“Movements of Black Life: A Comparative Study in the UK (formerly known as BLM: A Comparative Global Study in the UK), is an award-winning faculty-led study abroad program that takes an interdisciplinary and experiential perspective to examine the significance of identity, race, and nationhood in structuring the Black British experience.”
“At the center of this examination are the multiple forms of resistance to systemic racism in the collective struggle for full citizenship. The course relies on the texts of Black British scholars and intellectuals to interpret how racism shaped the postwar migration of Afro-Caribbeans and West Africans to Britain and how social inequalities resulting from discrimination in housing, education, and employment defined the lived experiences of their children and subsequent generations.”
“Students gain an understanding of how the gendered activism of Black Britons in response to the New Cross Fire of 1981 and the Brixton riots from discriminatory policing that same year laid the foundation for contemporary social justice movements, including Black Lives Matter UK. The troubled legacy of the Windrush generation, the recent deportation scandal, and the collective activism of Black Britons to affirm their right to belong are also considered.”
“While the postwar migration of Africans and Afro-Caribbeans has informed much of the contemporary Black British experience, the course includes a consideration of the Black Atlantic to interpret the lives of enslaved and free Africans in Britain before emancipation and to understand slavery’s role in building British institutions and to provide the long history of the Black British presence.”
“Along with resistance, the course introduces students to the resilience of Black Britons in its diverse cultural expressions, including the Black British Arts Movement and Black British cinema.”
“Students benefit from an immersive experience that integrates group visits to historical landmarks, galleries, museums, and cultural archives with social and cultural community activities to explore and examine the breadth of the Black British experience in London.”
–University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for International Education
