Launching ‘Black History Month’ Newsletters

The Postgraduate Team have launched a new series of Black History Month newsletters for the School of Physics and Astronomy. Emma Thomas explains the inspirations behind this effort.

The Black History Month Newsletters were first created to provide an accessible brief format where readers could start/continue their ongoing education of Black History and Science in the UK and the world.

Last year we saw the wonderful work led by Naomi Rowe-Gurney, Harneet Sangha, Aneesah Kamran and Michael Chizurumoke, who highlighted the research that both Naomi and Michael carry out at Leicester via a display in the Common Room. Their work inspired me to consider what I wanted to see for Black History Month 2020 in the Physics Department, and I went on to develop the idea of a BHM bi-weekly newsletter before expanding on this further with the PGR Reps.

We decided we not only wanted to highlight the work of Black scientists in STEM, but also share links and resources for anti-racism events, actions, and media to push for equity within the scientific community. To do this we’ve included a variety of links which educate on Black Science and History within the UK and highlighted the life and work of historical figures to present day scientists who are leading the world.

We have also provided a number of relevant links, including bookings for October events that are available online (and sometimes offline, as well as selections of books written by Black authors which focus on topics such as the history of Black civil rights movements here in he UK. In addition, we have included donation links aimed at assisting charities dedicated to equity for Black individuals and pushing for awareness within our education system.

Finally, we wanted to highlight digital platforms such as podcasts and livestreams, providing readers with audio sources for learning and diversifying their daily media intake.

You can find the newsletters at the following links: