Stuart Hall Foundation

"The university is a critical institution, or it is nothing" - Stuart Hall, The Elephants' Graveyard and the Sociology of Race The ASA Culture Section Stuart Hall Award Lecture given by Professor Ben Carrington, University of Southern California Moderated by Professor Bin Xu, Emory University Wednesday December 10th, 2025 10AM (Pacific Time) Drawing upon the work and ideas of Stuart Hall, in this talk I offer a critique of recent arguments within the sociology of race that have attempted to downplay the continuing significance of racism. Against this conservative shift, I argue for a renewed form of imaginative sociology as a way to save the sociology of race and ethnicity from the elephants' graveyard of redundant subdisciplines. Reorientating sociology towards a more critical project is the only way for the discipline, and universities more generally, to remain relevant and capable of challenging the present reactionary moment.

Dr Ben Carrington delivers the inaugural ASA Culture Section Stuart Hall Award Lecture: “‘The university is a critical institution, or it is nothing’ - Stuart Hall, The Elephants’ Graveyard and the Sociology of Race.”

📅 Wed 10 Dec
🕕 10am (Pacific) / 6pm (UK)

Register:
emory.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Open letter calling on the Home Secretary and Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council to withdraw police guidance on naming suspects’ ethnicity and nationality We are writing as a coalition of racial justice, migrants’ rights, and civil society organisations, who have watched with increasing concern the damage being caused by the interim guidance issued by t...

We urge the government to adhere to its own civil society covenant principles, grounded in evidence and respect for human rights, and withdraw the guidance as a matter of urgency.

Read the full open letter and show your support here 👇

While this guidance may have intended to diffuse tension, in practice it achieves the opposite - stigmatising communities of colour and placing them at increased risk of racism and harm.

Police disclosing suspects’ ethnicity is fuelling prejudice, say campaigners Fifty groups write letter calling for policy in high-profile cases in England and Wales to be scrapped

We've written to the Home Secretary and Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council raising our concerns that guidance encouraging police forces to disclose the ethnicity and nationality of suspects charged in high-profile cases is having a devastating impact on our country.

Applications open for 2026 University of Sussex PGR Studentships - Stuart Hall Foundation The Stuart Hall Foundation is delighted to continue working with the University of Sussex, as part of the University’s AHRC Landscape Doctoral Programme, to offer two funded PhD studentships to black ...

An application information session for questions, support and guidance to potential applicants will take place this Wednesday, 3 December 2025, 2pm GMT.

Learn more and register for the webinar via our website:
www.stuarthallfoundation.org/opportunitie...

Applications for a place on a PhD Course at the University of Sussex must be made by 12 December 2025, 4pm GMT. Studentship applications are then due by 30 January 2026, 4pm GMT.

Part of the University of Sussex's AHRC Landscape Doctoral Programme, the postgraduate researcher will receive a scholarship for 3.75 years including UK PhD tuition fees, a stipend, and research and training costs.

University of Sussex AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award Stuart Hall Foundation Studentships Two PhD studentships offered to black British students or British students from ethnic minority backgrounds starting October 2026, as part of the AHRC Landscape Doctoral Programme. The AHRC SHF postgraduate researcher will conduct an independent research project (full or half-time), undertake a placement project and receive a scholarship. Scholarships cover UK fees, a stipend plus research and training costs. Eligible applicants will already have completed a relevant Masters, or have relevant work experience, and successfully applied to study from October 2026 at the Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities at the University of Sussex. Applications for PhD courses must be submitted by 12 December 2025, 4pm GMT. Studentship applications are due by 30 January 2026, 4pm GMT. Learn more at the applicant webinar on 3 December.

We are working with the University of Sussex to offer two funded studentship for the 2026-27 intake to black British students or British students from an ethnic minority background, who have successfully applied to study from October 2026 at the Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities.

"...we are bound to one another whether any of us like it or not, and maybe, just maybe the thing that oppresses you, oppresses us too." Selina Nwulu, The audacity of our skin, 2025

We are delighted to present poet and essayist Selina Nwulu's ‘The audacity of our skin’ (2025), a newly revisited version of her 2018 work which we commissioned as part of In Search of Common Ground.

