The lecture will be in the Auditorium, 1st Floor, 30 South Colonnade, Thomson Reuters, Canary Wharf, London E14 5EP.

Here is a map for the venue -  http://tinyurl.com/8dmmcpj

 

All are welcome to attend the lecture, which is co-hosted by the Black Members’ Council of the National Union of Journalists and TReuBEN, Thomson Reuters - Black Employee Network. The lecture will be followed by a reception with drinks, canapés and networking.

 

The speaker is Professor Paul Gilroy, Professor of English and American Literature at King's College London, and he will address the theme of ‘The Value of Multiculture.’

 

To register for the lecture, please email Lena Calvert at lenac@nuj.org.uk

 

There is also a Facebook page for the event, which can be found here:   http://tinyurl.com/8j65xgf

 

Information about Paul Gilroy - 

 

From the London School of Economics’ website sociology pages -

 

Paul Gilroy is the first holder of the Anthony Giddens Professorship in Social Theory. His intellectual background is multi-disciplinary and he has extensive interests in literature, art, music and cultural history, as well as in social science.

 

He is best known for his work on racism, nationalism and ethnicity and his original approach to the history of the African diaspora into the western hemisphere.

 

Gilroy received his Ph.D. from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University, where he was part of the group which collectively produced "The Empire Strikes Back" (Routledge, 1982).

 

After that, he worked at the GLC for a number of years before taking up academic positions at South Bank and Essex, where one of his principal responsibilities was teaching on the joint degree in Sociology and Literature.

 

Gilroy moved to Goldsmiths College in 1991 and was appointed Professor of Sociology and Cultural Studies there in 1995. Before joining the LSE in the summer of 2005, he taught at Yale University, where he was Charlotte Marian Saden Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, as well as chair of the African American Studies department.

 

Current interests -

Political sociology and political theory.

This element of Professor Gilroy's current research is concerned with relationships between multiculturalism, hierarchy, difference and the elaboration of non-racial democracy.

 

The local dimension is complemented by an exploration of the dimensions of black European identity and the cultural and political resources necessary for the development and sustenance of a Europe-wide anti-racist movement.

 

He has become particularly interested in the relationship between sovereign territory, ethnic and national consciousness. This work also extends already published material on the history of maritime cultures and on the opposition between land and sea. He sees this aspect of his work as an ongoing intervention in contemporary debates over globalization and the complex life of trans-local political communities. The development of black vernacular and popular cultures especially literature, music and the social relations that support it.

 

Histories of colonial statecraft.

Prof. Gilroy intends to produce a book length manuscript on the workings of colonial governance that will depart from and engage with debates between African political theorists particularly Achille Mbembe and Mahmood Mamdani and extend their foci further into a consideration of the emergent post-colonial order at national and supra-national levels.

 

Some of Gilroy's work includes -

 

- The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in '70s Britain

- There Ain't No Black In the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation

- The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness

- Small Acts: Thoughts on the politics of black cultures

- Against Race: Imagining Political Culture Beyond the Color Line

- Between Camps: Nations, Culture and the Allure of Race

- Without Guarantees: Essays in Honour of Stuart Hall

- After Empire: Multiculture or Postcolonial Melancholia

- Black Britain - A Photographic History

 

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