# data[].attributes.headline
Decolonising and Diversifying - Recommended Reading for Library Staff and Educators - University of Sussex

# data[].attributes.subject
Decolonising and Diversifying - Recommended Reading for Library Staff and Educators - University of Sussex

# data[].attributes.body
https://rl.talis.com/3/sussex/lists/086E3E5A-AF61-317D-0687-6E3D6960C01D.html?lang=en-US

# data[].attributes.body
Archives For Black Lives in Philadelphia (A4BLiP) is a loose association of archivists, librarians, and allied professionals in the area responding to the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement.

# data[].attributes.headline
BAME staff experiences of academic and research libraries by Dr Mohammed Ishaq and Dr Asifa Maria Hussain [PDF]

# data[].attributes.subject
BAME staff experiences of academic and research libraries by Dr Mohammed Ishaq and Dr Asifa Maria Hussain [PDF]

# data[].attributes.body
Issue #01

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A zine created by BAME library workers documenting their experience working in libraries.

A zine created by BAME library workers documenting their experience working in libraries.

Connecting content to people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A zine created by BAME library workers documenting their experience working in libraries.

# data[].attributes.body
Collection of PPT and Posters from conference

# data[].attributes.headline
Kimberlé Crenshaw - The urgency of intersectionality 

# data[].attributes.subject
Kimberlé Crenshaw - The urgency of intersectionality 

# data[].attributes.body
18 minute video - explains intersectionality.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kimberlé Crenshaw: The urgency of intersectionality

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Now more than ever, it's important to look boldly at the reality of race and gender bias -- and understand how the two can combine to create even more harm. Kimberlé Crenshaw uses the term "intersectionality" to describe this phenomenon; as she says, if you're standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you're likely to get hit by both.

# data[].attributes.headline
DECOLONISING THE ARTS CURRICULUM: PERSPECTIVES ON HIGHER EDUCATION

# data[].attributes.subject
DECOLONISING THE ARTS CURRICULUM: PERSPECTIVES ON HIGHER EDUCATION

# data[].attributes.body
This zine is an Arts Student Union and UAL Teaching & Learning Exchange co-production, and is part of the ongoing work to address disparities in experience and attainment for International students and students of colour. It is aimed at both students and staff, as a tool for raising awareness and opening up conversations.
https://decolonisingtheartscurriculum.myblog.arts.ac.uk/

# data[].attributes.body
How the Library is engaging with the Learning, Teaching, Assessment Strategy (LTAS) to support Goldsmiths 'Liberate our degrees'.
https://www.gold.ac.uk/library/about/liberate-our-library/

# data[].attributes.headline
The white elephant in the room: ideas for reducing racial inequalities in higher education

# data[].attributes.subject
The white elephant in the room: ideas for reducing racial inequalities in higher education

# data[].attributes.body
A selection of essays from leading voices in HE anti-racism, very relevant to LIS workers in HE and beyond.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The white elephant in the room: ideas of reducing racial inequalities in higher education - HEPI

# data[].attributes.body
Elizabeth Charles, Birkbeck
The term ‘decolonizing the curriculum’ is of high currency in higher education in the UK and in local students’ unions at these institutions. This article seeks to give a very brief history and context for why this is fundamental for academic institutions and what role libraries and the scholarly communication sector can play in this movement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What is it and why now?

The curriculum in education has always been and continues to be discussed using different approaches and terminology. In the 1990s the focus was on an 'inclusive curriculum'.1 'Decolonizing the university' has been in currency since at least 2011, following on from the Malaysian conference on this, with its quest for non-Eurocentric paradigms.2 The recent prominent 'decolonizing the curriculum' movement can be seen as a continuation of this, originating at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In what became known as the Rhodes Must Fall movement,3 students demanded that the Cecil Rhodes statue prominently and centrally on display at that University be removed for what it symbolized and the history it represented in a place of education. This movement was then mirrored in the Rhodes Must Fall Oxford campaign.4 The theme of questioning what message was being communicated by the voices that were included in canons being taught, and those that are absent, was picked up by the National Union of Students in the Why is my curriculum white? film5 and Mariya Hussain's Why is My Curriculum White?6 in 2015. This movement has been slowly spreading in the UK, and there is an ongoing movement of higher education institutions (HEIs) reviewing their curricula and using the decolonizing lens to do so. Additionally, or in some cases as a starting point, this is being debated by the student body via student unions. Change is being demanded by the student unions in the University of Cambridge; the University of Oxford; the University of the Arts London; Goldsmith University; Keele University; the University of Kent; the University of Leeds; the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); Birkbeck, University of London; Queen Mary University of London; the University of East London; the London School of Economics; the University of the Arts London and the University of Westminster, to name but a few. The definition from Keele University's Decolonizing the Curriculum Manifesto is preferred as it is all-encompassing of the Institution and its members, be they students or staff:

' decolonizing the curriculum means creating spaces and resources for a dialogue among all members of the university on how to imagine and envision all cultures and knowledge systems in the curriculum, and with respect to what is being taught and how it frames the world.'7

So, this, coupled with the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and the National Student Survey, has had the effect of recognizing that the student's voice is important. Many institutions that have undergone TEF have then followed this up with a student experience review consisting of focus groups and asking students what is missing, and this has made students more aware that they do have a say in their own education and should discover that critical voice that education seeks to develop.

