The Center for Communication, Cultural and Media Studies (Queen Margaret University) is screening the 15-minute film ‘Strike for Freedom: Frederick Douglass in Scotland’, which chronicles efforts to memorialise Frederick Douglass’s abolitionist work in Scotland.

In the 19th-century, Edinburgh was a city of freedom for Black social justice campaigners born into slavery in the USA. Committed to ‘telling the story of the slave’ and the ‘strike for freedom’, Douglass and other Black abolitionists came to the city to collaborate, speak publicly, and to inspire thousands to join the anti-slavery campaign.

Following the film, we will have a round-table discussion with the panel below, leaving space for questions from the audience too.

Register to attend here

• Parisa Urquhart, documentary director and producer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Director of Strike for Freedom: Frederick Douglass in Scotland, as well as Scotland, Slavery and Statues and Long Live Livi, both currently available on BBC iPlayer
• Wacera Kamonji, former Queen Margaret University student, who was previously marketing coordinator at Africa in Motion film festival and a festival assistant for Femspective film Festival, as well as administrator for Kenyan Women in Scotland
• Dr Geetha Marcus, senior lecturer at QMU. A sociologist, feminist and teacher activist whose research and teaching interests focus on social inequalities within public education systems
• Patrick Boxall, Lecturer in Initial Teacher Education at QMU, focused on creative pedagogies, social justice and outdoor learning.
• Dr Stefanie Van de Peer, Lecturer in Film and Media at QMU. Stefanie serves as trustee and programmer for the Africa in Motion Film Festival and founded MONA, a festival in Antwerp (Belgium) dedicated to Middle Eastern and North African film

Header Image: Photograph by Bettmann/Bettmann Archive