[Black Europe] Research Culture Think-Tank Explores Inclusive Approaches to Memory Cultures

Last month, we held a workshop held at UCL East, bringing together academics, community partners and technical specialists to strengthen knowledge exchange (KE) practice and foster more inclusive research cultures.

The event had a twin aim: to shape a diverse, cross-faculty, community–academic–technical culture collective at UCL that could share best practice in KE while rethinking research approaches, questions and legacies; and to prepare participants to integrate their skills into future KE partnerships by consolidating existing relationships and learning from one another’s approaches.

Focusing on memory cultures - including archaeology, history, library collections and archives - the workshop examined how these fields are challenging long-standing assumptions that position whiteness as the norm. Through a range of collaborative activities, participants explored how to co-design methodologies and discussed a series of case studies.

The case studies included London-based work on history, archives and engagement within the voluntary sector; the European Institute’s Black Europe initiative; academic and KE work from UCL History, East Culture Lab and Anthropology, as well as colleagues at Northeastern University London; and examples drawn from Historic England and the British Library.

Together, participants mapped shared challenges and potential solutions across disciplines, communities of practice and institutional cultures, working towards a common understanding of new ways of collaborating. Participants produced creative responses to key themes and discussed pathways towards future collaborations.

The project was funded by a grant from the UCL Grassroots Research Culture Seed Fund 2025–26.