New Generation Thinkers – Cardiff lecturer shortlisted

A Modern Languages lecturer has been shortlisted by the BBC and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for 2022’s New Generation Thinkers Scheme.

Jesús Sanjurjo, a lecturer in Hispanic and Latin American Studies and the of author of In the Blood of Our Brothers, is one of sixty academics from across the UK to have made it to the current round of the scheme which gives early career researchers a chance to cultivate the skills needed to communicate their research findings to those outside the academic community.

If successful, Jesús will be one of ten finalists to be given a unique opportunity to develop their own programmes for BBC Radio 3 and a chance to regularly appear on air. The AHRC will also provide media training for the finalists and offers the possibility of working with BBC TV.

Jesús’ proposal is a radio podcast on Black Soldiers of the Caribbean, which will interrogate the intersection of Blackness, radical politics, slavery and resistance in the Caribbean via interviews, music and short stories.

Jesús will take part in workshops in January 2022 which will allow the BBC and AHRC to see how he and the other academics shortlisted think and come up in ideas. The group will also hear tips on how to communicate their ideas and will be given the opportunity to develop and pitch their proposals to experienced producers whilst also hearing from New Generation Thinkers alumni.

“My proposal explores the central role that Black people, men and women, soldiers and civilians, enslaved and free, played in shaping the Caribbean in the years after the Haitian Revolution. A combination of short stories, interviews and music will immerse the listeners in the history of slavery, resistance, revolution and its legacies in one of the most fascinating regions of the world: the Caribbean.”

Following January’s workshops, up to ten finalists will be selected by a panel of BBC and AHRC representatives to go forward to develop their own essay for broadcast on Radio 3.

New Generation Thinkers was launched in November 2010 at Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival of Ideas. Since 2010, more than 100 academics from across the UK have presented documentaries on Radio 3, the BBC World Service and also taken part in discussion programmes and made taster films for BBC Arts Online.