The population of everyday, ordinary Black women in London had a wide range of relationships, actions, and experiences. Yet, to observe the ordinary Black woman in everyday spaces like the parish, the court or the street, we depend on archival materials that present brief and referential recorded instances of Black women that, by the nature of their record-keeping practices, absent their subjective experiences.
Hence, the full range of their experiences in London is lacking. By adopting a methodology incorporating social history and creative practices, my research explores if and how we can broaden our consciousness and critique Black women’s lives in eighteenth-century London using these same recorded instances. In this paper, using case studies, I explore my methods for examining Black women’s lives and if/how we can gauge the possible traces of their experiences and their navigations of blackness and femininity in everyday London society.
Montaz Marché is a historian, writer and theatre director in the final stages of her PhD at the University of Birmingham. Her thesis examines Black women’s lives in eighteenth-century London and is titled Mapping the Dark and Feminine: Black Women in Eighteenth-Century London. She works as a Project Lead for the This is Black Britain project and is the Artistic Director of the Ruckus Theatre Company. She regularly works in historical consultancy, media, television, and public engagement and has recently featured on television and radio projects with the BBC and Channel 4.
We are pleased to announce the forthcoming University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Multi-disciplinary Gender Research Seminar for the Lent term 2025 on Monday 3 March at 12.30pm. The Gender Research Seminars offer academics and graduate students an opportunity to present their work-in-progress to a multi-disciplinary audience interested in gender, in a friendly and informal atmosphere. Seminars are held on specified days during Michaelmas and Lent and everyone is welcome to attend.
The seminars are organised and chaired by Sigal Spigel. If you would like more information about this series, or are interested in presenting your work at a Gender Research Seminar, please visit the Centre’s website at: https://www.gender.cam.ac.uk/Events/genderseminars
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