STARYL Colloquium: Archives as Sites of Radical Resistance

About STARYL

STARYL (Striving Toward Anti-racist Research in Youth Literature) was formed in the Summer of 2020 during a moment of global attention on issues of systemic anti-Black racism and in response to specific incidents of racism within the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. STARYL is a student-led intervention that aims to creatively disrupt institutional racism within Cambridge’s department of Children’s Literature, building on foundations laid by Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, Academics4BlackLives, and REIYL (Researchers Exploring Inclusive Youth Literature). STARYL’s primary output over the course of the past year has been an online speaker series delivered by BIPOC academics, authors, illustrators, and librarians. These talks have covered topics ranging from resisting imperialism in Puerto Rican children’s literature, anti-racism in Afropean youth literature, to inclusion and diversity in postcolonial Asia, and beyond. The intention was to fill the significant gaps in expertise and attention within the programming offered by the department. STARYL secured funding to pay speakers for sharing their valuable time and knowledge, in a further effort to shift hegemonic culture with the Faculty of Education. As most members of STARYL graduate this year, the colloquium is intended to be our final event, representing the culmination of our efforts to enact institutional change.

The Colloquium

We have two phenomenal keynote speakers and a panel of inspirational figures in the field who will share their thoughts on ‘Archives as Sites of Radical Resistance’. Additionally, we will have two fun and relaxing opportunities to network with like-minded scholars and to form connections across disciplines, institutions, and industries. Finally, we will be launching our own archive that holds a record of our experiences of this intervention. Messy, raw, and real, this archive documents our successes and our failures, and our greatest hope is that it will help future students who want to create sites of joyful resistance.

Our Speakers and Schedule:

Between the 14th and 18th June 2021, we will be hosting daily events/talks at 7pm BST. Your registration will give you access to all events.

Monday 14th June, 7pm BST: Keynote by Dr. Temi Odumosu

Dr. Temi Odumosu (PhD, Kings College, Cambridge) is an art historian, curator, and Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Malmö University in Sweden. She is the author of Africans in English Caricature 1769-1819: Black Jokes White Humour (2017). Her research interests include colonial visual cultures and archives, post-memorial art and performance, ethics-of-care in re-presentation, and critical data/digitisation practices. Overall, she is focused on the multitude ways art can mediate social transformation and healing. She is currently a member of the research network The Art of Nordic Colonialism: Writing Transcultural Art Histories.

Tuesday 15th June, 7pm BST: Social Event (TBA)

Wednesday 16th June, 7pm BST: Roundtable Discussion with Aimée Felone, Farrah Serroukh, and Ken Wilson-Max

Aimée Felone is managing director of Knights Of – a commercial children’s publisher whose main focus is publishing inclusively by commissioning writers and illustrators from a diverse range of backgrounds, as well as hiring diversely. At Knights Of, she has opened Brixton’s only children’s bookshop, Round Table Books, which exclusively stocks titles from underrepresented authors and illustrators.

Farrah Serroukh is a Learning Programme Leader at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE). Throughout her career, Farrah has always worked hard to centre marginalised voices and keenly advocated for inclusive practices both within and outside of the education sector. Before joining the CLPE, she taught across the primary school age range and held several leadership posts. As well as sharing responsibility for leading on the design, development and delivery of the charity’s professional development programme, she co-leads on the research and development strand of the CLPE’s work. She is the author of CLPE’s Reflecting Realities Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children’s Literature and leads on the groundbreaking and award-winning work in this area.

Ken Wilson-Max is an award-winning author, illustrator, and publisher of over 70 children’s books worldwide. His books are naturally inclusive, and his distinctive style always manages to capture special moments between children and grown-ups. Ken is amongst the 100 Breaking New Ground British writers and illustrators of colour in the UK, and his books are listed in '150 important Children's Books' by the African American Literature Book Club. He is a mentor for the Pathways into Children's Publishing program and passionate about redressing the diversity imbalance in children's publishing through inclusion.

Thursday 17th June, 7pm BST: Social Event (TBA)

Friday 18th June, 7pm BST: Keynote by Lavinya Stennett

Lavinya Stennett is the founder and CEO of The Black Curriculum, a social enterprise that aims to deliver black British history all across the UK. The vision to create The Black Curriculum came from first-hand experiences in British formal education, where Lavinya witnessed the effects of systemic disenfranchisement through the exclusion of Black pupils and Black British history. Young people learning general 'Black history' in the lone month of October was simply not good enough. During her study abroad in Aotearoa, she was interested in the way Indigenous and colonial history was a part of the everyday and made accessible to everyone at all ages. She is determined to challenge the Eurocentricity of the school curriculum at a nationwide level. Lavinya believes in the power of education and the arts to ultimately transform the lives of people.

We are happy to be able to pay all our speakers an honorarium with funds from The Cambridge University Diversity Fund, The Cambridge AHRC DTP, The BAAS/US Embassy, The Cambridge University Researcher Development Fund, and an anonymous donation. Thank you!

For more information, check out our website www.staryl.org or follow us on Twitter @starylcommittee