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Meet the Professor Who’s Revolutionizing the Teaching of Black British History
Christienna Fryar’s position at Goldsmiths, University of London is a long time coming
October is Black History Month in the U.K. and, excitingly, it also ushers in a new Master of Arts program in Black British history at Goldsmiths, University of London. With two centuries of educational legacy, Goldsmiths is in the vanguard also offering a unique M.A. in Black British writing since 2015 (co-led by professor Joan Anim-Addo, the sole Black female professor of comparative literature in the U.K.).
Boasting students from 114 different countries — 40% identifying as Black and minority ethnic (BAME)—seven Goldsmiths graduates have been Turner Prize winners with more shortlisted. Among these is Steve McQueen, the first Black director to win a best picture Oscar for his 2014 film 12 Years A Slave.
Christienna Fryar is the distinguished academic on the history of emancipation, the British Empire, and the Caribbean recruited to lead the new M.A. as lecturer and convenor of the program, which covers 500 years of Black British history and the people and ideas of which it’s comprised. Raised in Virginia, she was born to an African American father and a Jamaican mother. Before moving to America in the ’60s, her mother…
