Vanley Burke in conversation with Dr Reza Gholami

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Vanley Burke is in conversation with Dr Reza Gholami, Deputy Director of the Centre for Research in Race and Education, University of Birmingham, about his artistic practice and photographing Birmingham’s diverse communities to inform a more inclusive and engaging education in schools around themes of diversity, belonging and equality.

This event takes place at The Exchange, Centenary Square.

This event is presented as part of The Migrant Festival 2023. 

A Gift to Birmingham by Vanley Burke is on display at The Exchange, Birmingham (3 July – 16 September 2023).

About the participants

Vanley Burke (b. 1951) is often described as the ‘Godfather of Black British Photography’: an artist, photographer and curator whose archive, surveying the Black British experience, is held at the Library of Birmingham. His exhibition, At Home with Vanley Burke, took place at Ikon Gallery in 2015. Arriving in Britain in 1965, Burke has documented the experience of black people in the UK for decades, producing what is regarded to be the greatest photographic record of African Caribbean people in post-war Britain. A Gift to Birmingham was previously exhibited at Ikon Gallery in March-April 2022.

Dr Reza Gholami, FRSA, is Reader in Sociology of Education at the University of Birmingham, UK, where he is also the Deputy Director of the Centre for Research in Race and Education (CRRE). Gholami’s research is internationally recognised and focuses on community-led and ‘diasporic’ forms of education, working with formal and non-formal educators in the UK, US and Australia to develop innovative educational resources to support local schools and foster intercommunal learning. Currently, he is working in partnership with The Play House, and with funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, on a project which addresses issues of belonging and diversity in schools through theatre-based pedagogies. He is also working on a Leverhulme Trust funded project that explores how young people in England engage with freedom of expression around sensitive issues of race and faith. Gholami is the author of numerous books and articles in his field.