How Do You Like Your Diversity?

Panel discussion led by Handel Kashope Wright, with respondents Mica Nava, Roshini Kempadoo and Ashwani Sharma.

Handel Wright will analyse developments and limitations in the theories and politics of multiculturalism and diversity. He will be joined by panellists who will engage with Wright’s analysis from the perspectives of their own research and practice.

The discussion will include a review of the usefulness of terms such as multiculturalism, diversity, interculturalism and cosmopolitanism in the contemporary political context. Accelerating global trends in online social environments, the arts and popular culture confound the debate and everyday experiences of difference and social justice.

The panel asks if our established theoretical and creative practices are adequate to the challenges posed by neo-liberalism, transnational urban cultures and emergent forms of bio-political racism.

This event is a collaboration between Iniva and the Centre for Cultural Studies Research (CCSR) School of Art and Digital Industries, University of East London.

Handel Kashope Wright is Professor and Director of the Centre for Culture, Identity and Education at University of British Columbia, Canada and has published widely on Africana cultural studies, anti-racism, multiculturalism and its alternatives. He is currently visiting Research Professor at CCSR, University of East London.  

Mica Nava is Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of East London. Her most recent book is Visceral Cosmopolitanism: Gender, Culture and the Normalisation of Difference.

Roshini Kempadoo (The First Stuart Hall Library Animateur) is a photographer, media artist and Reader at the University of East London. The photographs State of Play (2011) were recently exhibited in Justina Barnicke Gallery, Toronto. Her chapter ‘Imagining Her (story): Engendering archives’ in Renewing Feminisms: Radical Narratives, Fantasies and Futures in Media Studies is out later this year.

Ashwani Sharma is Principal Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of East London, and is the co-editor of the online journal darkmatter. He is currently completing a book on Race and Visual Culture in the Global Age.

Book online

Book online here. If you have enquiries please call 0207 749 1240 or email bookings@rivingtonplace.org.

NB. For a concessionary rate (students, over 60s, unemployed) please enter the promotional code iniva_concession. For group bookings of more than 4 people please contact Rivington Place reception.