Dr. Stephen Small to Speak at the Great Cities Institute on Liverpool
Join us at The Great Cities Institute to hear from Dr. Stephen Small from the University of California, Berkeley about Liverpool’s unique Black community, its historical roots, systemic challenges, and how city policies contrast with London’s immigrant-focused approach to shaping Black British urban life. On December 12, at noon, Professor Small will speak on The Second City of the British Empire: How History and Place Shape Race and Resistance in Liverpool. You can also view the talk via a zoom webinar.
More about the talk:
Most scholarship on Black communities in urban areas in Britain at the end of the twentieth century are dominated by a focus on London, where Black communities were overwhelmingly post second world war immigrants from the West Indies – along with their British-born children – living across multiple neighborhoods. Black families in London were primarily comprised of two West Indian parents (rather than inter-racial marriages). But in Liverpool most people in the Black community were long-term citizens and residents with some families dating back generations or centuries; most Black people were African, or in families of mixed African-white parentage; and 90% or more of the Black community in the city lived in one segregated neighborhood. Most state and city policies – in employment, housing and schools – were designed to help recent Black immigrants and their children assimilate (for example, providing funds for schools) rather than helping long-term Black residents of Liverpool combat endemic racism. How did these dramatic differences arise? How were they manifested by the end of the 20th century? How has the city government responded to the Black community in Liverpool? And how does an analysis of Liverpool deepen and broaden our understanding of urban areas in Black Britain?
More about the author:
Stephen Small, PhD. is a Professor in the Department of African American Studies and African Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he has taught since 1995; and he is Director of the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (since June 2020). He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley (1989); his MS.C in Social Sciences from the University of Bristol (1983); and his B.A. (honors) in Economics and Sociology from the University of Kent at Canterbury (1979). He researches the history and sociology of Black people across the diaspora. His most recent book is entitled: In the Shadows of the Big House: 21st Century Antebellum Slave Cabins and Heritage Tourism in Louisiana (2023). Recent publications include 1981: Black Liverpool Past and Present (2023) (co-written with Jimi Jagne); 20 Questions and Answers on Black Europe (2018). He is co-editor of Black Europe and the African Diaspora, 2009. His next book on Black Culture in Liverpool in the 1970s-2000s will be published by Liverpool University Press in 2025. Stephen was born and raised in Liverpool – the city with the nation’s longest-standing Black population.
Event Details:
Date: Thursday, December 12th, 2024
Time: 12 PM to 1:30 PM Central/Chicago Time
Location: Great Cities Institute | 412 South Peoria St, Suite 400, Chicago, IL 60607
If you can’t make it in person. Here is the link to join us via a zoom webinar.
