Recent and Forthcoming Events in the CVC
Find out more about the events organised by the Centre for Visual Cultures.
The Centre for Visual Cultures regularly organises, supports and hosts talks, workshops, exhibitions and other events at Royal Holloway's campus and beyond, and online.
Our hosted events can be booked via the CVC Eventbrite page.
Image shows Dr James Kent with students at the exhibition This Is Cuba.
Violence, Migrant Women and Cinema: Diop, Witches and the Chorus in Saint Omer (2022)
A two-day seminar, 13 & 14 April 2026
When: 13th April 9am-8pm | 14th April 9am-1pm
Where: Stewart House, 32 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5DN
Organisers: Prof. James S Williams, Prof. Stephi Hemelryk Donald, Dr Kaya Davies Hayon
Sponsor: Society for French Studies
Places are limited, so please send your RSVP by March 15th 2026 to: centreforvisualcultures@royalholloway.ac.uk
Based on a fait divers, Alice Diop’s Saint Omer (2022) tells the story of a French novelist of Senegalese heritage who attends the trial of a Senegalese woman accused of infanticide after leaving her 15 month old daughter on a beach to drown in the northern French town of Saint-Omer. The film has been consistently praised – ‘mysterious, tragic and intimately unnerving’ (The Guardian, 2 Feb 2023) – and is the subject of ongoing critical and academic debate.
The seminar is a multi-disciplinary event with contributions from scholars of French film and theatre studies, classical drama, postcolonial and migration studies, Senegalese culture and politics, and legal history. Our speakers explore how the film’s fictional representation of a real-life trial subverts the conventions of the procedural drama and brings the themes of maternal violence, race and racism in contemporary France, West African sorcery and maraboutage, migration and exile, justice and ethics, performance and theatricality, into dialogue with one another.
We will discuss how the film examines legacies of colonial harm, how the Medea myth is deployed in the film to open up questions of the French judicial system and maternal crime, death and performance in European traditions of theatre, and how Diop’s vision foregrounds violence, migration and gender in European coding of innocence and guilt. The event will include screenings of Saint Omer and a specially commissioned film for the event, as well as an evening performance.
Speakers include:
Astou Fall Gueye (U of Pittsburgh); Joseph Harris (Royal Holloway); Anna Bendrat (Catholic University, Lublin / Migramedia); Sophie Niang (King’s College London); Melissa Oliver-Powell (U of York); Emma Cox (Royal Holloway); Stephi Hemelryk Donald (Royal Holloway/U of Crete); David Bullen (Royal Holloway); William Pooley (U of Bristol); Kaya Davies Hayon (Open University); Nicholas Harrison (King’s College London); Tony Warner (Black History Walks); James S Williams (Royal Holloway).
Film-makers and performers include:
Rosie Hilal, Anthony Taylor, Giannis Mathioudakis (University of Crete; IMS FORTH), Susana Millan-Caballero (Royal Holloway, Theatre and Drama Department).
The story of the CFA (West African Franc)
Seminar/Film screening, 18 March 2026
When: Wednesday 18 March 2026, 6:30pm
Where: Stewart House, 32 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5DN
Screening of Money, Freedom, A History of the CFA Franc plus Q&A
This event is organised by Black History Walks as part of 60 Years Since 1965 the first ever Race Relations Act, and 20 years of the African Odysseys film seriess in collaboration with the Centre for Visual Cultures, Royal Holloway, University of London.
For further details and registration, please go to:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/financial-slavery-the-cfa-in-africa-plus-qa-african-odysseys-tickets-1892486822029?aff=oddtdtcreator
20C leaders in Francophone West Africa: assessing their history and legacy
Seminar, 11 March 2026
When: Wednesday 11 March 2026, 6:30pm
Where: Stewart House, 32 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5DN
A review of French colonial behaviour toward 'independent' African nations linked to films/books which tell these suppressed stories
This event is organised by Black History Walks as part of 60 years since 1965 the first ever Race Relations Act, and 20 years of the African Odysseys film series in collaboration with the Centre for Visual Cultures, Royal Holloway, University of London.
For further details and registration, please go to:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/6-african-leaders-removed-by-the-french-impact-and-legacy-tickets-1844870349879?aff=oddtdtcreator
Blog: Workshop with Simon Roberts
by Chiara Bordignon, March 2023
In March 2023, photographer Simon Roberts visited Royal Holloway to provide a workshop for UG and PG students in order to develop their creative practice. Chiara Bordignon here details the events of this successful and thought-provoking event.
