Uncomfortable Cambridge is partnering with the charity SolidariTee to mark the launch of a new tour of Cambridge and its historic connections with the British Empire.
Last month, the University of Cambridge released the report of the Legacies of Enslavement Inquiry, which reveals how deeply ‘Cambridge was implicated in enslavement’. Uncomfortable Cambridge, an academic social enterprise dedicated to using ‘discomfort’ to foster productive public discussions, is now launching its new Cambridge and Empire tour. The tour explores local entanglements with the transatlantic slave trade, and takes a close look at controversies surrounding museum collections, the commemoration of anti-slavery abolitionists, and the development of certain academic disciplines at Cambridge. It prompts us to think and talk about current issues of equality, history, and memory, and how easy it is to escape objectivity.
Launch Tours
On Saturday 15 October, please join us on one of our two launch tours, at either:
- 11am-12.30pm.
- 2.30pm-4pm.
The tours are discussion-based and will be led by our trained academic tour guides. The tours last 90 minutes and leave from the front of St John’s College.
Tickets cost £16 per person and all profits will be donated to support SolidariTee, an international student-led charity that provides legal aid to refugees. Tickets can be booked online at uncomfortablecambridge.co.uk/service-page/cambridge-empire-special-launch-tour.
Evening Reception
All tickets for the launch tours include free admission to a special evening reception and panel discussion at the United Reform Church from 5.30pm. The panelists will discuss Cambridge’s local connections to the British Empire and the challenges of working to do justice by those connections today. The panelists are:
- Professor Priyamvada Gopal, Professor of Postcolonial Studies at the University of Cambridge and author of Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent.
- Tyra Amofah-Akardom, President of the Black Cantabs Research Society.
- Alexa Netty and Joseph Duffy, CEO and Cambridge Team Lead at SolidariTee.
The schedule for the evening reception is:
- 5:30PM – Drinks reception for all attendees
- 6:30PM – Panel Discussion and Questions
- 8:00PM – Event ends
Accessibility: The tours cover mostly flat terrain, with no steps, but with some cobblestoned streets in the city centre. For the evening reception, the United Reform Church is fully wheelchair accessible.
Content note: This tour will include discussions of colonial violence and enslavement.
Cancellation Policy: Tickets can be cancelled or rescheduled up to 24 hours before the scheduled tour time.
Charity Support: All profits from our Cambridge & Empire launch tours will be donated to support SolidariTee – A UK charity that provides legal aid to refugees! Information about SolidariTee will be available at the end of the tours and also during the evening reception.
Facilities
- Disabled Accessibility
Accessibility Facilities
- Assistance dogs welcome
- Designated wheelchair public toilet
- Wheel chair accessible
