Black History Month at Oxford
Oxford University is delivering another programme of events for Black History Month throughout October.
Black History Month 2025 will be an opportunity to share, recognise, understand and celebrate the impact of Black heritage and culture on British and world history, including right here at Oxford University.
The University's programme will once again bring together events, resources and initiatives for the general public, staff, students and alumni.
Here you can find out more about the events that have been planned by the collegiate University...
University of Oxford Black History Month Lecture 2025
Power and Pride: Histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain
October 16 (17:15-19:00)
O’Reilly Theatre, Keble College, OX1 3PG
Free event
General Admission
The University of Oxford BME Staff Network and the Equality and Diversity Unit invite you to the 2025 Black History Month Lecture, delivered by award-winning historian Professor Hakim Adi. We are honoured to welcome Professor Adi as this year's speaker, who will explore themes of power and pride in the rich histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain, encompassing 10,000 years of Britain's history.
Find out more and register: University of Oxford Black History Month Lecture 2025 Tickets
University of Oxford Black History Month Lecture 2025Events open to all
The following events and talks are also open to members of the public as well as University staff and students...
A Caribbean living room
A new permanent display at the Ashmolean Museum
Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH
Open now
Through the creation of a 1950-60s Caribbean living room – a powerful symbol of British Caribbean heritage, resilience and identity – Shedding Light reveals the intertwined histories of colonialism, enslavement, sugar production and ceramics. This new display within the European Ceramics Gallery is the outcome of a collaboration, bringing together a group of Oxford-based producers with artists, project consultants and a Museum team.
Find out more about the project: SHEDDING LIGHT | Ashmolean Museum.
St Cross College Calypso and Soca Concert
Alexander D. Great
Pusey House Chapel, St Giles'
Free event
In celebration of Black History Month, renowned musician Alexander D. Great will perform a one hour concert with a programme that celebrates the history of calypso and soca music. The programme will span songs from the origins of calypso through to well-known classics in calypso and soca up to the present day. Alexander was born in Trinidad and grew up in London, now dividing his time between performances, running his own record label and doing calypso workshops in schools, colleges and universities. He has performed on TV and radio in the UK, Europe, USA, Trinidad, Dominica and Canada – he has also been the Calypsonian-in-Residence at the BBC and the Windrush Foundation since 2000.
Please register to attend at: St Cross Calypso and Soca Concert | St Cross College
Black History Month 2025 half day conference
Standing Firm in Power and Pride
October 15 (12:00-17:00)
John Radcliffe Hospital, Headley Way, Headington, OX3 9DU
Attend in person and online
Free to attend
With a focus on health inequalities, the Trusts within Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) are coming together to celebrate Black History Month 2025 with a half-day conference hosted by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust's Black, Asian, Minority and Ethnic Staff Network.
Register to attend in person.
Register to attend online.
Black History Month 2025 half day conference 
on Black poppies (& Other seeds) launches on Monday 20 October
Exhibition launch event: October 20 (17:30)
Rhodes House, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RG
The Rhodes Trust will be opening their art exhibition on Black poppies (& Other seeds) by Artist in Residence Rebecca Korang with a launch event on Monday 20 October from 17:30 at Rhodes House. Responding to the theme of 'Radical Joy,' Korang centres the stories of Black prisoners of war in the Second World War. She has built her own archive using images and material found from eBay and uses tools and mediums including textile, weaving and painting. Drinks and canapés will be served.
Everyone is welcome.
Find out more and register to attend at: on Black poppies (& Other seeds) Exhibition Launch, Rhodes House - Rhodes Trust.
Kellogg College: Black History Month Annual Lecture
October 29 (17:30-18:30)
Kellogg College, 60 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6PN
Free to attend
Join us for our annual Black History Month lecture to be given by Dr José Lingna Nafafé.
Legal, moral, ethical and political debate on the abolition of slavery has traditionally been understood to have been initiated by Europeans in the 18th century – figures such as William Wilberforce, Thomas Buxton, Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp and David Livingstone. To the extent that Africans are recognised as having played any role in ending slavery, especially in the 17th century, their efforts are typically confined to sporadic and impulsive cases of resistance, involving ‘shipboard revolts’, ‘maroon communities’, ‘individual fugitive slaves’ and ‘household revolts’.
