Putting race back on the agenda

In this, the second CRRE annual lecture,Yasmin Alibhai-Brown discussed the need to put race back on the political and public agenda and consider why, more broadly, there is a lack of strong leadership within the field of race. Her talk examined why areas such as feminism or environmentalism are characterized by strong leadership, undaunted activism and supportive voices yet the area of race is lacking in comparison. In her talk, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown considered how this has happened and, crucially, what must be done to address this.

Biography

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is an award-winning radio and television broadcaster and journalist interested in issues of race, identity, health, exclusion and diversity. She has written for several newspapers including The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, The Evening Standard and The Mail and is now a regular columnist on The Independent. Alibhai-Brown is author of several books including No Place Like Home; Who do We think We Are?; Mixed Feelings and After Multiculturalism. 

In 2001, she was appointed an MBE for services to journalism in the New Year’s Honours’ List, a medal she returned in 2003 as a protest against the illegal war in Iraq. Other awards include the prestigious George Orwell prize for political journalism in 2002 and the 2004 EMMA award for journalism. She was voted Columnist of the Year in the Political and Public Life Awards, 2011 and has also been voted one of the top ten most powerful Asians in Britain.

She holds an honorary doctorate from York St John’s University and is Visiting Professor at the University of Cardiff, Lincoln and the University of the West of England. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s new book Exotic England is to be published by Portobello Books in Spring 2015.

Programme

• Welcome by Professor Saul Becker, Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of the College for Social Sciences
• Lecture followed by Q&A session
• Drinks reception