Three-D Issue 35: Social Movements Network
Ruth Sanz Sabido
Canterbury Christ Church Uni
We are pleased to announce details of two upcoming events that are being organised by the MeCCSA Social Movements Network in 2021.
On 8 March, we will deliver an online seminar to mark International Women’s Day. The event, which is facilitated by the Documentary Media Centre, will feature the following speakers and topics: Dr Ruth Sanz Sabido, “From Private to Public and Political: Breastfeeding, Sorority and Feminism”; Professor Stuart Price, “The Huelga General Feminista, Spain, 2017-20”; Giovanna Miralles, “What’s in it for us? A critical reflection on Maya women studies”; and Dr Rinella Cere, “8 March and the Subaltern that cannot Speak”.
Our second event in 2021 will be the sixth edition of Shared Solidarities. This series of conferences and symposia brings together community campaigners and academics to discuss theories and practices of activism. Under the Shared Solidarities title, Ros Brunt and Rinella Cere, from Sheffield Hallam University, have organised events on the Interaction of Parties, Unions and Social Movements (2015), Political Activism and Community Media (2016), Framing Catastrophe (2017) and Galvanizing the Women’s Movement (2018), with a fifth event on Mental Health in an Age of Austerity, organised by Stuart Price at De Montfort University in 2019.
Shared Solidarities returns to Sheffield Hallam in 2021 with a focus on ‘Contested Colonial Heritage’. As with previous events, it will have a seminar format led by academics and activists. The aim of this event is to explore the media coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK and the events that followed in connection with colonial-related heritage – which remains one of the most contested areas – and the public sculpture debates. Activists tore down the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston, Tower Hamlets Council took down the statue of the slave trader Robert Milligan that stood outside the Museums of London Docklands, and the University of Oxford set up a commission to decide the future of the Victorian Imperialist Cecil Rhodes. Different solutions to the same problem: the opprobrium of the colonial legacy. Due to the pandemic situation, we are currently unsure whether this event will take place online or in Sheffield. Further details will be released in due course.
Finally, we would like to draw your attention to our Call for Event Proposals and encourage you to submit one to the SMN Committee. The Network organises events to encourage the critical study of social movements, to develop links and dialogues with social movements organisations and other related networks, and to reflect upon the ways in which academic research can contribute to these movements. The event proposal should include an event title, dates and location (or online), description of the event and budget (if relevant), including projected income and expenditure. For further details, please get in touch with Dr Ruth Sanz Sabido at ruth.sanz-sabido@canterbury.ac.uk