A new network set up by the University of Glasgow to deliver a year-round programme of events featuring prominent Black speakers will be launched during Black History Month.

The first event of the newly formed James McCune Smith Network will take place on Thursday 19 October 2023 and features esteemed Black British photographer Vanley Burke. Vanley has been called the godfather of Black British photography and he has been documenting Black Britain for over 50 years.

He is an acclaimed and highly regarded professional photographer who is renowned for his unique approach to creating powerful imagery that challenges negative stereotypes of Black people often perpetuated by the media. Vanley has earned numerous awards and accolades for his ground-breaking work. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world.

The network is the latest endeavour developed by the University’s flagship James McCune Smith Scholarship and Development Programme. The programme is named after Dr James McCune Smith, who was the first African American to receive a medical degree, when he graduated in 1837 from the University of Glasgow.

Professor Jason Gill, Chair of the JMS Steering Board, said: “We are incredibly excited to be launching the James McCune Smith Network and to be doing so in Black History Month. This is a fantastic next step for the programme and will ensure that it has even greater reach. The James McCune Smith programme is hugely important for the University and we are keen to share some of its benefits with the public and with scholars around the world by creating the Network.”

Montel Gordon, one of the first JMS Scholars said: “The JMS scholarship is unprecedented. It’s successfully created two cohorts of amazing Black researchers with such diverse and important topics. I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity.

I am also really delighted to be working with other Scholars to deliver the Network events.”

The James McCune Smith (JMS) Scholarship brings together a diverse community of Black UK doctoral researchers across each of the University’s four Colleges. As well as being life-changing for our Scholars and conferring tailored benefits in terms of networks, placements, mentoring and leadership training, it is a programme which is transformative to the University in terms of driving new areas of scholarship. To date, we have recruited 35 PhD students to the programme.

In June 2023, we held our first annual JMS Conference and we are now building on this activity by developing the JMS Network. The Network will deliver a year-round programme of events featuring prominent Black speakers talking about their work and experiences in a Q&A format. Our aim is to extend the benefits of the Network beyond the University and to allow other students and academics to be part of this.

The first JMS Network event will see Vanley Burke talk will be about his life as a ‘left behind’ child in Jamaica and then coming to England to join his parents in 1965. It will detail how he first became interested in photography and his subsequent attempts to document the lives and experiences of Black people in Birmingham and beyond.

 

Further Information 

James McCune Smith Scholarships 

Learn more about the James McCune Smith Scholarships and Scholars.

Vanley Burke Talk In person & hybrid 

The Vanley Burke event is free but ticketed and takes place in the University Chapel on 19 October (doors open at 18.00). To register to attend either in-person or to watch our live-stream visit Eventbrite.

James McCune Smith Network

If you would like to become part of the JMS Network and be kept up-to-date with information on future events, you can join this at https://forms.office.com/e/wy9TNUKAv0

First published: 3 October 2023

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