News

Professor Marsha Pearce, British Academy Global Professor at the Fitzwilliam Museum, reflects on her move from the Caribbean to Cambridge. She discusses how museums can become spaces of belonging for Global Majority artists, whose work has long been marginalised in UK collections.Read the full blog on the Collections-Connections-Communities (CCC) w…

This blog reflects on the first year of the African Collections Futures project, highlighting how its research, exhibitions, and community‑focused work have grown beyond the original report to deepen engagement with African collections at Cambridge. Read the full blog on the Collections-Connections-Communities (CCC) website. 

MPhil World History student Eleanor Gaylard sheds new light on the long-overlooked histories of Afro‑Argentines in her compelling piece for Cambridge’s Faculty of History, revealing how Black identity in Argentina has been continually reshaped and obscured over time. Read the story on the Faculty of History website.

The Legacies of Enslavement Special Initiative and Cambridge University Press hosted the launch of The University of Cambridge in the Age of Atlantic Slavery by Dr Nicolas Bell-Romero. The event was chaired by Professor Pedro Ramos Pinto, Convenor of the Legacies of Enslavement Special Initiative. Dr Bell-Romero's book was the result of several yea…

Cambridge University Library's exciting project sees a community panel research and design the Library’s 2027 exhibition and public programme.  Read the full story of the University Library's website. 

Read the blog by by Vicky Avery, Keeper, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, at the Fitzwilliam Museum, on the University of Cambridge Museums Collections in Action website. 

Read the blog by by Vicky Avery, Keeper, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, at the Fitzwilliam Museum, on the University of Cambridge Museums Collections in Action website. 

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.

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…

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…

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…

Read the story on the Girton College website.

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.

For the Fitzwilliam Museum’s recent exhibition Rise Up: Resistance, Revolution, Abolition, a group of Year 9 and Year 10 school students from Soham Village College co-created a reflection space for visitors to spend quiet time decompressing after absorbing the exhibition's challenging material about the transatlantic slave trade.Read the full story…

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.