I am sure that the mere mention of trying to start a debate about what an academic teaches in their subject discipline, and how, will raise cries of 'academic freedom' being infringed, but that is a discussion for another article.

Education institutions

To some in the education sector, 'decolonizing' may seem like just another buzzword that will soon lose currency and recede into the background, but students, via student unions, and some academics are very keen that this should not happen. Over the last couple of months there have been a number of events in London in different HEIs where this issue has been discussed and its importance for BAME students, where continuation and progression rate, as well as the attainment gap,8 are being scrutinized by the Office for Students. On a wider scale, there is the need to diversify the voices included in the curriculum as well as in those teaching it, and the need to be more inclusive, but on merit, not as a tokenistic gesture or tick-box exercise. I work in the Library at Birkbeck, University of London, a research-led institution where most of our courses (UG, PGT, PGR) are taught in the evening to mature students. I joined the Decolonizing the Curriculum Working Group part of a research centre at Birkbeck. To kick-start the Working Group, we held an event in February 2019 - Decolonizing the Curriculum: what's all the fuss about?9 - to test the interest and appetite. This echoed a similar event held at SOAS10 in 2017. Though curriculum review is taking place in the Schools at Birkbeck, the Library has not yet been involved. This review should manifest itself in changes to reading lists and resources required to support the subjects being taught as well as, one hopes, conversations about other alternative sources/resources between subject librarians and academics or researchers.

The issue for students who are other (BAME, LGBTQ, etc.) is that they come to university to learn about a subject they are interested in and look to the academic to be the expert on this: very much the power dynamics that they encounter in middle and high school and that they are familiar with. What happens when they become aware of a lack of visibility of plural voices, or of people like them as having contributed to the subject, or who might have a different narrative to the 'story' being told? What happens to the student when they do not hear their voice at all, or when they do, it is glossed over or framed as a negative? The message that is being communicated is then that you don't belong, or that people like you have made no contribution to this subject area. More importantly, if you as the non-expert want to start a discussion about this lack of inclusivity, how do you phrase this so that it is seen as contributing to a discussion rather than disrupting the orderly flow of the class? Does the student have the confidence to start being critical on a topic they are just starting to understand; and how will it be perceived by the academic and other students? For the majority of 18- to 19-year-olds, I would say that they do not have lingua franca to articulate their concern and probably do not feel, as yet, that part of their participation in higher education is to question what is being presented as the canon they must assimilate in order to progress successfully in their studies. In any case, why should the task of diversifying the voices included in the curricula rest on the shoulders of students who are marginalized or other?11

There is growing research that shows that BAME students in HEIs may have entry qualifications similar to those of their non-BAME peers, but there is still a gap in the quality of degree attained that can only be explained by a less than neutral effect of race or racism. Meera Sabaratnam, Senior Lecturer in International relations at SOAS and Chair of the Decolonizing SOAS Working Group, also highlighted this issue at the Birkbeck event. The Innovating Pedagogy 2019 report12 that charts trends in pedagogy/education identified decolonizing the curriculum as a key driver for change in the next ten years. The trend of 'decolonizing learning' and its importance is summed up as follows:

'A curriculum provides a way of identifying the knowledge we value. It structures the ways in which we are taught to think and talk about the world. As education has become increasingly global, communities have challenged the widespread assumption that the most valuable knowledge and the most valuable ways of teaching and learning come from a single European tradition. Decolonizing learning prompts us to consider everything we study from new perspectives. It draws attention to how often the only world view presented to learners is male, white, and European. This isn't simply about removing some content from the curriculum and replacing it with new content - it's about considering multiple perspectives and making space to think carefully about what we value. Decolonizing learning helps us to recognize, understand, and challenge the ways in which our world is shaped by colonialism. It also prompts us to examine our professional practices. It is an approach that includes indigenous knowledge and ways of learning, enabling students to explore themselves and their values and to define success on their own terms.'13

Libraries

As an Assistant Director of Library Services at Birkbeck, I am interested in how decolonizing the curriculum plays out in academic libraries. Some libraries/librarians have been active in scrutinizing what is on lecturers' reading lists as a first step in raising awareness of race or gender bias in the reading lists for a subject/discipline. The uptake of reading list software in academic libraries has made it easier to capture this data in a timely fashion and then interrogate it for patterns and trends, to feedback to academics and into curricula review discussion. These exercises have been valuable first attempts, with the hope that the findings will galvanize action throughout all curricula, thus mainstreaming it. Indeed, I and colleagues in the E-Services team at Birkbeck Library will, over this summer, be reviewing our key readings data to produce insights reports for departments to take into consideration when reviewing or looking to decolonize their curriculum.

