About

Join Marcus Ryder (journalist and Chair of RADA) for an evening discussing how can we resolve the inequality resulting from 400 years of the enslavement of African people and what, if anything, has changed in the year since the book he co-authored with Sir Lenny Henry, The Big Payback was published.

Marcus will be joined in conservation by Prof. Robert Beckford, and on a panel discussion with researchers Donna Petgrave and Charmaine Simpson, chaired by Prof. Shawn Hailemariam Sobers.

- New research –, Donna Petgrave and Charmaine Simpson Beckford Research Project PhD candidates (Vu University)
- Marcus Ryder MBE in conversation with Prof. Robert Beckford (Queen's Foundation, VU University Amsterdam)
- Panel Q&A chaired by Prof. Prof. Shawn Hailemariam Sobers (UWE)

All income from this event will support the Beckford Research Project – funding new research into the lives and legacies of those held in enslavement by the Beckford family.

With thanks to The Beckford Group and Bath Elim Church

About the speakers:

Marcus Ryder MBE

Marcus Ryder is the CEO of The Film & TV Charity and the Chair of RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) He is the co-author with Sir Lenny Henry of The Big Payback: The Case for Reparations for Slavery and How They Would Work (2025), Access All Areas - the Diversity Manifesto for TV and Beyond (2021), and co-editor of Black British Lives Matter (2021). Previously Head of External Consultancies at the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity

Prof Robert Beckford

Beckford is scholar-activist researching the intersections of faith and racial justice in and through diverse media texts and a BAFTA award winning documentary filmmaker. Beckford is Professorial Research Fellow, Queen's Foundation and Vrije Univeristy Amsterdam. He has written and presented over twenty films for the BBC, Channel 4 and Discovery USA. His films explore a range of themes including political critiques of the British Empire, biblical history and popular culture.

Donna Petgrave

Donna Petgrave (MA, FHEA) is a PhD candidate working on the Beckford Research Project. Her interdisciplinary research explores the social, historical, and religious relations between Alderman William Beckford (1709-1770) and the Black Beckford women he enslaved in 18th century Jamaica. She holds a Master's in Global Black Studies, Decolonisation & Social Justice, and has worked in Higher Education supporting students' academic and career development. Donna is a trained archivist and a mixed media artist and is keen to weave the various strands of her academic and professional experience into the development of creative ways to engage with questions of historical narrative formation, memory preservation and reparative justice. She is also an active member of the Liv Good Collective Knowledge Production (CKP) Program, through which she convenes with other academics, creatives and intellectuals, alternative spaces to reimagine, encourage, nurture and celebrate Black intellectual life. Donna enjoys reading, listening to music and dancing.

Charmaine Simpson

Charmaine Simpson is a PhD candidate on the Beckford Research Project, researching and uncovering the experiences of Black enslaved women represented in the archives of William Beckford (1760-1844). Charmaine is the Chief Executive Officer and cofounder of Black History Studies and the Director of Black History Study Tours Limited, which is dedicated to promoting cultural tourism to areas of African Heritage. She currently works with the Church Commissioners of the Church of England on Project Spire as a Research Engagement Coordinator, supporting and overseeing research exploring the Church of England's historical connections to transatlantic African chattel enslavement.

Prof. Shawn
Hailemariam Sobers

Shawn Hailemariam Sobers is a visual Anthropologist, working in writing, photography, and filmmaking, exploring narratives of belonging. He is Professor of Socially Engaged Practice at the University of the West of England. His book Black Everyday Lives, Material Culture and Narrative: Tings in de House (Routledge, 2023) explores Black British history through objects in rooms of a West Indian family home from the 1970s–80s. Sobers has directed documentaries for BBC1, ITV, Channel 4, and produced projects on heritage, Rastafari and Ethiopian cultures, transatlantic enslavement, youth creativity and youth homelessness. He is a trustee of Bath Preservation Trust.