We have had a busy week celebrating women in and of the department of English this week. On Monday, we hosted the remarkable Jamaican woman poet Jean Binta Breeze who read from her recent collection The Verandah Poems and treated us to a some poetic memories of the 1980s and her significant contribution to dub poetry.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we celebrated the extraordinary Professor Edith Morley and discussed how her professional struggles and political convictions around equality in the early twentieth century relate to on-going campaigns for equality and diversity in higher education today. Alison Donnell, our current Head of School, was delighted to travel to the Woman’s Hour Studio and discuss this topic with Jane Garvey and Barbara Morris who edited the memoir. You can listen to the podcast here.
On Wednesday, Radio Berkshire’s presenter Anne Diamond was clearly moved by Morley’s story and suggested that a statue would be fitting tribute to her hard-won achievements. You can listen again here.