Some librarians have been looking critically at the classification scheme they use, the subject terms used for marginalized groups and non-Eurocentric viewpoints on their catalogue. The Dewey Decimal Classification editorial board has recognized this need to decolonize the classification scheme that is used internationally and has its basis in the 18th-century view of the world. It has put a call out on this issue to diversify perspective in revising the Dewey Decimal Classification:

'Today, the editors work to adapt Dewey to demonstrate librarians' deeply held values of equity, diversity, and inclusion. We can work together to mitigate bias, both by being cognizant of any system's origins and by making changes to the system.'14

Librarians are also, as they start to look critically at the tools they use to organize, label and retrieve knowledge, noticing the terminology used in purchased digital content and how that impacts marginalized groups. As librarians, we are always being asked by our suppliers and vendors to give feedback on the products and services that we subscribe to or purchase. This is an area where, if we want to see change, we can also be active in flagging up these issues. Some public librarians in Australia, New Zealand and Canada are asking those marginalized groups to work in partnership with them to agree from an indigenous peoples' viewpoint how sections of the library collection should be grouped and labelled.

Goldsmith University Library is working collaboratively with their Students' Union to 'liberate our degrees' and has put this issue front and centre as part of their library strategy to Liberate our Library.15 Indeed, in the 8 February 2019 UKSG eNews 438 Editorial16 by Marilyn Clarke, she challenges librarians 'to institute real and positive change through social justice work, to self-decolonize'.

The aim is not to tell academics what should be included on their reading lists, but to make visible the lack of other voices, thus leaving the subject experts to review their curriculum with a new critical perspective, to investigate and widen their scope on what else should be included. After all, knowledge is not a finite commodity.

A word on the UKSG 2019 conference

My inclusion at the UKSG 2019 Conference panel discussion [recording19] was to respond to what we can do, or should be doing, for the publishers and vendors in the audience, to diversify the scholarly communication sector. Academics may say that there are no other voices out there, and so my response to the publishers and vendors was: we will be looking to them to start publishing those other voices; the global north is not the entire world and the global south has much to contribute. Publishers should actively support the next generation of diverse authors by mentoring, providing workshops, etc., to facilitate them, making that connection and developing potential, recognizing that those current students going through the education system will be the authors of the future. Likewise, lack of diversity is applicable to BAME senior staff, or the lack thereof, in the scholarly communication sector. The leaky pipeline has been identified by CILIP, SCONUL and other professional bodies. Do something different, make changes, review your organization with a critical lens and map actions to address if not remove barriers that impact on recruitment, retention and progression of the diverse voices that are wanted in this sector.

we are all the product of the society we live in and thus we all have unconscious biases that we need to be aware of and check against

conversations can take place and progress can be made when we move to a blame-free and evidence-based context.

Research output in and research output out

The point that you are the product of your society also applies to researchers in that you are what you read. If you only ever read research outputs and monographs from global north authors and publishers, then you are not exposed to other approaches, voices and ideas from those in the global south. You never know where the next breakthrough will occur, and other ideas may take you in unexpected directions and towards possible collaborations. Students are taught to stay abreast of their field/subject area, but are we really just saying focus only on global north ideas, publications and research, and that the rest of the world has nothing to offer? Seriously? Is that sustainable, is that just, is that how we want new researchers to see their output having an impact - only on a subsection rather than the whole?

Conclusion

The time is right for decolonizing the curriculum to reinvigorate what is being taught in HEIs. In critically re-examining what is included in the curriculum - the voices, narratives and different sources of knowledge - education could be transformative of both the individual (staff and/or student) and the impact this might have on the subject discipline and society. It will not be an easy transition, but it is long overdue and must be addressed, as well as the lack of other representation and senior representation in the staff of HEIs, scholarly communication and the library and information sectors. Certainly, what we currently have with the leaky pipeline of othered students, othered academic, library and information professionals and scholarly communication staff, is not sustainable, and we cannot continue to ignore this issue. In academia it will require effort on the part of the academics to undertake this work, and the institution to support and facilitate this, to result in a noticeable cultural change; likewise, for senior staff in the library, information professionals and the scholarly communication sectors.

