What does it mean to decolonise the curriculum? Is it any different from ‘diversifying’ or ‘liberating’ it? And what does it have to do with courses which do not on the face of it have anything to do with colonialism, empire or race? Five years ago, BME students at UCL had to organise campaigns called ‘Why Is My Curriculum White?’ and ‘Why Isn’t My Professor Black?’ before the university started to explore how structural racism had shaped the past and present of its teaching and research – now UCL is among institutions aiming to reverse the marginalisation of black and non-Western thought on reading lists, dismantle the barriers to BME students’ success, and account for histories of racism within their own walls.

Led by Dr Catherine Baker, who began researching her recent book Race and the Yugoslav region: postsocialist, post-conflict, postcolonial? when wondering how her own specialism would meet the challenge of the UCL students’ campaigns, this session will explore what is at stake in striving to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum and invite participants to reflect on what transformations it might require, throughout the learning environment and beyond.

The session will be particularly relevant for staff who design, or are preparing to design, teaching and learning.

References
Ahmed, Sara. 2012. On being included: racism and diversity in institutional life (Durham, NC: Duke University Press).
Andrews, Kehinde. 2019. ‘Blackness, empire and migration: how Black Studies transforms the curriculum’. Area (in press).
Baker, Catherine. 2018. Race and the Yugoslav region: postsocialist, post-conflict, postcolonial? (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
Bhopal, Kalwant. 2018. White privilege: the myth of a post-racial society (Cambridge: Polity Press).
Collins, Patricia Hill, and Sirma Bilge. 2016. Intersectionality (Cambridge: Polity Press).
Decolonising SOAS Working Group. 2018. ‘Decolonising SOAS learning and teaching toolkit for programme and module convenors’.
‘“Decolonising” the curriculum’. 2019. Moral Maze, BBC Radio 4, 13 February.
Denzin, Norman K, Yvonna S Lincoln and Linda Tuhiwai Smith (ed.). 2008. Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies (London: Sage).
Mignolo, Walter D. 2000. Local histories/global designs: coloniality, subaltern knowledges and border thinking (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Swain, Harriet. 2019. ‘Students want their curriculum decolonised: are universities listening?’ The Guardian, 30 January.
Tuck, Eve, and K Wain Yang. 2012. ‘Decolonization is not a metaphor’. Decolonization 1 (1): 1–40.

UK Professional Standards Framework (HEA, 2011)
This event aligns to the UKPSF through the following core Activities (A), Knowledge (K) and Values (V):

• A1: Design and plan learning activities and/or programmes of study
• A4: Develop effective learning environments and approaches to student support and guidance
• V1: Respect individual learners and diverse learning communities
• V4: Acknowledge the wider context in which higher education operates recognising the implications for professional practice.