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November 2020
COVID-19 in 2020: Apart but Together
Activities will be taking place both in person (socially distanced) and online. COVID-19 fundamentally changed our world in 2020. It has forced us to create distance from each other. This event will use art, creative writing and storytelling to bring people together to share experiences of how COVID-19 has impacted us and how we have adjusted to the new socially-distanced world. A physical magnet exhibition will be held outside at Queen Mary University of London for those that want to…
Find out more »Visions of Reproduction
This is an online event. From being veiled in mystery, the interior body has been revealed by a variety of visualising techniques. Ultrasound scans and images of embryos have long left the lab and are increasingly appearing in the news, in commercial advertising, in classrooms, in family photo albums and on social media. They pose ever new questions about how reproductive events are known and experienced. In this panel, historians, artists, and sociologists explore the meaning, making and circulation of…
Find out more »Many Hands
This is an online event. In this online interactive workshop, working with poets and historians, weavers and dancers, unravel the histories of weavers in Bengal and their treatment under British rule. Learn about the complex interwoven Bengali and UK histories of craft and manufacture from Dr Lipi Begum from the London College of Fashion. Try your hand at some weaving and experience first hand the techniques and technologies. Allow poet Laila Sumpton to lead you in expressing your response to…
Find out more »All That Glisters
This is an online event. All that glisters may be beautiful and seductive but what surprising histories lurk beneath the shiny surface of gold? In this interactive online event, learn about the complex histories of gold mining and artistry in Ghana and the UKs role in importing gold, its use in currency and art, the role of the Goldsmiths Company in the past and future. Hear from academic Dr Pen Woods, meet the Ghanian British artist Efema Cole and try…
Find out more »Worlds of Possibility: Murder, Mystery and Meaning
This is an online event. Your chance to play detective! There has been a murder and you have to work out what happened. In this interactive online game, follow the clues to solve the mystery and learn how linguists analyse meaning. Think about the meanings of some familiar little words you may not have thought about before, like ‘if’, ‘must’ and ‘might’, and see how important they actually are for communication. Analyse these words in terms of alternative realities –…
Find out more »Worlds of Possibility: Murder, Mystery and Meaning
This is an online event. Your chance to play detective! There has been a murder and you have to work out what happened. In this interactive online game, follow the clues to solve the mystery and learn how linguists analyse meaning. Think about the meanings of some familiar little words you may not have thought about before, like ‘if’, ‘must’ and ‘might’, and see how important they actually are for communication. Analyse these words in terms of alternative realities –…
Find out more »Smoke Screen
This is an online event. What is the aroma of colonialism? In this event you will be introduced to the pungent history of tobacco cultivation and trade, slavery and colonialism, by academic Professor Nick Ridout from Queen Mary University of London. Learn about the Atlantic Slave Trade and the interlinked histories of tobacco cultivation and export in the USA and the UK. Guyanese and Scottish poets Sandra Agard and Miriam Nash will guide you in an at home smelling workshop.…
Find out more »Sugar, Sugar
This is an online event. It may taste delicious and sweet but how sweet is the history of sugar? Learn about the interlinked histories of slavery, sugar plantations, processing, export and consumption from academic Dr Malcolm Cocks, Dulwich College and the University of the West Indies. We’ll consider the taste of sugar in its’ different states in an at home tasting workshop and see what raw sugar cane plants and sugar beet looks like. Appreciate the art of spun sugar…
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