2906, 2020

The Decolonising SOAS Working Group – Statement in Support of Black Lives Matter

By Guest Author|June 29, 2020|In the Media|0 comments

As SOAS staff members of The Decolonising SOAS Working Group, we stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protestors around the world. We are appalled by the brutal murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by the US police and strongly condemn racism in all its forms. We recognise that this event has directly affected and traumatised Black students, students who have already suffered as a result of the disproportionate

1404, 2020

PODCAST: Understanding Decolonization, and China’s Response to Coronavirus

By Guest Author|April 14, 2020|In the Media|0 comments

Decolonising SOAS Working Group Chair, Meera Sabaratnam, took part in Chatham House’s podcast, Undercurrents. Meera was interviewed alongside Tristram Hunt about decolonisation, the role of civic institutions in re-thinking the legacies of the British Empire and how to break down colonial power structures. You can listen to the podcast here

0912, 2019

VIDEO: Decolonising the University: A Struggle for Our Times – Mead Lecture 2019

By Maya Goodfellow|December 9, 2019|In the Media|0 comments

In the Autumn of 2019, Decolonising SOAS Working Group Chair, Meera Sabaratnam, gave the Mead Lecture at Trinity College, Connecticut. The lecture was entitled “Decolonising the University: A Struggle for Our Times”. Below is a video of the lecture, as well as a description. Campaigns to ‘decolonise the university’ have spread rapidly around the world over the past five years – a spread which shows no sign of slowing down. Alongside

1510, 2019

VIDEO: What is racism, and how do we over come it?

By Maya Goodfellow|October 15, 2019|In the Media|0 comments

On Monday, 14 October 2019, Decolonising SOAS hosted a panel event entitled ‘What is racism, and how do we over come it?’. Below is the video of the event, as well as the event description and list of speakers. Over the past few years, racism – and how we should understand it – has increasingly been debated in the public domain. Some conversation has been focussed on what actually constitutes racism,

0207, 2019

The Guardian: Black academics bear brunt of university work on race equality

By Maya Goodfellow|July 2, 2019|In the Media|0 comments

By Harriet Swain “Earlier this year, Maxine Thomas-Asante asked her university if she could pause her work supporting black, Asian and minority ethnic students. She was running for office at her students’ union, finishing coursework and preparing for her final exams. “I had to say I’m going to take a break.” For the past two years, Thomas-Asante, co-president for democracy and education at Soas University of London student union, has

2802, 2019

BBC Radio 4: I Can’t Be Racist

By Saskia Kerkvliet|February 28, 2019|In the Media|0 comments

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002rkq Social psychologist Dr Keon West explores racial bias, and the concepts of both conscious and unconscious bias, drawing on the latest pyschological and sociological research. He examines common misconceptions surrounding racism and examines how bias is formed, asking how far we are responsible for our unconscious associations. The term “unconscious bias” has gained a great deal of popularity as an explanation for continued discrimination in Britain – and Unconscious

1902, 2019

Operation Black Vote: UK Establishment resisting attempt to ‘Decolonise Curriculum’

By Maya Goodfellow|February 19, 2019|In the Media|0 comments

19th February 2019 By Nina Kambili The complete version of this article can be found on the Operation Black Vote website, below is an extract. “[I]t is worth asking: what does “decolonising the curriculum” mean, and why has it been so divisive? As Dr. Meera Sabaratnam, a lecturer in International Relations and Chair of the Decolonising SOAS Working Group, recently explained in the Times: The project of decolonising education argues

1802, 2019

Meera Sabaratnam on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme

By Meera Sabaratnam|February 18, 2019|In the Media|0 comments

On 18th February 2019 Meera Sabaratnam, Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Chair of the Decolonising SOAS Working Group was on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. She was interviewed by presenter John Humphrys about what it can mean to decolonise. You can listen to the audio here:

1702, 2019

The Sunday Times: If we want a ‘global Britain’, we need to decolonise the curriculum

By Meera Sabaratnam|February 17, 2019|In the Media|0 comments

17th February 2019 By Meera Sabaratnam, Senior Lecturer in International Relations and chair of the Decolonising Soas working group “Decolonising education has been presented as the narcissistic demand of an anti-intellectual snowflake generation. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was quite young when I first read Jane Eyre. I chose it because I had read Roald Dahl’s Matilda, and she had read Emily Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Being a girl

3001, 2019

The Guardian: Students want their curriculums decolonised. Are universities listening?

By Saskia Kerkvliet|January 30, 2019|In the Media|0 comments

30 January 2019 By Harriet Swain “When students at the University of Cambridge called two years ago for more non-white writers and postcolonial thought to be included in their English curriculum, there was a backlash. Lola Olufemi, who led the call, became the target of online abuse after one report wrongly suggested it meant replacing white authors with black ones. Sam Gyimah, the then universities minister, later appeared to weigh