Revitalising endangered languages
Languages are disappearing at an alarming rate and it is thought that at least half of the world’s 7,000 languages will be lost this century. For endangered language communities, this loss is often a traumatic experience and is connected to marginalisation of minority communities and ways of life.
In this talk, Julia Sallabank explores how languages have and can be revitalised and protected to help preserve identities and cultural heritage and discusses why historically, there has been a focus on the decline rather than the future of minoritised languages and how this can be addressed.
Speaker: Professor Julia Sallabank, Professor of Language Policy and Revitalisation, SOAS University of London
Julia Sallabank is a recipient of a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant 2020 and the British Academy Writing Workshops Programme 2021 – funded by BEIS.
Britain’s regional hip-hop pioneers
Hip-hop culture truly arrived on our shores in 1983, a decade after its origins in New York City. Although many defining events, artists and recordings demonstrate the spread of the genre in the UK, these are almost exclusively urban. In fact, forms of hip-hop expression were also developing in provincial areas, connected to, but distinct from the well-documented sounds of the metropolis.
Join Adam de Paor-Evans and Mikey D.O.N as they shed light on the hidden histories of hip-hop pioneers in provincial and rural Britain. Drawing on themes of identity, relocation, and representation, and showcasing memorabilia that captures the aesthetics of 1980s provincial British hip-hop, they will discuss how its uniqueness is woven into the fabric of our cultural and social history.
This talk is accompanied by a podcast by Adam de Paor-Evans that presents some of the well-known and lesser-heard sounds that inspired the provincial hip hop scene between 1983-1992, available on Mixcloud.
This talk was part of the British Academy Summer Showcase. Join the conversation online too, using the hashtag #ForCuriousMinds.
Speakers:
Adam de Paor-Evans, Reader in Ethnomusicology, University of Central Lancashire
Mikey D.O.N, original founding member of KRISPY 3, JAHPHILIATES, DJ, and Worldwide FM presenter
Adam de Paor-Evans is a recipient of a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant 2020 – funded by BEIS.
The history of magic
Three great strands of practice and belief run through human history: science, religion, and magic. But why has magic – the idea that we have a connection with the universe – developed a bad reputation? In this talk, Chris Gosden explores the role of magic in shaping civilisations and how we might use it today to rethink our understanding of the world.
His most recent book is The History of Magic. From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present.
Speaker: Professor Chris Gosden FBA, Professor of European Archaeology, University of Oxford
Feeding the people
In her latest book, Feeding the People: The Politics of the Potato, Rebecca Earle traces the history of the potato from the Andes to everywhere, revealing the ways in which our ideas about eating are entangled with the emergence of capitalism and why we have such an ambivalent relationship with government dietary guidelines. In this event, she will discuss how potatoes fit into modern history, and also touch on the relationship between food, power, colonialism, and cultural appropriation, and the connections between who we are and what we eat.
Speaker: Professor Rebecca Earle FBA, Professor of History, University of Warwick
Women, families and money in Victorian Britain
The Victorian period is feted as a unique – if short-lived – moment of British greatness, which enjoyed sustained rises in GDP, real wages, and all other measurable elements of economic growth. But what implications did this have for both gender inequality and for women’s living standards? In this in-conversation, Emma Griffin discusses the structures of working and family life in 19th-century Britain, the dependence on male wages, the inequality of opportunity women faced and why the gender pay gap is still an issue today.
Her book, Bread Winner: An Intimate History of the Victorian Economy was published last year.
Speaker: Professor Emma Griffin, former British Academy Mid-Career Fellow; Professor of Modern British History, University of East Anglia and President, Royal Historical Society
The return of the closet?
Same-sex desire has been, up until recently, a topic largely shrouded in shame, secrecy, and silence. As a result, it is often visualised through the image of ‘the closet,’ conveying notions of entrapment, protection, and potential liberation.
In this in-conversation, Dominic Janes will situate the debates around open and hidden sexuality and visual expressions of same-sex desire since the 18th century and before the term ‘the closet’ came into widespread use in the late 20th century.
He will also explore how the arts has helped to reveal new dimensions of identity politics, gender performance and queer culture as well as considering what ‘liberation’ means today, both the politicisation and repression of LGBT+ rights across Europe and elsewhere, and whether the media shapes or is shaped by public opinion regarding LGBT+ issues.
This talk was part of LGBT+ History Month 2021
Speaker: Professor Dominic Janes, former British Academy Mid-Career Fellow; Professor of Modern History, Keele University
The Son King: Reform and Repression in Saudi Arabia
In 2018, journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi regime operatives, shocking the international community, and tarnishing the reputation of Muhammad bin Salman, the kingdom’s young, reformist crown prince.
In this in-conversation, Fellow of the British Academy Madawi Al-Rasheed will discuss the contradictions behind the crown prince’s divisive reforms, place them within a wider historical context, and counter Orientalist arguments that despotism and authoritarianism are the only pathways to stable governance in the Middle East.
Madawi Al-Rasheed’s latest book, The Son King: Reform and Repression in Saudi Arabia was published in December 2020.
Speaker: Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed FBA, Visiting Professor, The Middle East Centre, London School of Economics
Black Spartacus
Toussaint Louverture was a former slave who became the charismatic leader of the seismic Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) resulting in the most successful revolt of enslaved people in modern history. In this in-conversation, British Academy Fellow Sudhir Hazareesingh sheds light on an epic yet complex and controversial life story that cuts across slavery, racial hierarchies, imperialism, and the Enlightenment. He will also discuss the impact, enduring legacy, and contemporary relevance of “the first black superhero of the modern age”.
Sudhir Hazareesingh’s latest book, Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture was published in September 2020.
Speaker: Dr Sudhir Hazareesingh FBA, Official Fellow and Tutor in Politics, Balliol College, University of Oxford
The hidden histories of black Victorians
Society in the UK today is hugely diverse, but what do we know about Britain's multicultural past before the arrival of the Windrush generation? In this in-conversation, Caroline Bressey explores the hidden histories of the ordinary black men and women living in Victorian Britain whose untold stories have only been pieced together by historians in recent years. She will also discuss the work of early anti-racism campaigners who sought to challenge rising prejudice in this period, drawing parallels with the Black Lives Matter protests taking place across the UK today.
Speaker: Dr Caroline Bressey, former British Academy Mid-Career Fellow; Reader in Cultural and Historical Geography, University College London
Vanished: extinction past and present
In 19th-century Britain it was common to import foreign peoples to perform in special exhibitions for the paying public. While consumers were enticed by the chance to see faraway peoples and their cultures – some of whom exhibition managers suggested were remnants of dying races, scientists used the shows to conduct research into human racial difference. These shows left a lasting legacy for how we understand race to this day. Join Sadiah Qureshi as she discusses the connections between race, empire and the history of extinction, drawing parallels with the present.
Speaker: Dr Sadiah Qureshi, British Academy Mid-Career Fellow; Senior Lecturer in Modern History, University of Birmingham