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Black History Month 2026

News

Posted on Tuesday 29 September 2026

We'll be celebrating Black History Month 2026 throughout October.

Black History Month in the UK is in its 39th year and is celebrated and recognised across the country in schools, city centres, cinemas, festivals and more.

The theme for 2026 is Honouring Our Communities.

Here at the University, we will be hosting a variety of online and in-person events to celebrate Black History. In addition to the celebrations, the month presents an engaging space of reflection on the achievements and innovative contributions of Black people to the social, political and cultural development of the United Kingdom. There are also opportunities for members of our community to learn more about the issues that continue to impact societies and people of colour in the UK and on an international level.

At a time of increasing divisions and conflicts in the UK and worldwide, we invite everyone to learn with us the diverse stories, aspirations and activism that tackle racial inequality and bring us together as a community. To reinforce our commitment to fostering a safe and respectful campus, we have released summary guidance and information on inclusion and race equality. 

Our actions

In 2025, we launched the Race Equity module for staff on the Learning Management System (LMS). The module covers topics including racism and equality in UK Higher Education, different forms of racism, understanding privilege and a toolkit for belonging. We strongly encourage our staff members to take this module.

University of York is part of the Equity in Leadership Programme, launched across the White Rose universities, supporting the career development of Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff aiming to advance into senior leadership positions. The programme is highly praised and colleagues at York have shared its positive impact. This year’s application is now open until Sunday 22 November 2026. 

Our activities

The University has implemented actions that address the underrepresentation of the Black, Asian and Minoritised Ethnic student population in York and the UK Higher Education. Some of our race equality initiatives include:

Since 2022, we have published our ethnicity pay gap report to promote transparency. Our Staff Race Equality Forum (SREF) expands and brings positive influence on the University’s anti-racism agenda. SREF organised listening exercises in 2019 and 2022 with senior managers to gather feedback and develop action plans, and it aims to build better connections with different communities. Collaborating with the University of York Students’ Union, we have previously organised joint events including socials, a discussion of ‘where are you really from?’, and sharing stories of individuals’ names to highlight intersectional experiences. 

Between 2020 and 2024, our Race Equality Coordination Group oversaw activities to challenge and to redress systemic inequalities and disadvantages experienced by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and students. The Group is now closed as it fulfilled its original purpose. The webpage remains to showcase our actions. 

Read our anti-racism statement 

What's on?

On campus

Gentle Hair Day
  • Wednesday 14 October, 2pm
  • Department of Chemistry (room TBC)

Gentle Hair Day is a protected space for staff and students of black heritage to have hair-related conversations, swap products and connect with one another at the start of the academic year. It is also a haven in Black History Month as an event that centres Black people but focuses on themes of care and rest rather than brutality and hardship. 

Learn more and sign up via Eventbrite

Self Defence
  • Thursday 15 October
  • James Hall

The self-defence session is an empowerment-focused experience, where participants leave with practical skills they can genuinely take away and use. Three time slots available to choose from. 

Learn more and book via Eventbrite

Sociology BHM poster display

The Department of Sociology is marking Black History Month with a poster display celebrating the work of four Black scholars who have made important but often under-appreciated contributions to the social sciences. Please visit our display on the second floor of the Law and Sociology building and share your feedback!

Whose Voices Travel: Translating African Literature and Indigenous Languages

This event is organised by the Department of Language and Linguistic Science EDI Committee as part of the department’s ongoing strategy to decolonise the curriculum.

In today's political landscape, as global power imbalances widen, literary trends from more powerful countries continue to dominate international circulation. This talk examines how dominant languages and their interpretive frameworks have historically been used to deliberately distort African culture in service of colonial domination. It also explores how soft power and institutional gatekeeping continue to sustain economic and cultural dominance today, and proposes alternative translation theories rooted in indigenous traditions to counter this trend.

Drawing on Ethiopia’s longstanding traditions of interpretation and translation, it considers how traditional African practices can provide vital resources for rethinking how meaning is created and communicated across languages. It further proposes engaging African intellectual histories on their own terms to explore a heterogeneous approach that embraces orality, traditional social practices, and tacit knowledge in conceptualising translation studies and developing Indigenous African epistemologies. Such framing can help translation studies move beyond reductionism, given its fundamentally Eurocentric foundations, and make room for diverse voices to circulate.

Register via Eventbrite

The Language of Inequality
  • Wednesday 21 October, 1pm to 2pm
  • PS/B/020

In celebration of Black History Month UK (Honouring Our Communities), the Department of Psychology will be hosting Dr Cyndney Dupree who will be talking about her research on how stereotyping and inequality influence how we communicate with one another. The event is open to staff and students, with no requirement to reserve a place.

Further details can be found on the department's events page.

Black History Month EDI Forum: Seen, Heard and Recognised – Visibility and Excellence in Academia
  • Monday 26 October, 4.30pm to 6pm
  • CL/A/002, Business Lounge and online

Who gets seen, heard and recognised in academia - and whose contributions risk being overlooked? This timely forum takes Black experience as an important starting point to explore how academic institutions value contributions, recognise excellence and amplify voices. We are delighted to welcome Dr Darryl B. Rice, Professor Nelarine Cornelius and Professor Christian Harrison for what promises to be a stimulating and thought-provoking discussion.

Learn more and register

IPUP Talk: 'Colonial Statues, the Empire, Its Racism, and Their Afterlives'
  • Wednesday 28 October, 1pm to 2.30pm
  • D/N/056, Derwent College

Dr Tré Ventour-Griffiths, "Don't Blink": Colonial Statues, the Empire, Its Racism, and Their Afterlives"

Join us for this talk by Dr Tré Ventour-Griffiths, hosted by the Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past at the University of York. This will be followed by a postgraduate student masterclass, with details to be circulated separately.

Book via Eventbrite

City-wide events

Yasmin Benoit on Asexuality, Intersectionality and Being the “Unlikely Face of Asexuality”
  • Thursday 29 October, 5.30pm
  • Creative Centre Auditorium, York St John University

Yasmin Benoit is a British model, multi-award-winning asexual activist, writer, speaker, media consultant and researcher. Described as the "unlikely face of asexuality" by Cosmopolitan Magazine, she quickly became a leading voice for the community after publicly coming out in 2017. She started the #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike movement for diverse asexual visibility and representation and co-founded International Asexuality Day (April 6).

Her unconventional approach to activism has been covered throughout British and international press, including Vogue, MTV, Sky News, Paper Magazine, Attitude Magazine and the BBC. In 2023, she became the first asexual grand marshal at NYC Pride, and in 2024, was the first asexual to lead Pride in London. The following year, she broke boundaries again by winning a British LGBT Award for her activism.

Learn more and book your spot

View more events at York St John University

Further resources

Watch again

We have a series of recordings from previous Black History Month, and other related awareness day events, that are available for you to watch again:

Groups and networks

University-based groups and networks

Local groups

National groups

Resources

Our Let's talk about race and racism web page directs you to information and resources to help all members of our community better understand what it is like to experience racism, how to support those who experience racism and what the University is doing to progress its anti-racism work.