C Wright Mills, an argument is made for a profound reconstruction of sociology at both the level of analysis and of form that changes the way sociology tells about racism and society as a whole.
  • Book tickets for the 17 June event, which is free and open to all.

Speaking about Social Science Week 2015, Professor Miriam Zukas, Executive Dean of the School of Social Science, History and Philosophy, said:

“Race and Diaspora are themes which cut across all of the disciplines represented in the School and which affect all of us, particularly as Londoners, either directly or indirectly.

“This year, as every year, in Social Science Week, we focus a lens on contemporary social issues and seek to stimulate broad discussion, bringing together our academic community, prospective and current students and professionals.”

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