Shawn Sobers' Outputs (69)

Point of View - Positioning public engagement central to your research. Case Study: Ethiopian echoes in a British Landscape AHRC Research Networks project (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This key-note presentation discussed approaches to research design and methodology, and offers thoughts towards how to connect research projects closer to real world experience and impact. The three areas discussed were; 1) Public engagement as the c... Read More about Point of View - Positioning public engagement central to your research. Case Study: Ethiopian echoes in a British Landscape AHRC Research Networks project.

The politics and myth of the Untold Story: From personal liberatory practice to decolonial discourse (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This talk will discussed a journey in creative practice and deconstructing motivations of making - from the personal to the political and the blurs inbetween. Sobers discussed modes of using creative culture to challenge to the colonial centre, and e... Read More about The politics and myth of the Untold Story: From personal liberatory practice to decolonial discourse.

Me and my work: Education, Photography, Filmmaking, and Rastafari philosophy (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

In this wide-ranging talk, Sobers discussed how he got to be where he is now with his career, shared some examples of his photography and films, and talked how Rastafari and Pan-Africanism has informed his creative practice and life choices.

TEDx - Ethiopian Echoes in the Bath landscape, and three lessons those echoes can teach us. (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This TEDx talk discussed how the history of the Ethiopian connection with the city of Bath can shed light on how we live today. The talk addressed three key lessons;

1) You can find sanctity in unexpected places
2) The need for calmness in times... Read More about TEDx - Ethiopian Echoes in the Bath landscape, and three lessons those echoes can teach us..

Democratising a decolonised functional and cultural heritage space (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This presentation discussed how Fairfield House in Bath, the former residence of Emperor Haile Selassie, could be considered a decolonised space - predominantly Black led, catering for predominantly (though not solely) Black audiences. Sobers discu... Read More about Democratising a decolonised functional and cultural heritage space.

Connection People and Places - Fairfield House case study (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Fairfield House was one of the case studies for the Connection People and Places research project, led by the Stephen Lawrence Trust in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

In my opening talk I explained the history... Read More about Connection People and Places - Fairfield House case study.

When the Prophet was angry with the Emperor: On Marcus Garvey's critique of Haile Selassie I, and the aligned legacy of both their logic (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Discussing the challenging moment in 1937 when Marcus Mosiah Garvey strongly criticised Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie for moving to Bath in the UK, to rally for support for Ethiopia's liberation from Mussolini's fascist invasion. Garvey attacked t... Read More about When the Prophet was angry with the Emperor: On Marcus Garvey's critique of Haile Selassie I, and the aligned legacy of both their logic.

Sankofa dialogues: Making things to make sense of colonial saturated embodied landscape (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Sankofa is a Ghanaian symbol which represents the idea that there is no shame in going back to fetch that which you have forgotten. The symbol is of a bird looking back with a seed it its mouth. The common interpretation is that the seed represents c... Read More about Sankofa dialogues: Making things to make sense of colonial saturated embodied landscape.

What is Rastafari? History, beliefs and philosophy of the Rastafari movement (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This talk sheds light on the core history and beliefs of the Rastafari faith, which Sobers considers to be the world's best secret. Sobers challenges some common misconceptions regarding the public perception of Rastafari culture. This talk also shed... Read More about What is Rastafari? History, beliefs and philosophy of the Rastafari movement.

Haile Selassie in exile, and life in the city of Bath (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This talk sets the scene of the circumstances of how and why Emperor came to the UK in exile, and how he came to settle in the city of Bath.

Transatlantic slavery connections with Bath (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

The predominant discourse relating to the South West's connections with the transatlantic slave trade tends to focus on Bristol, though Bath has got its story to tell. This public talk for Black History Month discusses the rise of Bath's economic for... Read More about Transatlantic slavery connections with Bath.

An auto-ethnographic dialogue with archive (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This provocation offered an analysis of a piece of photographic artwork I produced, a self-portrait inbetween two enslaved Africans. The Africans portrayed are named Jack and Delia, enslaved on a South Carolina plantation, photographed by Joseph T. Z... Read More about An auto-ethnographic dialogue with archive.

Hidden pluralities: Rastafari in the South West and the house where God lived (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

In this keynote presentation Sobers discusses the intricacies of the Rastafari faith, how it has been underestimated as a cultural movement, and how its legacies have local, national and global significance.
The paper is presented in three parts.... Read More about Hidden pluralities: Rastafari in the South West and the house where God lived.

Ethiopian echoes in the British landscape (2017)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Presentation about my ongoing work and research at Fairfield House, Bath, the former residence of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I. I discuss engagements with the site using creative media, arts and research, relationships with the local communitie... Read More about Ethiopian echoes in the British landscape.

Five corners of reggae music, and the house where Rastafari lived (2017)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This presentation began with a personal exploration of what reggae music means to me, from the perspective of five areas of life - Cultural/ Educational, Spiritual, Political, Entrepreneurial/ Resourcefulness, and Social. It then goes on to discuss... Read More about Five corners of reggae music, and the house where Rastafari lived.

Five corners of reggae music (2016)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

A personal exploration of what reggae music means to me, from the perspective of five areas of life - Cultural/ Educational, Spiritual, Political, Entrepreneurial/ Resourcefulness, and Social.

Speech given at the Afrika Eye Film Festival, 12 Novem... Read More about Five corners of reggae music.

Hidden presence: Comparative study of visualising the presence of Black people living in Georgian era Britain – an analysis of two participatory creative history projects (2016)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This paper will discuss the outputs and findings of three recently completed creative history projects, which worked in participatory ways to explore and visually respond to the lives of Black people living in Georgian and Victorian era Britain. All... Read More about Hidden presence: Comparative study of visualising the presence of Black people living in Georgian era Britain – an analysis of two participatory creative history projects.

What came first, the Black or the Arts? An autoethnography (2016)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This highly personal paper will discuss what inspired me about the Black Arts Movement and the critical decade’, and how has it continued to influence my arts practice and thinking.

Growing up in Bath in the 80s, leaving school in 1988 aged 16 to... Read More about What came first, the Black or the Arts? An autoethnography.

From networks to complexity - Creative Citizens project (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

From Networks to Complexity: two case studies from the AHRC Creative Citizens project. From the noticeboard in the newsagent’s window to multi-layered online networks using social networking technologies, citizens are increasingly accessing networks... Read More about From networks to complexity - Creative Citizens project.

Self-portraiture and portraiture in the dialogic moment (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This presentation will be an autoethnographic exploration of personal and public approaches to memory, reparation and reconciliation within implicit gendered contexts. Discussed will be personal art works ranging from my confessional works, activist... Read More about Self-portraiture and portraiture in the dialogic moment.