In this episode Jem is joined by Dhanveer Singh Brar  and Ashwani Sharma to discuss their 2019 article ‘What is This ‘Black ‘in Black Studies? From Black British Cultural Studies to Black Critical Thought in UK Arts and Higher Education’.

We actually recorded this in March 2026

We talk about the history of academic and non-academic responses to the experience of racism and radicalisation in Britain since the 1960s, with particular reference to the 1980s Black Arts movement, Cultural Studies in the 1990s,  more recent debates over ‘Afro-pessimism’, and the revival of militant anti-racism.

We make a couple of references to Ash & Dhan’s  more recent article about the work of filmmaker Steve McQueen, but we will have them on the podcast again to discuss that.

Here are some links to more information about things we discuss:

Black Audio Film Collective https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Audio_Film_Collective

Stefano Harney and Fred Moten The Undercommons https://www.minorcompositions.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/undercommons-web.pdf

Afro-Pessimism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-pessimism_(United_States)

The Empire Strikes Back https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9780203639948/empire-strikes-back-centre-contemporary-cultural-studies

Hammer and Hope: https://hammerandhope.org/

Together Alliance: https://www.togetheralliance.org.uk

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