As librarians, we should reflect decolonization in the content that we purchase or subscribe to and in the tools that we use to categorize and label knowledge (from classification schemes to discovery layers). We need to start articulating the inclusiveness and widening of our requirements to publishers and vendors. In the UK, though university presses are seeing a slight resurgence and with globalization from a smaller number of key publishers, the publication of academic knowledge is still predominantly of the global north. It may be challenging to find content from the global south, using indexes and abstracts in English, but it is not an insurmountable challenge.26 For researchers, that broadening of perspective and an awareness of research output from the global south may result in a more significant impact of their research output, collaborative opportunities and new knowledge. We have everything to gain in revealing the different voices and connections that have produced knowledge and in acknowledging that the implicit messages that institutions communicate do impact on the individual, be it staff or student.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

A list of the abbreviations and acronyms used in this and other Insights articles can be accessed here - click on the URL below and then select the 'full list of industry A&As' link: http://www.uksg.org/publications#aa

Competing interests

The author has declared no competing interests.

References

1. Elizabeth Higginbotham, "Designing an Inclusive Curriculum: Bringing All Women into the Core," Women's Studies Quarterly 18, No. 1/2 (Spring-Summer 1990): 7-23.

2. Claude Alphonso Alvares and Shad Saleem Faruqi, eds., "Decolonising the University: The Emerging quest for non-Eurocentric paradigms," International Conference on Decolonising Our University (2011: George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia) [Glugor], Pulau Pinang: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, c2012.

3. Open University, "The Innovating Pedagogy 2019", 3.

4. Harvard University Implicit Association Test for Imperial College London "Pride and Prejudice in Higher Education - countering elitist perspectives in Imperial College London," accessed May 29, 2019, personal correspondence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The curriculum in education has always been and continues to be discussed using different approaches and terminology. In the 1990s the focus was on an 'inclusive curriculum'.1 'Decolonizing the university' has been in currency since at least 2011, following on from the Malaysian conference on this, with its quest for non-Eurocentric paradigms.2 The recent prominent 'decolonizing the curriculum' movement can be seen as a continuation of this, originating at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

# data[].attributes.headline
Global Social Theory - Gurminder K Bhambra

# data[].attributes.subject
Global Social Theory - Gurminder K Bhambra

# data[].attributes.body
A free resource for those interested in social theory and wishing to understand it in global perspective.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This site is intended as a free resource for students, teachers, academics, and others interested in social theory and wishing to understand it in global perspective.

# data[].attributes.headline
Alternative publishers lists -created by University of Kent

# data[].attributes.subject
Alternative publishers lists -created by University of Kent

# data[].attributes.body
https://padlet.com/sf434/5x4ojj7zcnze

# data[].attributes.headline
Disrupting Whiteness in Libraries and Librarianship: A Reading List  by Karla J. Strand, DPhil, MLISGender and Women’s Studies Librarian (US)

# data[].attributes.subject
Disrupting Whiteness in Libraries and Librarianship: A Reading List  by Karla J. Strand, DPhil, MLISGender and Women’s Studies Librarian (US)

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.library.wisc.edu/gwslibrarian/bibliographies/disrupting-whiteness-in-libraries/

# data[].attributes.headline
BAME staff experiences of academic and research libraries by Dr Mohammed Ishaq and Dr Asifa Maria Hussain

# data[].attributes.subject
BAME staff experiences of academic and research libraries by Dr Mohammed Ishaq and Dr Asifa Maria Hussain

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.sconul.ac.uk/publication/bame-staff-experiences-of-academic-and-research-libraries

2019 SCONUL report

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.cilip.org.uk/general/custom.asp?page=BAMENetwork

# data[].attributes.headline
What is intersectionality, and what does it have to do with me?

# data[].attributes.subject
What is intersectionality, and what does it have to do with me?

# data[].attributes.body
Blog post on what intersectionality is and how to intergrate it into ones views and actions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Here at YW Boston, intersectionality is central to the work we do.

We know that everyone reading this has come to follow YW Boston's work from different entry points. Some of us hold women's empowerment close to heart, perhaps seeking a more equitable world for ourselves or our daughters. Some of us have experienced racial discrimination personally, perhaps through generations of our family. Some of us have little experience with social justice, but seek a better understanding of inequity in Greater Boston. All of us seek change in our community, no matter how we became involved.

Despite our shared vision, social equity work can oftentimes feel exclusionary to those who are not familiar with the lingo. Intersectionality, in particular, is a term that many people and organizations assert an importance for, but that others are unclear on. Understanding the terminology used in equity work is a useful tool for people expanding their knowledge on the issues they care about.

If you've ever scratched your head when a friend, colleague, or writer has spoken of intersectionality (or you'd like to deepen your understanding of the theory), this post is for you.

What is it and where does it come from?

Intersectionality, n.

The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage; a theoretical approach based on such a premise. (Oxford Dictionary)

Intersectionality is a framework for conceptualizing a person, group of people, or social problem as affected by a number of discriminations and disadvantages. It takes into account people's overlapping identities and experiences in order to understand the complexity of prejudices they face.

