Join us in February for: The Enigma of Arrival exhibition

A series of events on the theme of Caribbean Migration to Britain will be hosted this month at St Andrews. The events include an exhibition on the Enigma of Arrival documenting Windrush stories, a webinar on the same subject presented by the Cultural Identity and Memory Studies Institute (CIMS) and a virtual Chaplaincy service on Sunday with Caribbean-themed music.

Enigma of Arrival: The Politics and Poetics of Caribbean Migration to Britain will be displayed in the cloisters of St Salvator’s Quad from Saturday 6 to Sunday 28 February 2021 and is also available online virtually.

The exhibition displayed outside in the historic University Quad considers the shared histories that underlie Caribbean migration to Britain. Originally devised by the University of the West Indies in collaboration with the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, and subsequently interpreted by student groups in St Andrews, the exhibition reflects upon the political and social issues that led to these movements and the Windrush Scandal of 2018, as well as the impact of these cultural exchanges on British society. For more information, email shared-histories@st-andrews.ac.uk. 

An affiliated webinar presented by CIMS on Caribbean migration to Britain will take place via Zoom on 11 February 2021. Professor Catherine O’Leary, Director of CIMS and from the School of Modern Languages, will chair the webinar, moderated by Professor Huon Wardle, Head of Department of Social Anthropology. Please email cims@st-andrews.ac.uk to attend this webinar or use the Zoom link to join the event.

Project Principal Investigator and Senior Lecturer in the School of Art History, Dr Karen Brown, reflects: “The exhibition and discussion are taking place at a key time for the University of St Andrews and its commitment to social responsibility. It speaks not only to a wide range of research taking place led by the Humanities, Social Sciences and the Museums of the University of St Andrews this semester, but also to broader issues in the Sciences around Global Challenges relating to colonialism and ecology.”

These events are funded by the Scottish Funding Council SARRF award for “restarting” research hampered by the impacts of Covid-19. The original Enigma of Arrival exhibition was launched in Barbados as part of the four-year EU-LAC Museums project led by the School of Art History, through funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 693669. This project involved the development of an interactive Virtual Museum of Caribbean Migration and Memory with the University’s Open Virtual Worlds team. The St Andrews iteration of the Enigma of Arrival exhibition can also be viewed on the EULAC Museums website.

The theme of this Sunday’s Service of Worship will be Windrush Stories, with Caribbean music and a sermon by University Chaplain, Revd Dr Donald MacEwan, on The Welfare of the City. The livestreamed service will be available online via the Worship web page from 11am on Sunday 7 February.