Black History Month 2022

Staff and students from across Lancaster University have created a programme of events to mark Black History Month in October.

Black History Month, which is celebrated in the UK each October, shines a spotlight on Black history and provides an opportunity to recognise and honour the achievements and contributions of Black people. At Lancaster, the Black History Month programme begins during Welcome Week on 3 October and includes a mix of in-person and online events.

The University Library has arranged a series of events in partnership with students from Why is My Curriculum White Campaign Group, the Race Equality Charter Programme and Decolonising Lancaster, providing opportunities to get involved and learn more about Black history. Events include Black History Month film screenings, a ‘Big Library Read’ and talks that explore the subject of racism, decolonisation and the historicity of racism.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Bradley said:

"Building on the work that we do as an institution in all areas of Equality Diversity and Inclusion, Black History Month is a vital part of our work to make Lancaster University a welcoming, inclusive place, as well as engaging in the vital national conversation about blackness in the UK. The programme of events this year looks especially relevant, focusing as it does on our own history as an anti-racist institution. Perhaps most importantly we are engaging with the most relevant and up-to-date scholarship of race that is helping us to re-evaluate and decolonise our understanding of all historical periods."

Paulette Nhlapo, REC Programme Manager said:

“Black History Month has the very significant purpose of drawing attention to the histories and realities of peoples who have either been excluded from dominant world histories or who have been constructed as lacking human being-ness in such histories. Its very existence, therefore, articulates the continuing marginalisation and exclusion of peoples, defined and categorised as Black, from the mainstream of the societies in which they exist. From November of each year, in preparation for October, the Black History Month of the following year, we have to reflect on how, in our daily lives, we contribute towards changing the need for or the meaning of Black History Month.”