In other words, intersectional theory asserts that people are often disadvantaged by multiple sources of oppression: their race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and other identity markers. Intersectionality recognizes that identity markers (e.g. "woman" and "black") do not exist independently of each other, and that each informs the others, often creating a complex convergence of oppression. For instance, a black man and a white woman make $0.74 and $0.78 to a white man's dollar, respectively. Black women, faced with multiple forms of oppression, only make $0.64. Understanding intersectionality is essential to combatting the interwoven prejudices people face in their daily lives.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, law professor and social theorist, first coined the term intersectionality in her 1989 paper "Demarginalizing The Intersection Of Race And Sex: A Black Feminist Critique Of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory And Antiracist Politics." The theory emerged two decades earlier, however, when black feminists began to speak out about the white, middle-class nature of the mainstream feminist movement. Many black women found it difficult to identify with the issues of the mainstream (white) feminist movement, issues such as the pressure to be a homemaker. Black women, who often had to work in order to keep their family afloat and therefore did not have the luxury of being homemakers, did not feel as though these issues pertained to their experiences. At the same time, many black women experienced sexism while participating in the Civil Rights movement and were often shut out of leadership positions. This intersectional experience of facing racism in the feminist movement and sexism in civil rights encouraged black women to call for a feminist practice that centralized their lived experiences.

The Combahee River Collective, a black feminist lesbian organization, released the Combahee River Collective Statement in 1978 to define and encourage black feminism. In the introduction these women state that "The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives. As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face." They fought not only for representation in both the Civil Rights and feminist movements, but also for recognition as black women, rather than just black or just women.

Crenshaw expanded on the Collective's theory, stating that in order to understand the oppression of black women, it is necessary to look at the intersection of blackness and womanhood. While many who championed intersectionality early on were African American women, the theory has proven necessary to understanding a wide range of difference, including individuals' sexual orientation, age, class, disability, and more.

Nowadays, intersectionality is considered crucial to social equity work. Activists and community organizations are calling for and participating in more dynamic conversations about the differences in experience among people with different overlapping identities. Without an intersectional lens, events and movements that aim to address injustice towards one group may end up perpetuating systems of inequities towards other groups. Intersectionality fully informs YW Boston's work, by encouraging nuanced conversations around inequity in Boston. It enlightens us to health disparities among women of color, provides pathways for our youth leaders to understand identity, and is crucial to the advocacy work we support.

What can I do?

Intersectionality may seem theoretical, but it is meant to be utilized. No matter how or when you have become involved with equity work, it is always possible to more fully integrate intersectionality into your view of these issues.

Is your work toward social equity intersectional? Check out these tips and reflect:

Recognize difference.

Oftentimes, it is easier to believe and to explain to others that "all women feel" a certain way or that "LGBTQ+ people believe" some common understanding, but this does not reflect reality. We must recognize that all unique experiences of identity, and particularly ones that involve multiple overlapping oppressions, are valid.

Do not shy away from recognizing that people experience the world differently based on their overlapping identity markers. Because of the way we have been socialized to continue feeding systems of oppression, we often feel it is rude to formally recognize others' difference. We see this in how people are uncomfortable naming another person's perceived race or asking for someone's preferred pronouns. However, we must recognize these identities as a way to step beyond our assumptions that our experience is common. One way of doing so is when you attend rallies, take a look at the signs that others hold - how do they assert their identity and how does this inform the issues they care most about?

Avoid oversimplified language.

Once we recognize this difference, we can move away from language that seeks to define people by a singular identity. You may have heard after the Women's March that many trans folks and allies felt uncomfortable with the vagina-centric themes of the march. Assuming that all women have vaginas or are defined by their bodies is an oversimplification that erases the experiences of those who exist beyond the gender binary. By avoiding language that assumes our own experiences are baseline, we can open ourselves up to listening to others' points of view.

Analyze the space you occupy.

Becoming comfortable recognizing difference also involves recognizing when that difference is not represented in the spaces you occupy. Diversity of all kinds matter in your workplace, your activism, your community spaces, and more. If you are meeting with a local LGBTQ+ organization, is there representation of LGBTQ+ people of color? You may feel that your workplace is racially and ethnically diverse, but is it accessible to people with disabilities? Take note of the welcoming or distancing practices of the spaces you frequent.

Seek other points of view.

Explore the narratives of those with different interlocking identities than you. This includes surrounding yourself with others with differing interwoven identities, but keep in mind that oftentimes, even when you have a diverse group of people in an activist space, it falls on people to educate others about the oppressions they face. When these people share their experiences, take the opportunity to listen. However, do not expect people with identity markers other than your own to be there or to want to educate others. In your own time, seek out existing intersectional narratives, from your podcasts to your television. If you are unsure about a concept or want to learn more about a specific intersection of identity, Google it! This will help you be better prepared to enter into conversations with others and progress together.

Show up.

Do not expect people who face different systems of oppression than you to rally for causes you care about if you do not rally for theirs. As you hear about issues others face, learn about the work that is currently being done around these topics. Listen and defer to those who live with these intersectional identities each day. As you do, you will likely deepen your understanding of your own identity and the subjects you care about most.

