Join us for an afternoon where we hear from staff, a student and a member of the public examining themes ranging from Quaker and Black history to researching the far-right to decolonising the library and Black student activism.

Thursday 12 June, 12.15-1.30 pm, ONLINE on Microsoft Teams.

Presenters and summary:

Ann Morgan (Lancaster Quakers): The 18th Century Enslaving Industry – Lancaster Quakers involvement
I will discuss how the activities of a group of Lancaster Quaker Merchants involved in the enslaving industry fitted the accepted social, political and moral attitudes of 17th and 18th century Britain towards the enslavement of Africans. I will suggest that the single heroic narrative of British Quakers being abolitionists masks the truth that some British Quakers were heavily involved in all aspects of the enslaving industry and that despite Quakers centrally opposing enslaving, they were not formally challenged or disowned in Lancaster. I will also outline how the money generated by enslaving Africans made a major contribution to building the society in which we live and from which we benefit today at the expense of the labour and lives of past enslaved Africans.

John Barbrook (Lancaster University): Decolonising as default- The benefits of diverse resources in our Library
What benefits has decolonising brought to collection development and researcher support in the library? As we look towards a year of changing library subscriptions, a major curriculum development project, and potential disruption to some journals and databases due to US government restructuring, I will share some thoughts in my role as Faculty Librarian for the Faculty of Health and Medicine (FHM) and the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST). I will discuss how the library’s decolonised resources strengthen research resilience. I will also highlight key library projects and the library engagement essential in mitigating risks associated with a dependency on traditional publishing, and the benefits of a move to a diverse range of content within research.

Gabriella Oppong (Lancaster University): Empowering Minority Student Voices- Sharing Experiences from an Undergraduate Perspective
In this talk, I will be sharing my experiences of being the first Black and Minority Ethnic Group (BAME) woman student in Lancaster University who has been appointed in a role that is meant to empower minority ethnic group students by providing them with a platform to share their voice. I will highlight some of the ways we have been able to impact student and community life on campus and some of the challenges we have faced.

Dr Aaron Winter (Lancaster University): Reflections on Researching the Far Right in Racist and Reactionary Times
After years of political, media and academic neglect, the far-right is almost inevitable as a focus of attention. If the election of Trump (the first time) and Brexit led many to pay attention, 6 January, last summer’s riots across England, far-right electoral gains in Italy, Hungary, Italy, France and Germany, and the re-election of Trump (acknowledged with a few Nazi salutes and increasingly fascist executive orders) confirmed how mainstreamed, emboldened and significant they are. In this talk, I will reflect on my journey as a researcher working on the far right, the state of the far right and field in the current conjuncture, and discuss some of the conceptual, practical and political challenges, including how we might decolonise far-right and wider extremism and terrorism research.

Bios:

Ann Morgan’s early career was spent teaching history and sociology. She worked in education, qualification development and training for forty-six years. Brought up in a Methodist/Socialist household she became a Quaker in 1991 at the time of the first Gulf War. Since then, she has served as an Elder, Pastoral Friend, and Local Meeting Clerk. Ann represented British Quakers on the European Ecumenical Round Table on the Legacies of Slavery, Colonialism and Racism. She Co-Clerks the Britain Yearly Meeting Trustees’ Reparations Working Group and is an Associate Tutor and Elder at Woodbrooke College.

Gabriella Oppong is a third-year undergraduate student studying in the Law department in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in Lancaster University. Her official title of ‘Leader Empowering Assistant’ highlights her role as part of the Student Union. She and her team have been working towards uplifting marginalised voices particularly those from within the Black and Minority Ethnic Group (BAME) community on campus.

John Barbrook is the content librarian for the Faculty of Health and Medicine (FHM) and the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) at Lancaster University. His professional interests include supporting researchers with evidence-based literature searching, especially within systematic reviews, policy, and guidance, along with reducing bias in search methodologies. Over the past year, he has been leading on work associated with decolonising the library including setting up the decolonising literature search guide for students and staff along with purchasing new resources and databases and integrating them within the Library Collection.

Dr Aaron Winter is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology (Race and Anti-Racism) and Director of the Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequalities (CASEI) at Lancaster University. He works on the far right with a focus on racism, mainstreaming and violence. He is co-editor of Researching the Far Right: Theory, Method and Practice (Routledge 2020), and co-author of Reactionary Democracy: How Racism and the Populist Far Right Became Mainstream (Verso 2020). He is also co-editor of Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power and the Manchester University Press (MUP) series Racism, Resistance and Social Change.