The role of the librarian in decolonising the curriculum

1. The role of the librarian in decolonising the curriculum Presented by Geoff Morgan at Oxford Brookes University Library’s Teachmeet June 17th 2019

2. INTRODUCTION Why am I talking about this? What is decolonising the curriculum? Where does it come from? Why do it? How can a librarian help with this?

3. Why am I talking about this? Inspired by a tale in two Cities!! And a tale of two conferences!!

4. ARCLIB Conference 2019 Venice

5. Talis Insight Europe 2019 Birmingham

6. What is decolonising the curriculum? No simple definition but here are three: • Decolonising the Curriculum asks us to think about the implications of a more diverse student body in terms of pedagogy and achievement. because we live in a society marked by structural inequalities of different kinds, as educators we must work hard to give our students equal opportunities to flourish and succeed (SOAS, 2017) • Decolonisation of the curriculum is a profound project that is concerned with addressing the devastation and ongoing violence that European empires have perpetuated against people, mostly but no exclusively in/from the global south (Singh, 2018) • The definition of “decolonising the curriculum” remains a grey area. There’s also no clarity about whose responsibility it is to undertake this process. It’s crucial to develop shared understandings and ideas of the meaning of both curriculum and decolonisation, (DEFSA, 2019)

7. Where does this come from ? Why now? • Rhodes Must Fall campaign - started in South Africa but in the UK students at Oxford University campaigned for the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College and at the same time requested more inclusive learning. (Robinson, 2016) • Further demands made at Birmingham University, Cambridge University, LSE and SOAS (Swain, 2019) • Most reading lists in my discipline of political and international relations consist of an overwhelming majority of white authors… and ignores excellent scholarship produced by BAME scholars (Muldoon, 2019)

8. ARCLIB 19 Venice Jess Crilley, Associate Director University of the Arts London (UAL) Library Services • Staff at UAL have been involved in the RAS (Retain Achieve, Succeed) Research Programme • Explores disparity between levels of degrees awarded to UK Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and Uk white students. • Focus of the study is the institution and curriculum rather than student body

9. University of the Arts London: about their students Ethnicity: 47% BAME 53% White Gender: 78 % Female 24 % Male 231 students identify as trans (UAL 2018, p.6)

10. How can a Librarian help with decolonising the curriculum? AT UAL the library has looked at collections and in particular reading lists With Architecture a checklist was developed: • Authorship and identity • Intersectionlity • Geographical coverage • Place of Publication • Voice and ownership • Date • Language and translation

11. Reading Lists at the UAL London College of Communication (LCC)

12. UAL: The printed Historical Collection They looked at the printed historical collections and the potential provocations such as: • Cultural misappropriation • White centring • Labelling

13. UAL: Exhibition Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Exhibition and events at the Camberwell and Chelsea Libraries 4 December November 2018 - 31 January 2019 • Presentations by subject librarians about the collections • Lunchtime book talks by staff and students discussing titles that have been influential in their thinking about decolonisation and other ideas • Decolonising the Arts Curriculum playlist set up on Box of Broadcasts • Decolonising Spaces of Learning

14. University of Kent • Talis Insight Europe 2019: The University of Kent’s project to improve diversity in the curricula • Presentation by Emma Mires-Richards and Sarah Field, Liaison Librarians and Evangeline Agyeman and Collin Konadu Menshah , Student Diversity Mark Officers at the University of Kent • Diversity Mark Project Officers aim was to audit reading lists by finding nationalities and ethnicities of authors within these reading lists • Disproportion in terms of sources and ethnicities of the authors most prominent being British male.

15. University of Kent: “Why the Library?”

16. University of Kent • Librarians worked with the School of European and Cultural Languages • Carried out an inclusive reading review • Entered into columns on Aspire - gender, ethnicity, year of publication, publisher, place of publication etc. • Data shared with academics using infographics. • Led to a dialogue with students about the reading lists. • Good response from academics • Internal funding made available for the project. • Students involved in project.

17. University of Kent • Launching a toolkit for academics (still a work in progress) • Looking at other universities LIS-DECOLONISE@jiscmail.ac.uk

18. Oxford Brookes University • Diversifying the Curriculum at Brookes • Oxford Brookes Library Inclusive Curriculum reading list by Debbie Lenihan (Business School Librarian) • Any other projects by librarians? • Potential at brookes for library engagement? • In Architecture - discussions about encouraging diversity: Steven Lawrence

19. Questions and discussion ??? !!!

20. References DEFSA (2019) Universities can’t decolonise the curriculum without defining it first. Available at: http://www.defsa.org.za/articles/universities-can%E2%80%99t-decolonise (Accessed:3/6/2019) Gurnham, Singh (2018) ‘What is decolonisation really about?’ Decolonisng the Arts Curriculum: Perspectives on Higher Education (19/01/2018) . Available at https://decolonisingtheartscurriculum.myblog.arts.ac.uk/ (Accessed:3/6/2019) Muldoon, J (2019) ‘Academics it’s time to get behind decolonising the curriculum’, The Guardian, 20 March. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/20/academics-its-time-to-get-behind-de /20/academics-its-time-to-get-behind-decolonising-the-curriculum (Accessed: 9/6/2019) Robinson, Yusuf (2016) Oxford Cecil Rhodes statue must fall - it stands in the way of inclusivity’, The Guardian, 19 January. Available at: lhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/19/rhodes-fall-oxford-university-inclusivity-black-students (Accessed: 8/6/2019 ) SOAS (2017) ‘Decolonising the Curriculum: “Whats all the Fuss About’, SOAS Blog, 18 January. Available at: https://www.soas.ac.uk/blogs/study/decolonising-curriculum-whats-the-fuss/ (Accessed: 9/6/2019 ) Swain, H (2019) ‘Students want their curriculums decolonised: are universities listening?’ The Guardian, 30 January. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/30/students-want-their-curriculums-decolonised-are-universities-listening (Accessed: 9/6/2019)

21. References UAL (2018) Student equality, diversity and inclusion report 2018, UAL, London. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/89211/UAL-Equality-Diversity-Inclusion-Report-2018.pdf (Accessed: 9/6/2019)