Additional Resources:

Check out this TED talk by Kimberlé Crenshaw (who coined the term "intersectionality").

On your quest for more intersectional viewpoints, check out this list of podcasts.

Listen to women share their thoughts on intersectionality here and here.

To learn more about YW Boston's intersectional work, please sign up for our newsletter:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is intersectionality, and what does it have to do with me?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here at YW Boston, intersectionality is central to the work we do. We know that everyone reading this has come to follow YW Boston's work from different entry points. Some of us hold women's empowerment close to heart, perhaps seeking a more equitable world for ourselves or our daughters.

# data[].attributes.body
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/03/22/how-diverse-is-your-reading-list-probably-not-very/

Article with information about a project to help increase exposure of African-based scholars

Podcasts here: http://www.lse.ac.uk/africa/citing-africa/podcasts

Blog posts
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2019/04/17/bolstering-rwandan-voices-writing-rwanda/

# data[].attributes.body
WOC + LIB works to provide a digital platform for women of color (WOC) within librarianship.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It is our mission to create a simultaneous professional and personal outlet for our voices. This site is a place for WOC and POC to express innovative ideas, transformative work, commentary, critiques, personal experiences, original research, and other professional literature that promotes marginalized voices and identities.

# data[].attributes.headline
Building an anti-racist classroom reading list.

# data[].attributes.subject
Building an anti-racist classroom reading list.

# data[].attributes.body
https://barcworkshop.org/recommended-reading/

Includes classic works, contemporary works and blogs

# data[].attributes.headline
Advice to White allies: insights from faculty of Color

# data[].attributes.subject
Advice to White allies: insights from faculty of Color

# data[].attributes.body
Gloria S. Boutte & Tambra O. Jackson

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Advice to White allies: insights from faculty of Color

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This article interweaves discussions of successes and tensions surrounding cross-racial collaborative social justice efforts in teacher education. It addresses frustrations that often occur for faculty of Color when working with White allies in P-12 settings and schools of education at Predominantly White Institutions.

# data[].attributes.headline
Ethnic representation in UK higher education (1/03/19)

# data[].attributes.subject
Ethnic representation in UK higher education (1/03/19)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As a student, when first you sat down in a lecture theatre did the person behind the podium look anything like you?

If you have a non-white ethnicity, the chances are they did not. One of my very favourite articles on Wonkhe is by my colleague, Arthi Nachiappan. She eloquently expresses how this felt:

I thought back to my first year of my undergraduate degree to figure out how many of the staff that taught me were of an ethnic minority background the other day - there was one, an Indian PhD student who taught one of my economics seminars. The colleague who asked me about it was shocked that my experience in higher education had only involved being taught by one tutor of an ethnic minority but what struck me about the situation was that I hadn't really expected there to be any.

I didn't go to university expecting any level of representation of ethnic minorities among the staff that taught me, which says a lot about the communicative function that representation of ethnic minorities can have on prospective and current students.

The perception of higher education as an enterprise run by white people is a hard one to shift - even if the idea that is run for white people is hopefully now in the past. Talent, character, and the capacity for intellectual work is not correlated with skin colour or family background - HE should be a place where everyone should be supported to reach their potential.

But the data suggests that, though student participation is becoming more representative of the wider population, the tutor that welcomes a diverse student body on their first day is still likely to be white.

Proportional representation

This year's open data release from HESA shows the proportion of the UK domiciled student body that is non-white (coded as Black, Asian, Mixed, or Other ethnicity) against the proportion of the academic staff body (excluding atypical contracts) that is non-white. Plotting by institution gives us an insight into the on-campus experience.

[ Full screen]

For the main plot, I've used colour intensity to flag the total number of academic staff, and the size of the dot to flag the total number of students. Providers on the right of the line have a higher proportion of non-white students than staff and for providers on the left of the line, it is the other way round.

The map plot uses two colours to show the difference between these proportions - darker red dots means a higher proportion of non-white students than staff, darker blue is the other way round. I've also included this difference on a table in the third tab, but you can sort this table by the proportion of non-white students or staff as well.

Uncomfortable findings

Ten institutions had no non-white academic staff at all in 2017-18. Primarily small, specialist arts colleges - all of these had less than 200 staff in total.

Overall in the UK, around 13% of residents were non-white at the time of the 2011 census. Sixty-seven providers had a non-white proportion of their UK domiciled student population lower than this in 2017-18. Ninety-eight providers had a non-white proportion of their academic staff population lower than this in 2017-18.

There is some evidence of institutions addressing these findings - Oxford, notably, has a roughly equivalent proportion of non-white academic staff and students, both at around 16.4%. Prestigious institutions like Oxford have often been called out for being unrepresentative, but on this measure at least they are among those leading the way.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ethnic representation in UK higher education | Wonkhe | Data

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As a student, when first you sat down in a lecture theatre did the person behind the podium look anything like you? If you have a non-white ethnicity, the chances are they did not. One of my very favourite articles on Wonkhe is by my colleague, Arthi Nachiappan.

