Call for Participation – Archives of Care: Black Health Histories in Twentieth Century Britain

Co-organised by LAHP-CDA student Che Kelly.

Event Information:

Date: 28 or 29 May 2026 (exact date to be confirmed upon acceptance).
Time: 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM
Location: University of Cambridge (exact location to be confirmed upon acceptance)

For many historians researching the histories of health and health policy, sources often come from
collections whose inception was for the documentation of and contribution to a history of medicine,
health, and health policy – whether this be personal papers of doctors and scientists, records of
pharmaceutical companies, government records pertaining to health. The presence of racialized
experiences are seldom represented or, if any, partial within these collections. And so, historians
researching health and healthcare in Britain at the intersection of race are found reliant on
community archives to fill the gaps and bring together narratives of racialized experiences.

This Spring there will be a one-day workshop that brings together doctoral and early career
historians with community archives to examine the history of Black health and healthcare in
twentieth century Britain. In consideration of the politicization of Blackness throughout twentieth
century Britain, this workshop welcomes research that discusses health and healthcare at the
intersection of racially marginalized groups in Britain, including but not limited to the histories of
African, Caribbean, and South Asian diasporas. This workshop will be a collaborative and constructive space for emerging and early career scholars to present work-in-progress, receive feedback, and foster a scholarly community while directly supporting the mission and operations of community archives. The objective of this workshop is to engage with the following 3 points of intervention:

1. What is the utility and purpose of the community archive? What role and responsibility do
   archives like these have/take to serve Black communities in Britain?
2. How does your work think about what community archives already have as insights to Black
   health and healthcare in Britain?
3. What are current challenges in preserving Black health histories?

In addition to presenting work-in-progress and participating in feedback rounds, this workshop will
support the mission and operations of community archives whereby (1) the cumulation of work
presented will result in the output of a thematic guide that catalogues materials on Black health and healthcare archived across the various community archives and (2) for there to be a roundtable
where historians and representatives of community archives engage in conversations on how to
preserve and remember Black health histories.

Abstract Submission Information:

If interested, submit your abstracts to Naomi Samake-Bäckert (ns2055@cam.ac.uk), and Che Kelly (che.kelly@qmul.ac.uk) by 23 March 2026.

1. Abstracts should be 250-300 words
2. Abstracts should clearly outline the following:
   -The main argument or research question
   -The historical period and geographical focus
   -The sources, which archive(s) they are coming from, and the methodology used
3. Abstracts should also clearly state:
   -Paper title
   -Author name(s) and institutional affiliation
   -Contact email address
   -A brief biography (50-100 words)

There are limited funds to possibly support travel expenses. If this may apply to you, please let us
know so that we can see how to best allocate the limited funding we have and/or do our best to
apply for further funding.