17 May 2022, 2pm – 5.15pm
This online event offered a space for reflection and discussion of the concept of ‘decolonising’ in heritage and public memory. Invited speakers and university faculty introduced some key themes and points of intervention, drawn from their own experiences of working in public history, engagement and heritage. How is the intellectual project of decolonising research and teaching linked to material claims to land, reparations and political power? Can colonial institutions be ‘decolonised’? What is the role of heritage and public memory in shaping broader movements for social change?
Our keynote speakers were Dr Sonjah Stanley Niaah and Benjamina Efua Dadzie. A closed workshop for PhD students followed the public seminar. Part of the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities Cultural and Museum Studies Discipline + Catalyst training programme for doctoral students
Dr Sonjah Stanley Niaah is Director of the Institute of Caribbean Studies & the Reggae Studies Unit at the University of the West Indies. Her recent publications include “Sounding” the System: Noise, In/Security and the Politics of Citizenship (2021) and her edited volume Dancehall: A Reader on Jamaican Music and Culture (The University of the West Indies Press, 2020).
Benjamina Efua Dadzie is a writer and researcher with a particular interest in West African cultures, especially Akan and Yoruba, and the history and making of the African diaspora. She is currently a AHRC CHASE-funded PhD Student at the Sainsbury Research Unit, University of East Anglia, and formerly a Collections Assistant in Anthropology at the University of Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology. She is the Digital Editor for the award-winning museum publication 100 Histories of 100 Worlds in 1 Object, and produces and co-hosts the museum-centred podcast African Object Lessons.
This event formed part of the doctoral training programme for SGSAH’s Cultural and Museum Studies Discipline + Catalyst.
Organised by Decolonise Glasgow Arts Lab: Dr Peggy Brunache, Dr Rachel Douglas, and Dr Christine Whyte (University of Glasgow) with Kirsten Lloyd (The University of Edinburgh) and Bethan Holt (University of Glasgow).