# data[].attributes.headline
Google doc of LIS Diversity Readings compiled by @TheGnarrator

# data[].attributes.subject
Google doc of LIS Diversity Readings compiled by @TheGnarrator

# data[].attributes.body
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1snErsqTXuq6q-YSXC6hyWMv4suzAPkcszHY9iUmAuU0/edit#gid=1864516943

# data[].attributes.headline
List of resources on Structural racism in libraries compiled by  @librarianangie on Twitter

# data[].attributes.subject
List of resources on Structural racism in libraries compiled by  @librarianangie on Twitter

# data[].attributes.body
https://twitter.com/LibrarianAngie/status/1090766370277675009

# data[].attributes.body
Issue #02 Tips an Tools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A zine created by BAME library workers documenting their experience working in libraries. This second issues concentrates on tips and tools... See More

A zine created by BAME library workers documenting their experience working in libraries. This second issues concentrates on tips and tools... See More

Connecting content to people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BAME Lib Zine Issue #02: Tips & Tools September 2019

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A zine created by BAME library workers documenting their experience working in libraries. This second issues concentrates on tips and tools to help library workers survive the library sector. Created 28 September 2019 in a workshop held in Stuart Hall Library

# data[].attributes.headline
Empirical papers and institutional reports relating to racism in higher education and curriculum whiteness  from Leeds Beckett University. The whole website is interesting

# data[].attributes.subject
Empirical papers and institutional reports relating to racism in higher education and curriculum whiteness  from Leeds Beckett University. The whole website is interesting

# data[].attributes.body
https://bmepsychology.com/teaching-resources/curriculum-resources/

# data[].attributes.headline
Decolonisation readings put together by Ian Clark

# data[].attributes.subject
Decolonisation readings put together by Ian Clark

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.zotero.org/groups/2148478/decolonisation

# data[].attributes.headline
Larose, K and Barron, Simon (2017) 'How white is your UX practice?: inclusion and diversity in critical UX research.' In: User Experience in Libraries: Yearbook 2017. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, pp. 23-33.

# data[].attributes.subject
Larose, K and Barron, Simon (2017) 'How white is your UX practice?: inclusion and diversity in critical UX research.' In: User Experience in Libraries: Yearbook 2017. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, pp. 23-33.

# data[].attributes.body
https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/24973/

# data[].attributes.headline
Examining structural oppression as a component of information literacy: A call for librarians to support #BlackLivesMatter through our teaching  (US)

# data[].attributes.subject
Examining structural oppression as a component of information literacy: A call for librarians to support #BlackLivesMatter through our teaching  (US)

# data[].attributes.body
https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/article/view/LLC-V11-I2-1

# data[].attributes.body
http://tararobertson.ca/2018/blah-blah-blah/

Former librarian, now Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Partner for Mozilla. Examples of what actions can be taken to promote diversity and inclusion

# data[].attributes.headline
Questions academics can ask to decolonise their classrooms

# data[].attributes.subject
Questions academics can ask to decolonise their classrooms

# data[].attributes.body
https://folukeafrica.com/questions-academics-can-ask-to-decolonise-their-classrooms/

Some good starting points for decolonisation from a South African University perspective

"For whom do you design your curriculum? Who is your ideal, imagined student and what assumptions do you make about their backgrounds, culture, languages and schooling?"

# data[].attributes.headline
CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Awards: Independent Diversity Review Final Report

# data[].attributes.subject
CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Awards: Independent Diversity Review Final Report

# data[].attributes.body
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.cilip.org.uk/resource/resmgr/cilip/information_professional_and_news/press_releases/2018_09_ckgfinalreport/cilip_ckg_diversity_review_f.pdf

# data[].attributes.headline
Ideas for inclusive conferences and events

# data[].attributes.subject
Ideas for inclusive conferences and events

# data[].attributes.body
https://alexwlchan.net/2018/08/inclusive-conferences/

list of considerations when running an event.

