Context

As an area of study, ‘Black British Writing’ – despite neglect of the field as an object of study by Anglophone Arts/Humanities research communities in Britain – currently attracts global interest. The neglect is especially regrettable given the growth in visibility of Black British writers, including the 2021 Nobel Laureate, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and considering the creation of the first postgraduate programme in Black British Writing (Goldsmiths, 2015).

Through the historical perspective of 400 years of contested writing, this conference will focus on situating the field in relation to the Humanities, critical thought, a continuously changing understanding of the signifier ‘Black’, and the impact of UK publishing politics on Black British writing.

Our ‘situating’ project builds on pioneering research and teaching interests established on both sides of the Atlantic. This includes the co-founding, teaching, and inaugurating of the UK’s/world’s first Black British Writing postgraduate programme, following on, and interlinking with the teaching and researching of Caribbean and diaspora literatures.

Similarly, the part played by Africa is certainly also key to the corpus. That such intersections with Black British writing speak to transglobal connections and complexities, helping to define the body of work and its wide-ranging transcultural influences, goes to the heart of the concerns of the conference. We are especially interested to include Black voices that remain largely missing from the UK’s scholarly debate. The conference therefore invites researchers and Black British writers alike to present new thinking about Black British writing (all genres).