Black Humanities Project

Black Humanities Project, part of Empower, is run by students for students. The aim? Encouraging young people from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds to consider studying arts and humanities subjects at university.

Black Humanities Project (BHP) is a student-led grassroots initiative, designed to address the disparity and close the degree-awarding gap between white students and Black and minority ethnic students.

We’ll give your students the opportunity to tell their own stories, and hear untold or undervalued stories of those who came before them. They’ll have the space to explore their own passions and learn how they can harness creativity in their own futures. Inspirational role models will be on hand throughout, in the form of our UEA student co-ordinators from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

The creative pieces your students generate could be included in the Black Humanities Anthology, which will be professionally printed and distributed to participants, school libraries, and hopefully public libraries in Norfolk.

The BHP team, made up of dedicated student co-ordinators and UEA Outreach staff, delivers a range of events and workshops each year, including:

Expose. Explore. Empower.

An on-campus event for Black and minority ethnic students in Year 9. A day of hands-on activities that spotlight untold stories and empower your students to make informed decisions about their futures.

BHP Workshops

Our BHP student co-ordinators (all of whom are studying humanities subjects at UEA) are offering a selection of in-school workshops. They’re designed to increase students’ understanding of the skills they can develop by studying arts and humanities – and to get creative juices flowing! Content can be tailored to suit a range of year groups. Workshops on offer include:

Humanities in Action (45-60 minutes)

Discover exciting career paths in the humanities with this dynamic, interactive session. We’ll introduce your students to the vast world of arts and humanities careers, empowering them to explore their own options. Students will consider how humanities subjects can prepare them for diverse industries, from publishing, to writing for TV and film, to working in museums. They’ll identify their strengths, connect them to key skills within the humanities, and pitch careers where these skills can shine.

Our Stories, Our Voices: Creating an Anthology (45-60 minutes)

The Black Humanities Project Anthology will be a published collection of creative pieces, all produced by BHP participants throughout the schools we work with. This workshop introduces the concept of an anthology as a collective creative project. It focuses on helping students identify themes of culture, identity, and heritage in their lives, and translate those themes into creative works. Through discussions, brainstorming, and writing/drawing activities, students will begin creating a piece they can later refine and submit to be published in the BHP Anthology!

In collaboration with Egg Box Publishing, the BHP Anthology will be printed and a copy given to each participant. We’ll also provide copies for your school library so others have the chance to explore your students’ work.

Would you like to arrange Black Humanities Project workshops in your school?

Complete the expression of interest form below.