Read the key artistic intervention into our programme:
www.stuarthallfoundation.org/resource/the...

In this talk, Dr Jamella N. Gow examined how global racial hierarchies rooted in histories of racialized Black labour under capitalism define Caribbean nations as Black. Tracing the global historical processes of colonialism, imperialist underdevelopment, and neoliberalism in the Caribbean, she show From Colonial Subjects to Black Nations: Racializing the Caribbean within Global Blackness

In case you missed it, the recording of our October #IdentitiesEvent is now available!

'From Colonial Subjects to Black Nations: Racializing the Caribbean within Global #Blackness' with Dr Jamella N. Gow

youtu.be/ZDg4dB22nqM

@aaronwinter.bsky.social @nasarmeer.bsky.social @jamellag.bsky.social

Event poster with list of speakers and titles: Alice Swift: Transformatory Experiences of Success and Failure in the Diffusion of the Climate Camp Tactic Across Europe. Lidia Yáñez Lagos: From Project to Process: Tracing a Recursive Inquiry into Memory, and resistance to Repression in Chile’s Social Uprising. Jan Mueller: The Perceived Feasibility of Working Time Transformation and the Ideal Worker Norm: 
Insights on Barriers to Supporting the Four Day 
Week from Organisational Vignettes. Shirley Zhang: The Paradox of AI Intimacy: Dreaming Girls 
and the Emotional Agency of AI in China. Elle Shea: From Structure to Sentiment: 
Rethinking Class through Intimacy.

🚨 Just over 1 week to go until this year's annual Sociology Symposium!
📅 3 Dec 12.30-4pm
📍 Williamson Bldg 4.08, UoM
☕ Refreshments provided

Join us for an afternoon of discussion, debate, and discovery!

Potential applicants should first apply to the Department of their choice for a PhD place, and will then be advised whether they can make a further application for this scholarship.

It is expected that the award-winner will be working in an interdisciplinary area of study focused on one of Stuart Hall’s many areas of interest: cultural studies, race, ethnicity and inequalities.

The funding, available to all nationalities, is for students undertaking study in any of the eight Departments within the School of Social Sciences: Criminology, Economics, Law, Philosophy, Politics, Social Anthropology, Sociology or Social Statistics.

The SHF Scholarship will be awarded to one student in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester for a PhD starting in September 2026, covering fees, a stipend and a research training grant.

The SHF Scholarship will be awarded to one student in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester for a PhD starting in September 2026, covering fees, a stipend and a research training grant. The funding, available to all nationalities, is for students undertaking study in any of the eight Departments within the School of Social Sciences: Criminology, Economics, Law, Philosophy, Politics, Social Anthropology, Sociology or Social Statistics. It is expected that the award-winner will be working in an interdisciplinary area of study focused on one of Stuart Hall’s many areas of interest: cultural studies, race, ethnicity and inequalities. Potential applicants should first apply to the Department of their choice for a PhD place, and will then be advised whether they can make a further application for this scholarship. Completed application programmes must be submitted by 1 December 2025, 5pm GMT.

Our continued partnership with the University of Manchester School of Social Sciences @uomsoss.bsky.social offers a studentship for a PhD candidate starting in Sep 2026.

Completed application programmes must be submitted by 1 Dec 2025, 5pm.

Learn more:
www.stuarthallfoundation.org/opportunitie...

Watch the event recording and access the transcript of the first conversation in this year's Reading the Crisis series, part of our In Search of Common Ground programme:
www.stuarthallfoundation.org/resource/rea...

Text overlayed over a photo. Text: Stuart Hall Foundation Fellowships: Scottish Graduate School of Social Science, beginning October 2026 Photo: a scholar participating in discussion at an SHF Peer Network programme event.

