2911, 2018

BBC Asian Network: Kieran Yates and Meera Sabaratnam on Statues and Colonial History

By Saskia Kerkvliet|November 29, 2018|In the Media|0 comments

29 November 2018 Hosted by Kieran Yates Dr Meera Sabaratnam, Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Chair of the Decolonising SOAS Working Group, joins Kieran Yates on the BBC Asian Network to discuss the movement to decolonise curricula and knowledge, and weigh in on the debate over who we remember, how and why in our public spaces. Listen at the BBC Asian Network: Statues and Colonial History. Starts at 57:08.

1810, 2018

The Telegraph: Focus on slavery is putting black children off history, teachers warned

By Saskia Kerkvliet|October 18, 2018|In the Media|0 comments

18 October, 2018 by Camilla Turner “Teachers must stop devoting so much time to slavery because it puts black children off History, the Royal Historical Society has said. “A new report by the society has found that the ‘seemingly relentless focus’ on the exploitation and abolition of slavery can be ‘intellectually limiting and, at times, alienating; for black pupils. “Aside from slavery, the history of British black and minority ethnic

1509, 2018

Historyradio.org: The debate over suppressed history, with Dag Herbjørnsrud

By Saskia Kerkvliet|September 15, 2018|In the Media|0 comments

15 September, 2018 Dag Herbjørnsrud (born 1971) is a Norwegian historian of ideas, author, and founder of Center for Global and Comparative History of Ideas, and a former political columnist for Al-Jazeera’s English website. “A controversial row is dividing Norwegian and European historians and researchers these days: decolonization of academia. What does it actually mean? Some seem to think that it is a matter of giving credit where credit is

2208, 2018

Coverage in the Norwegian media

By Maya Goodfellow|August 22, 2018|In the Media|0 comments

Decolonising SOAS received press coverage in two Norwegian news sources in the summer of 2018. This coverage was in both the daily newspaper Klassekampen and the online newspaper forskning.no, which was set up by the Research Council of Norway. Both newspapers interviewed Decolonising SOAS chair, Meera Sabaratnam about what it can mean to decolonise and why it is important. You can find both articles here and here.

2806, 2018

openDemocracy: Secondary school curriculums remain sorely lacking in diversity

By Saskia Kerkvliet|June 28, 2018|In the Media|0 comments

28 June 2018 by Mie Astrup Jensen “Over the last five years, there has been a remarkable surge in student activism and campaigning aimed at decolonising higher education across the globe. In South Africa, the 2015 #FeesMustFall protests have grown into a movement that is fighting to transform historically Afrikaans universities. While in Chile, the 2011-2013 student demonstrations pressured the government to adopt a tuition-free policy in 2016, with the

1605, 2018

The Guardian: It’s time for universities to make race equality a priority

By Saskia Kerkvliet|May 16, 2018|In the Media|0 comments

16 May, 2018 By Valerie Amos “When I was appointed director of Soas University of London in 2015, I was astounded to discover that I was the first person of African-Caribbean descent to head a UK university. Ever since, I find myself frequently asked why there is such a lack of black, Asian and minority ethnic representation in senior management in higher education. “I don’t have a simple answer to

2602, 2018

LinkedIn: Decolonising Knowledge: The Role Universities Can Play

By Saskia Kerkvliet|February 26, 2018|In the Media|0 comments

February 26, 2018 by Valerie Amos “In the last year, there has been a lot of interest in how to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum in universities in a number of countries around the world including the UK, US and South Africa. Not everyone has been positive about the agenda. What I find difficult to understand is why there is so much resistance to looking at the wealth of history, scholarship and

2102, 2018

The Times: University pledges to ‘decolonise’ degrees after listening to students

By Saskia Kerkvliet|February 21, 2018|In the Media|0 comments

21 February, 2018 by Nicola Woolcock “A leading university is ‘decolonising’ its curriculums as part of a culture shift, its director revealed yesterday. “Baroness Amos, the Labour life peer who runs the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London, said it had established a working group on decolonisation and was listening to the perspectives of students. “Oxford University changed its history degree to include a compulsory examination on

2002, 2018

The Telegraph: Students must have the right to avoid talks which offend them, university chief says

By Saskia Kerkvliet|February 20, 2018|In the Media|0 comments

20 February 2018 by Camilla Turner “Students must have the right to avoid talks which offend them, the UK’s first female black university leader has said. “Universities should uphold free speech but in a way that is sensitive to the needs of students who have had ‘painful and difficult experiences’, according to Baroness Amos, who is Director of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas). “Speaking at a Higher

2410, 2017

The Telegraph: Cambridge to ‘decolonise’ English literature

By Saskia Kerkvliet|October 24, 2017|In the Media|0 comments

24 October, 2017 by Camilla Turner “Cambridge University’s English Literature professors could replace white authors with black writers, following proposals put forward by academic staff in response to student demands to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum. “For the first time, lecturers and tutors would have to ‘ensure the presence’ of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) writers on their course, under plans discussed by the English Faculty’s Teaching Forum. “The University denies there are