Black History Month 2014
All events will be held in the Talbot and Lansdowne Campus and are open to BU
students, staff and the wider community.
See below for full abstracts and speaker biographies
Monday 20 October
Racial (In) Equality, Black British Academics & Academic Citizenship
The Octagon, The Sir Michael Cobham Library, Talbot Campus
16:00-17:30
Speaker: Dr Deborah Gabriel, Lecturer in Marketing Communications
The need to enhance race equality in higher education is driven by longstanding inequalities that
manifest through the under-representation of black and minority ethnic groups as tenured
academics (especially women); disparate pay and progression and a lack of cultural and ethnic
diversity within curricula. Such inequalities have been researched and documented for more than
two decades, yet measurable progress is slow. In this lecture, Dr Gabriel talks about her role as
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Black British Academics. She highlights its innovative
approach to enhancing race equality through on-going consultation with black and minority
ethnic staff and students and collaboration with university leaders. She will bring news about its
first Leaders Forum hosted by the University of Westminster on October 8 and will explain how
she integrates race equality into her role as a lecturer in the Media School through ‘Academic
Citizenship’.
To book: Please follow the appropriate link: BU staff; BU student; Wider community
Tuesday 21 October
Black Poppies - Britain's Black Community and the Great War
B407, Bournemouth House, Lansdowne Campus, 12:00-14:00
Speaker: Stephen Bourne, Community Historian
Historian Stephen Bourne presents an illustrated talk about his latest book Black Poppies Britain's Black Community and the Great War. This has been published by The History
Press to coincide with the centenary of the First World War. Black Poppies explores the
military and civilian wartime experience of black Britons, and the loyalty they held for
their mother country both on the front line and the home front. Stephen concludes the
book with an analysis of the 1919 'race riots' in which white ex-servicemen attacked
Britain's black communities. He argues that, in spite of the 'riots', 1919 witnessed the birth
of the modern black community. For further information about Stephen's books go to
www.stephenbourne.co.uk
To book: Please follow the appropriate link: BU staff; BU student; Wider community
Wednesday 22 October
Rosa Parks monologue - Blackbird on a Bus
Allesbrook, Lecture Theatre, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University,
14:00-15:00
If you were asked to move from your bus seat simply because of the colour of your skin, how
would you feel? Would you move? Would you challenge the driver? This powerful monologue
remembers that seminal event from history which changed Rosa Parks’ life and the lives of many
others. This monologue imagines her in the present, and she tells us how she felt that day and why
she decided to take a stand.
To book: Please follow the appropriate link: BU staff; BU student; Wider community
Biographies
Stephen Bourne, Community Historian
Stephen Bourne is as one of Britain’s leading experts on Black British history. The author of
fourteen books on the subject, Stephen has written for BBC History Magazine, History Today and
is a regular contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The author of Mother
Country – Britain’s Black Community on the Home Front 1939-45 (THP, 2010), The Motherland
Calls – Britain’s Black Servicemen & Women 1939-45 (THP, 2012) and Black Poppies – Britain’s
Black Community and the Great War (THP, 2014), he has been shortlisted for awards such as The
Voice Community Award for Literature and came runner up for The Raymond Williams Prize for
Community Publishing. In 2012 was awarded a Wingate Scholarship to undertake research into
Black theatre in Britain.
Dr Deborah Gabriel, Lecturer in Marketing Communications
Dr Gabriel’s academic journey began at the age of forty, when she decided to become a journalist
and undertake a Bachelor’s degree, after being motivated by the words of her late grandmother
during a visit to Jamaica, who at the age of 103 told her grand-daughter “You are worth
something.” On returning to England in 2004, after working at the BBC for six months as a
programme controller for UKTV, she quit to embark on a foundation degree in journalism at the
London College of Communication. She also secured her first job as a reporter for Colourful, an
online news publication targeting a multicultural audience, which has since transformed to a
digital radio station operating on the Digital Radio Network. In 2007, she completed her
Bachelor’s degree in journalism studies at London Metropolitan University and published her first
book, Layers of Blackness: Colourism in the African Diaspora, adapted and extended from her
undergraduate dissertation, which was launched at the London College of Communication. A
former tutor and former Assistant Dean of the Media School, Gary Naylor, encouraged her to
become a lecturer and she subsequently undertook a PG Cert in Teaching in 2008.
During that year, she began teaching journalism as a sessional lecturer at Birkbeck and was
recruited as a freelance researcher at University of the Arts London, where she worked on a
project examining the experience of black and minority ethnic students across the institutions’
five colleges. By 2010, she had a burning ambition to become a full-time academic and won a PhD
studentship at the University of Salford, where she also taught on undergraduate degree
programmes in journalism and new media.
During her time in Manchester, hundreds of miles away from her hometown of London, she felt
lonely and isolated and in 2011 established an online network and directory for African
Caribbean bloggers in the UK that became central to her doctoral research project. Two years
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later in 2013, she set up Black British Academics, intended purely as a support network, but which
grew into an organisation made up of staff and students of all ethnic backgrounds who wish to
play a pro-active role in advancing race equality across the higher education sector.
She wrote articles on race equality for the Guardian and Independent and gave several radio
interviews across BBC regional stations. In September 2013, Black British Academics became a
community interest company. She also worked part time as a journalism Lecturer at London
Metropolitan University, during the writing-up year of her PhD studentship. She completed her
doctorate in June 2014 and accepted a full-time academic role at Bournemouth University in July,
joining Corporate Marketing Communications in the the Media School on 1st September.
To find out more about Dignity, Diversity and Equality at BU please contact:
Dr James Palfreman-Kay, Equality and Diversity Adviser
Telephone: 01202 965327
E-mail: diversity@bournemouth.ac.uk
URL: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/diversity
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