News

15 Oct 2025

Cambridge United collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum celebrates Black history in football kit

A pioneering community collaboration between The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge United Football Club, and local charity Romsey Mill has empowered young people to co-design a bespoke football kit that celebrates creativity, heritage, and community voice this Black History Month.Read the story on the main Cambridge University website.

A young man wearing the Black History Month Cambridge United shirt

13 Oct 2025

Simón Bolívar Seminar: Manoel Joaquim Ricardo, A Successful Hausa Freedman in Bahia

The Centre of Latin American Studies (CLAS), in collaboration with the Legacies of Enslavement Special Initiative, opened its Michaelmas Term seminar series with a public lecture by Professor João José Reis, Simón Bolívar Professor at CLAS 2025–26. The event was chaired by Dr Adrián Lerner Patrón and brought together students, academics and members…

Audience listen as Professor João José Reis presents the lecture from a small stage in front of a powerpoint slide

9 Oct 2025

Searching for My Slave Roots - A conversation with author Malik Al Nasir

As part of Black History Month 2025, St Catharine’s College History Society and the Faculty of Education hosted an evening event to mark the publication of Malik Al Nasir’s new book, Searching for My Slave Roots: From Guyana’s Sugar Plantations to Cambridge (William Collins, 2025). The event was sponsored by the University’s Legacies of Enslavement…

The poster for Searching For My Slave Roots with a quote from Al Nasir: "It started out as a family tree, but became a way of reasserting my dignity and my cultural identity"

1 Oct 2025

Meet the research network – Q&A with the Decolonising Plant Knowledge

This piece explores the themes and conversations emerging from the Decolonising Plant Knowledge initiative, highlighting how scholars are re‑examining the histories, practices and power structures that have shaped botanical knowledge.Continue reading and explore the full Q&A on the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CR…

24 Sep 2025

Girton College announces the winner of the inaugural William Dusinberre Essay Prize

Read the story on the Girton College website.

Audience attending a prize-giving ceremony in Girton College’s wood-paneled library, with speakers seated at the front and a large screen for remote participation.

28 Aug 2025

Family fortunes founded on slavery: Introducing the Sandbach Tinne Collection

Records unearthed by a Cambridge PhD student expose the kinship and brutality behind one of Britain’s most powerful slave-trading dynasties, as revealed in a new book and digital collection.Read the story on the main Cambridge University website.

Archival image of a steam locomotive labeled “Enterprise” with smoke rising from its chimney, positioned on rail tracks in a forest clearing. Several workers stand around the train and timber logs, with thatched huts visible among tall trees in the background.

30 Apr 2025

Global Professorships 2024 awards: Dr Marsha Pearce at The Fitzwilliam Museum!

Dr Marsha Pearce has been awarded one of the highly competitive British Academy Global Professorships, and will join the Fitzwilliam Museum and the University of Cambridge with her project Trembling Abode: Reimagining the Museum as Home for Global Majority Artists. Read the full story on the Collections Connections Communities website.

22 Apr 2025

Exhibition considers College’s legacies of enslavement

An exhibition highlighting the links of Newnham College founders to the transatlantic enslavement economy, is to open at the College. The exhibition is part of a programme of enquiry, at Newnham and across the University of Cambridge, to consider ways in which collegiate Cambridge contributed to, benefitted from or challenged the Atlantic slave tra…

Interior of a historic library with tall wooden bookshelves filled with books, ornate vaulted ceiling with decorative patterns, a large arched window at the back, and a blue upholstered chair in the centre on a parquet floor.

12 Mar 2025

Re-examining abolition

Scholar-activist Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman delivered a powerful and extensively-researched talk on Britain and the abolition of enslavement, at the @homertonchangemakers #TuesdayConversations in March.Read the story on the Homerton College website.

Group of people seated around a table in a meeting room, with water bottles and glasses on the table. The background shows a wooden door and a framed painting on the wall.

27 Feb 2025

Black Town & Gown: The historical legacy of Black presence in the city of Cambridge

Interview with Dr Kenny Monrose FRSA, a Fellow at Wolfson College and Researcher in the Department of Sociology, discussing his project exploring the historical legacy of Black presence in Cambridge. Read the full interview on the main University website.

Large white text reading “BLACK TOWN BLACK GOWN” over a street scene in Cambridge, with historic buildings and railings visible in the background.

28 Sep 2023

Black British Voices: The Findings

The largest survey to date of the opinions and attitudes of Black people in Britain has revealed a central split on the question of British pride.Read the full story on the main University website.