Black British history has just been made.
As the BBC reports, Bath Spa University has appointed Dr. Olivette Otele to a professorship and to a chair in history, making her the first Black woman to be a history professor in the United Kingdom. Otele was born in Cameroon, according to News 24.
BIG NEWS: my people, @BathSpaUni has awarded me a professorship and a Chair in History.
May this open the door 2many v hard working women, especially WoC, even + specifically Black women, in academia in general & in History in particular.
In strength, peace and love my ppl.— Historian (@OlivetteOtele) October 22, 2018
Having earned her doctorate at Universite La Sorbonne in France with a specialization in European colonial and post-colonial history, Otele's current research focuses on transnational history.
"Her current research centers around transnational history and in particular the link between history, collective memory and geopolitics in relation to British and French colonial pasts," Bath Spa said in a statement. "She charts and analyses the ways in which Britain and France have been addressing questions of citizenship, race and identity through the politics of remembrance. She also enquires into the value of public gestures, the meaning of public history and the impact of cultural memory."
"I wanted to work on poetry/literature, but a huge sense of injustice and the need to inquire into the roots of inequality took over," the professor told The History Vault. "I was determined to make African American historian and activist Anna Julia Cooper proud."
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