In Conversation with Professor Barbara Savage a success

The Hall’s inaugural ‘in conversation’ event took place on Tuesday 25 January during which Professor Wes Williams talked to Professor Barbara Savage about Professor Merze Tate and Black Women’s Intellectual History. The event was hosted by the Principal of St Edmund Hall, Professor Katherine J. Willis and was attended by 35 people.

Professor Merze Tate was the first African-American woman to attend the University of Oxford. She was a Professor, Scholar and expert on United States diplomacy. Professor Williams asked Professor Savage about the life and times of Tate as well as drawing interesting comparisons between Tate’s life and Professor Savage’s. The conversation reflected on the different spaces in Oxford and how Tate moved into the physical and intellectual space traditionally occupied by white males as well as Tate’s time in India and how that impacted her political views.

Professor Savage is a scholar of twentieth century African American history with a focus on political and intellectual history, religious history, and women’s history. She is currently writing a biography of Merze Tate and was the visiting Harmsworth Professor at the University of Oxford in 2018.

This ‘in conversation’ event is available to watch on the Hall’s YouTube channel.