We are delighted to confirm that Professor Olivette Otele (Bath Spa University) will be the keynote speaker at the 2019 Social History Society conference.

Our annual conference is the largest gathering of social and cultural historians in the UK.  Over the last four decades, it has provided a space for our members to explore the many ways in which our social worlds are made, imagined, shared and shattered.

Professor Otele’s lecture is sure to contribute to this process. Her research considers the history and collective memory of Britain and France’s colonial pasts. She is especially interested in the way that the British and French address questions of citizenship through remembrance and public gestures – work which has shaped how contemporary understandings of race and belonging.

On a personal level, too, the SHS is honoured that Professor Otele has chosen to join us at Lincoln. Our members will be aware Professor Otele made national news in October 2018, when she became the first black female professor of history in the UK. We hope that she will be the first of many and are supporting a network for BME historians in recognition of the structural inequalities afflicting UK Higher Education Institutions.

There is more information about the conference on our dedicated conference page (and in the call for papers (pdf)).