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.
By Dr Manjeet Ramgotra The recent Department for Education proposal on the theory component of the Politics A-Levels raises the question as to what counts as knowledge. The proposal more or less excises women and non-white men from the curriculum and limits understandings of what politics is, who produces knowledge and the type of knowledge that is produced. These questions are not limited to secondary education curricula. They are relevant
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
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
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
10 January, 2017 by Tom Whyman “We all know what students are like nowadays, don’t we? Special snowflakes who can’t cope with the real world, who refuse to venture out of their safe spaces to learn anything, who are so achingly PC they won’t even let their institutions serve sushi in the cafeteria. When they’re not wasting their lives on social media or fighting for a fairer world for all,
