Annual lecture to ask is there’s ‘A Welsh Way’ for anti-racism and race politics?

Professor Charlotte Williams.

Professor Charlotte Williams, OBE, will deliver the annual lecture of the Welsh Political Archive at The National Library of Wales, Abeystwyth this Friday, October 18.
 
In her lecture, titled ‘From a Tolerant Nation to an Anti-Racist Nation?’, she offers a timely analysis of the distinctiveness and future of race politics in Wales.
 
The contrasting backdrops of Welsh Government’s Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan (ARWAP) and other public policy on race, alongside rioting in the UK and the wider success of Far-Right parties across Europe, make the focus of this lecture critical.

Professor Williams, said: “A critical shift has occurred in the socio-political landscape of race in the UK which leads us to consider a new social topography of race relations and a decentering of the race politics of the UK.
 
“With this lecture, I am suggesting an analysis that pivots on three phases or eras in the Welsh Government approach to race equality. These eras reflect particular triggers to change: Distinctiveness (Clear Red Water); Decoherence (new Equalities legislative era) and Decolonisation (Black Lives Matter and beyond).

​“These three eras beg the overall question: can governments comprehensively steer and sustain a path towards racial justice?”
 
Rob Phillips, from the Welsh Political Archive, said: "We are very proud to be able to welcome Professor Charlotte Williams to deliver this year's lecture at such a vital time in Welsh politics.
​
“The lecture is the pinnacle of the Political Archive's calendar and will be an opportunity to look forward to future developments while we celebrate the great political collections in the library, preserved for the benefit of the people. "
 
A graduate of Bangor University and now Emeritus Professor in the School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences there, Professor Williams retired recently. She was Professor of Social Work and Deputy Dean at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in Melbourne, Australia.
 
She holds Honorary Fellow appointments at Wrexham University and the University of South Wales. Alongside her academic career here and in Australia, Professor Williams is known for her ground breaking text, ‘A Tolerant Nation?’.
 
This text explores ethnic diversity in Wales and her award-winning memoir of growing up mixed race in Wales, ‘Sugar and Slate’, won Wales Book of the Year 2003.
 
The Welsh Political Archive was established in 1983 to co-ordinate the collection of documentary evidence of all kinds about politics in Wales.
 
It collects records and papers of political parties, politicians, semi-political organisations, campaigns and pressure groups, leaflets, pamphlets and other printed ephemera, posters and photographs and websites and tapes of radio and television programmes. Its work is not limited to a specific section of the library.
 
The archive's annual lecture was first held in 1987 and a number of academics, journalists, historians and politicians have had the opportunity to speak. Previous lecturers include Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos, Lord Roberts of Conwy, John Davies, Lord Bourne, Jeremy Bowen and Professor Angela John.
 
Tickets for the event and for the online stream can be ordered free of charge on the library website: https://www.library.wales/  . Following the event the full lecture text will be available on https://www.library.wales/welshpoliticalarchive .