This lecture explores how Lourenço da Silva Mendonça, an African Prince and the historical actors with whom he was involved – such as Black Christians from confraternities in Angola, Brazil, Caribbean, Portugal and Spain – argued for the complete abolition of the Atlantic slave trade 147 years before Wilberforce and his generation of abolitionists.
Find out more: Black History Month Annual Lecture | University of Oxford
Book tickets: Black History Month Annual Lecture - Kellogg College
St John’s College: Black History Month Lecture 2025
In a climate of fear of 'the other', new leaders must emerge
October 30 (17:00-18:00)
Garden Quad Auditorium, St John's College
Free to attend
St John's College is holding its annual Black History Month Lecture on October 30, followed by a drinks reception. This year’s lecture will be given by The Lord Woolley of Woodford and is entitled, In a climate of fear of 'the other', new leaders must emerge. Lord Woolley is the founder and former director of Operation Black Vote; chaired the UK Government's Race Disparity Unit advisory group from January 2018 to July 2020; and in 2021 became Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge – the first Black man to be appointed head of an Oxbridge college.
Find out more: Black History Month Lecture 2025 | St John's College, Oxford
The event is free and open to all, but registration is required. Visit: St John's Black History Month Lecture 2025 Tickets | Eventbrite
Events for University members
Lady Ademola Lecture 2025
A conversation with Marchelle Farrell
November 1 (11:00)
St Hugh’s College, St Margaret’s Road, Oxford, OX2 6LE
Free event – staff and students
This year, the Lady Ademola Lecture will take the form of a conversation between psychiatrist, psychotherapist and writer Marchelle Farrell and staff and students of St Hugh’s. Marchelle is curious about the relationships between internal and external landscapes. She has written powerfully on what nature and gardens teach us about ourselves and how they affect our inmost lives.
Writing for The Guardian in 2023, Marchelle reflected on the psychological impact of city life in the light of her professional knowledge of the incidence of schizophrenia in second-generation Black Caribbean people born in the UK and of her move to a village in Somerset: 'There would be so much about the maddening experience of growing up in the UK as a Black person that I would be unable to improve for my wide-eyed, sensitive, curious children, but how urban a childhood they had was one crucial factor that I could influence'.
She explores this at greater length in her book Uprooting: From the Caribbean to the Countryside – Finding Home in an English Country Garden (2023), which won the Nan Shepherd Prize for nature writing. She has also contributed to By the River: Essays from the Water’s Edge (2024) and This Allotment: Stories of Growing, Eating and Nurturing (2024).
The event will be recorded and a link sent to anyone who cannot attend in person. There will be an opportunity for both present and virtual audience members to ask questions.
To register for free please click here.
Student events
The following events and talks have been organised for the University's student community...
Oxford SU events
Oxford SU has put together a programme of events for Black History Month. Follow the links below for further information and to reserve tickets:
- Standing Firm in Power and Pride
(Wednesday 15 October, 14:00-15:30, Lecture Theatre, Weston Library)
Black History Month Panel exploring the 2025 BHM theme: How do Black activists, leaders and educators embody 'Standing Firm in Power and Pride'? Discussion will focus on UK racial justice movements, cultural identity and progress in equality work.
- Black History Month Archive Show and Tell Session 1
(Wednesday 29 October, 09:30-10:30, Weston Library, 1st Floor)
To celebrate Black History Month the Bodleian Libraries and Oxford SU invite you to a show and tell of items from the Weston Library Special Collections and Archives.
- Black History Month Archive Show and Tell Session 2
(Wednesday 29 October, 11:00-12:00, Weston Library, 1st Floor)
To celebrate Black History Month the Bodleian Libraries and Oxford SU invite you to a show and tell of items from the Weston Library Special Collections and Archives.
- Sickle Cell Awareness Session
(Wednesday 29 October, 13:00-16:00, Oxford Students' Union, Ground Floor)
Oxford SU is hosting the Sickle Cell Society to raise awareness of sickle cell during Black History Month.
Keep checking back to this webpage, as more events will be added as we are made aware of them.
If you are organising a University or College event you would like included here, please email the details to [email protected]