Professor Gurminder Bhambra and Dr Meera Sabaratnam, will speak on their experience of both the theory and practice of ‘decolonising the curriculum’. Professor Bhambra recently co-edited the publication ‘Decolonising the University ’, which considers the historical and disciplinary context of the decolonising the university movement, and includes contributions offering practical suggestions and discussion of broader theoretical questions.
From being seen of marginal concern, over the past 10 years, the existence of a significant attainment gap between white and ‘Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) undergraduate students is now high on the agenda for most UK universities, but especially those institutions that have an ethnically diverse student body. As well as providing an overview of the nature and scale of ‘the problem’, this presentation will critically explore some of the ways in which BME attainment been theorised ranging from, student deficit, a product of unconscious bias, institutional/structural racism, and colonial curriculum. The presentation will end by offering a range of strategies for addressing the problem.
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
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
By Dr Meera Sabaratnam You may have recently read false news reports that SOAS students have called for the removal of white philosophers such as Plato and Kant from their reading lists. It bears repeating that these reports are untrue – they are calling for a greater representation of non-European thinkers, as well as better historical awareness of the contexts in which scholarly knowledge has been produced. This is part
