Colonial statues, the Empire, its racism, and their afterlives
Room D/N/056, Derwent College, Campus West, University of York (Map)
Event details
Black History Month talk
‘Don’t Blink’ is an autoethnographic lecture that uses Doctor Who as a model for how sites of public memory like statues illustrate empire walks amongst us. It uses the iconic supervillain, the Weeping Angels, to think about the horror of British racism in popular heritage. The Angels ‘freeze’ into stone statues whenever they are being observed, but move when unobserved. Instead of directly killing their victims, their touch sends their prey back in time and they feed on the energy of that person’s unlived life. I use Doctor Who as part of queer studies scholar Jack Halberstam’s (2011: 20) ‘silly archive’ that illuminates how knowledge can be found in popular spaces. At a spaghetti junction of queerness, heritage, and Sci-Fi, ‘Don’t Blink’ uses the Angels as a gothic theorising tool for a racism that emanates from time and heritage. And so, in a Britain that refuses to give up empire's ghost, walking is when I meet a history that is not over (Avery Gordon, 1997: 168).
About the speaker
Dr Tré Ventour-Griffiths is an independent sociologist-creative, historian, speaker, and Black history with interests in place-based history, creative writing, hauntings, pop culture, and more. His work can be found in poetry zines, journalism publications, academic spaces, and other public-facing sites like YouTube. On Substack, he can be found under his alter ego 'The Avid Pedestrian'. For more on him, see below:
Venue details
Wheelchair accessible
Hearing loop