Decolonizing Britain: A series of Zoom workshops

In the time of Brexit, Rhodes Must Fall, and Black Lives Matter, the legacies of Britain’s empire are more contested than ever. Once seen as a purely historical phenomenon, safely relegated to an interlude in the mid-twentieth-century, “decolonization” today signifies an ongoing process, and even an ethical imperative. How, then, should the history of British decolonization be written now? In this series of online workshops, five leading historians consider the multiple endings of empire: their unfinished dimensions, their unresolved tensions, and their meanings for British society and culture.

The workshops are open to all with registration. Works-in-progress will be circulated to registrants about one week in advance. Zoom links for individual events will also be sent to registrants via email.

Co-conveners: Erik Linstrum, Associate Professor of History, and Krishan Kumar, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia

Sponsored by the Institute of the Humanities and Global Culture and the Buckner W. Clay Endowment, University of Virginia

Event Schedule:

Tuesday, September 29: Vanessa Ogle, University of California, Berkeley

Money on the Move: Decolonization as an Economic and Financial Category

Tuesday, October 6: Kennetta Hammond Perry, De Montfort University

The Sights and Sounds of State Violence: Encounters With the Archive of David Oluwale

Tuesday, October 27: Stuart Ward, University of Copenhagen

Human Rights After Smuts

Tuesday, November 17: Priyamvada Gopal, Cambridge University

Decolonization and the Western University

Tuesday, December 1: Tehila Sasson, Emory University

Ethical Capitalism and The End of Empire