BHM25: Black Liverpool is the Real Thing with Stephen Small

Black Liverpool is the Real Thing: West African, West Indian and Afro-American Culture at the end of the Twentieth-Century

Prof Stephen Small in-conversation with Dr Leona Vaughn

Join Professor Stephen Small as he shares insights from his forthcoming book, tentatively entitled, Black Liverpool is the Real Thing: West African, West Indian and Afro-American Culture at the end of the Twentieth-Century (Liverpool University Press, 2026). Born and raised in Liverpool, Stephen will draw on a wealth of research, exploring how Black communities in Liverpool transformed African, Caribbean and Afro‑American cultural patterns. Hosted by Liverpool University's Dr Leona Vaughn, Stephen will consider the impact of soul, reggae and African music and nightclubs, Black nationalist ideologies, Rastafarian activities, Black Studies courses and the experiences of Black women and Black women's organisations, to highlight the rich and distinctive history of Black Liverpool, often overshadowed by London narratives.

This event accompanies the latest series of Small Talk articles which are being released weekly throughout October and beyond.

Stephen Small, PhD, is a Professor of the Graduate School at UC Berkeley, where he began in 2025 after retiring from the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies. He directed the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (2020–2025) and has held visiting positions in Europe, Brazil, Japan, and Zimbabwe. His research examines the history and sociology of Black diasporic communities, with recent work on British imperial legacies in Liverpool. Born in Liverpool, he has been active in Black and multiracial organizations in the UK and served as guest curator for the Transatlantic Slave Trade Gallery. He earned a PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley, and his most recent book is In the Shadows of the Big House (2023); his next, Black Liverpool is the Real Thing, will be published in 2026.

Leona Vaughn, PhD, earned her doctorate in 2019 from the University of Liverpool, where her thesis examined how practitioners identify and manage ‘childhood radicalisation’ through safeguarding risk-work. She has extensive experience in social justice and equalities research across the UK and internationally. Awarded a Derby Research Fellowship in 2020 for work on ‘Slavery & Unfree Labour,’ she served as Vulnerable Populations Lead at the Finance Against Slavery & Trafficking initiative at the United Nations University (2021–2024). Her expertise lies in developing innovative, inclusive, interdisciplinary approaches to addressing harm, coloniality, power, and marginalisation in research, and she was named the 2024 Alan Beeston Early Career Researcher of the Year.