In 1935 W.E.B. Du Bois published his monumental work ‘Black Reconstruction’. More than just a history of Reconstruction after the abolition of slavery (1865-77), his book was a blueprint for freedom. For Du Bois, the global South was the hope for a different future. Drawing on his prize-winning book, ‘The Right to Look’, Professor Nicholas Mirzoeff’s presentation will track the legacy of ‘Black Reconstruction’ in our understanding of democracy, education, debt and land justice. He connects Du Bois’s project to the global social movements since 2011 and their call for a new reconstruction for our own time. Read more

Zen Marie and Andrew Lamprecht consider seminal writings on cricket. They will examine two books about cricket written over a century apart and very different in intent, style and content, yet in a peculiar way tied together by the narratives and realities of colonialism, class, and agency. K.S. Ranjitsinhji’s ‘The Jubilee Book of Cricket’ (1897) and Herschelle Gibbs’s ‘To the Point’ (2010) form the basis of their investigation. The discussion will be framed by the work of C.L.R. James – influential Tinidadian-born social theorist, political activist, historian and journalist. Read more