We are delighted continue our partnership with the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science, as SGSSS offer up to three Stuart Hall Fellowships starting in October 2026. SGSSS will award up to three SHF Fellowships, attached to funded studentships, covering fees, stipend and a research training grant. Recipients will also benefit from access to the SHF Peer Network programme, which includes regular events and opportunities to develop their career and research profile. Applications for these Fellowships are sought from UK candidates from non-traditional or disadvantaged backgrounds who are under-represented at graduate level in the Social Sciences in Scotland, and with a preference for those whose planned research aligns broadly with one of Stuart Hall’s many areas of interest: cultural studies, race, ethnicity and inequalities. Applicants can apply through SGSSS’s DTP Student-Led Open Competitions, with selected successful candidates invited to apply for a Stuart Hall Foundation (SHF) Fellowship. The SGSSS Student-Led Open Competition application submission deadline is 24 November 2025, 5pm GMT. Learn more about the application process via our website:

We are delighted continue our partnership with the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science, as @sgsss.bsky.social offer up to three Stuart Hall Fellowships for applicants under-represented at graduate level, starting in October 2026.

Learn more:
www.stuarthallfoundation.org/opportunitie...

Supported by Comic Relief, the Hollick Family Foundation, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, @conwayhall.bsky.social, @ethnicityuk.bsky.social and YCEDE.

Thank you to the SHF Trustees and Associates whose contributions made this event possible: Giorgia Doná, Michael Rustin and Nick Beech.

Photos from the SHF Peer Network Spring Workshop with Prof. Françoise Vergès, May 2025.

The SHF Peer Network were joined by the CoDE ECR Network and YCEDE, spending the day exchanging ideas and building connections around their practices.

Learn more:
www.stuarthallfoundation.org/resource/shf...

The Stuart Hall Essay Prize - Stuart Hall Foundation The second Stuart Hall Essay Prize is reopen to submissions, due by November 3, 2025 The Stuart Hall Foundation is pleased to invite submissions for the second Stuart Hall Essay Prize. Open to submiss...

Academic, journalistic, creative, biographical and other approaches to writing the essay are welcomed.

Learn more about the Essay Prize submission brief, eligibility and assessment criteria project page on our website:
www.stuarthallfoundation.org/projects/the...

The Stuart Hall Essay Prize. 25 days left to enter. Open to UK-based entrants aged 18-30, the Stuart Hall Essay Prize awards £2,000 to a selected writer whose essay best offers an original, radical critique of contemporary society. Welcoming academic, journalistic and creative essays that resonate with the lines of political, cultural and educational inquiry which Hall pursued. Inviting new and unpublished essays of 4500-5000 words connecting with Hall’s interests and his concern to address the current ‘conjuncture’. Submissions due by November 3, 2025. Stuart Hall Foundation | 10 Years.

Just a few days remain to enter this year's Stuart Hall Essay Prize, open until 5pm GMT on Monday November 3, 2025.

Open to submissions from UK-based entrants aged 18 to 30 inclusive, the prize invites new and unpublished writing that connects with Hall’s ideas and impacts broad public discourse.

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We're looking forward to sharing news, opportunities and updates on our In Search of Common Ground programme later this month.

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🔗👇 Link below

History on loop: the sustained impact of school exclusions on Black communities School exclusions are a form of structural racism, and indicate deep failings within educational settings.

Far from being a last resort, exclusions are used prematurely to bolster schools’ results. There is a failure of schools to recognise and respond to unmet needs, structural disadvantage, and the ongoing pervasiveness and impact of racism.

Read the full report 👇

School exclusions are a form of structural racism, and indicate deep failings within educational settings, our latest report with Communities Empowerment Network details 🧵

Expressions of interest to chair the Stuart Hall Foundation's Board of Trustees are due by 23:59 tonight.

Learn more: www.stuarthallfoundation.org/opportunitie...

Starting now - follow the conversation on YouTube live:
www.youtube.com/@StuartHallF...

In Search of Common Ground - Stuart Hall Foundation “How can we organise these huge, randomly varied, and diverse things we call human subjects into positions where they can recognise one another for long enough to act together, and thus to take up a p...

The foreword and preface of Uncut Funk is temporarily available to read via our website.

Reading the Crisis is part of our 2025 programme, In Search of Common Ground. Learn more about the programme:
www.stuarthallfoundation.org/projects/in-...

Chaired by @aasiyalodhi.bsky.social, the Reading the Crisis online conversation series aims to form an online teach-in space dedicated to demonstrating how engaging in a conjunctural analysis can enrich artistic practice as well as deepen organising work and academic study.