The role of the media in the 1959 theatre boycotts is to be the subject of the next instalment of Think Fest.

Dana “Zhyon” Selassie will discuss research findings in a presentation called Navigating Media and Race in a Segregated Colony at Liberty Theatre on Sunday.

Dr Selassie said: “This presentation on Bermuda’s colonial media in the 1950s, and more directly, on the Bermuda Recorder, offers a vital piece in the analysis of Bermuda’s media industry, race and national identity, and how these factors impacted and helped to shape the outcome of the Bermuda theatre boycotts.

“The Bermuda Recorder’s role in the fight for the desegregation, for example, is an essential part of Bermuda’s story, and a vital historical contribution to the black Bermudian experience.

“This presentation offers a deeper understanding and illustration as to how media was used as a tool that supported and helped to orchestrate new articulations of black identity as the island navigated racial integration.”

The newspaper was renowned as the island’s only publication covering the black community for 49 years, until its closure in 1975.

Dr Selassie has been involved in Bermuda’s television industry for more than 25 years, working locally and internationally as a television producer, film director, media strategist, educator and researcher.

She is a lecturer on film and television at De Montfort University in Britain, and her research includes critically examining political and cultural practices within Bermuda’s emerging radio and television industries from the 1940s to 1960s, as a colonial broadcast historian.

Think Fest is an opportunity for the island to celebrate and acknowledge Bermudian academics and independent thinkers, a platform for networking with potential employers, funders, other academics and researchers and a forum for discussing the latest research in a wide variety of fields.

Each of the presenters will discuss a single topic for an extended period, followed by a chat with a host and audience participation.

This year, more than a dozen Bermudian academics will present on topics such as the latest developments in cancer research, linguistics, media and race, ethnobotany and crime.

Sunday’s event takes place at 7pm. Tickets are available at think.bm or at the door.