# data[].attributes.headline
Ethnic and Racial Diversity in Libraries: How White Allies Can Support Arguments for Decolonization  (US)

# data[].attributes.subject
Ethnic and Racial Diversity in Libraries: How White Allies Can Support Arguments for Decolonization  (US)

# data[].attributes.body
https://journal.radicallibrarianship.org/index.php/journal/article/view/5

# data[].attributes.body
Students discussing the whiteness of their curriculum. Produced by UCL Student Union

# data[].attributes.headline
In The Library with the Leadpipe (US) search tag = diversity

# data[].attributes.subject
In The Library with the Leadpipe (US) search tag = diversity

# data[].attributes.body
Open Access, Open Peer Reviewed journal
http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/tag/diversity/

# data[].attributes.headline
How to be a Brown Librarian in a White Librarian World

# data[].attributes.subject
How to be a Brown Librarian in a White Librarian World

# data[].attributes.body
https://infoprotasha.wordpress.com/2018/05/10/how-to-be-a-brown-librarian-in-a-white-librarian-world/#more-710

# data[].attributes.headline
Exploring the low representation of Black and Minority Ethnic staff in the library and information science profession:case study of London 2009

# data[].attributes.subject
Exploring the low representation of Black and Minority Ethnic staff in the library and information science profession:case study of London 2009

# data[].attributes.body
http://ciber-research.eu/download/20090701-bme.pdf

Not unproblematic in the write up IMO but worth reading for context

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Archiving-While-Black/243981

# data[].attributes.headline
Diversity is Liberalspeak: Why We Must Build a Decolonised Left

# data[].attributes.subject
Diversity is Liberalspeak: Why We Must Build a Decolonised Left

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What might it mean to decolonise left politics? I've been thinking a lot about this question in relation to the research project I co-direct with my colleague, Leah Bassel, Minority Women's Activism in Tough Times. This study explores the variety of ways in which women of colour activists in Britain and France organise and mobilise to resist austerity measures and advance an intersectional politics for social justice and equality. I've been struck by the need to decolonise the left given what I see as the failure to take women of colour seriously as thinkers and actors in ostensibly 'radical' spaces.

For example, we found that some women in our study were actively excluded from left protest spaces in London when they argued for an intersectional analysis of the 2008 economic crisis and austerity. By challenging the hegemony of Marxist thinking that privileges class and seeks to de-prioritise analyses of race, gender and sexuality, some activist women were silenced when they sought to centre the experiences of women of colour and highlight the particular ways in which they experience and challenge austerity. In Glasgow, many of the migrant women activists in our study were prevented from joining community-based anti-austerity campaigns because of the racism and xenophobia expressed by supposedly radical activists. In Paris, a political culture-particularly on the left-that denies the saliency of race and racism generated, for some women of colour activists, a self-censorship which stopped them from articulating their experiences in terms of institutionalised and everyday racism, and compelled them to adopt less threatening language and analyses in relation to austerity. (Although, note, this is starting to change with demonstrations such as Les Marches de la Liberté.)

In each of these instances, we can see how women of colour must censor and efface ourselves and/or accept our wholesale exclusion and the misrepresentation of our experiences if we wish to build political alliances with white-dominated anti-austerity campaigns. The experiences of the activists in our study demonstrate the asymmetrical power relations and epistemic violence at play on the left. Political solidarity requires recognition, respect and a political imagination to develop a sense of shared fate among different marginalised groups. Too often, solidarity is not extended to women of colour because we are not seen as competent and worthwhile political subjects and agents. Under a guise of radicalism, a toxic mix of racism, sexism and xenophobia appear to govern these left spaces rendering solidarity an impossibility. I am unconvinced that solidarity can be built through 'education' and 'dialogue' with white radicals. This unnecessarily burdens women of colour with the duty to fix the white left's racism and xenophobia.

The systematic exclusion of women of colour in radical protest spaces is not an aberration, nor can it be resolved under current social, political and economic conditions. Rather, the erasure of women of colour on the left is an indication that colonality is working as intended. By 'colonality' I mean the asymmetries in power that emerged from colonalism and that continue to define contemporary social relations and knowledge production. The white left's (I include Marxists, anarchists, feminists and liberals here) refusal to recognise women of colour and our analyses of the social world is a central project of colonality. Securing essentialised identities such as the 'working class', 'women' or the 'collective' and supposedly universal tenets such as 'class struggle', 'patriarchy' or 'freedom' demands the silence of women of colour and our construction as passive objects either to be saved from our ethnic and racial 'barbarity' or to be ejected from the European polity completely. For the Enlightenment and modernity to be meaningful, these epistemological movements of violence require the construction and debasement and of alien Others who do not and cannot represent logic, progress and humanity. The left does not sit outside the structures of colonality but plays a key role in its reproduction. The left's dangerous myths about itself-that its movements for liberation were open and inclusive for all marginalised groups-are jealously protected in order to defend its colonial identities and conceptions of an emanicipatory politics that is premised on and made possible by the exclusion of particular social groups who exist at the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, disability and legal status.

Thus, if we are serious about emancipation and liberation we must move beyond the idea that the left can be reformed through the inclusion of women of colour in these spaces or in the diversifying of said spaces. The liberalspeak of diversity and inclusion leaves intact oppressive knowledge production and social relations. It is only through a process of and commitment to decolonality that we can dismantle the identities, ideologies and social relations that wreak epistemological, ontological and physical violence on women of colour.

If the left is deeply implicated in colonality, what would a decolonised left look like? To decolonise means to dismantle the power relations that (re)produce hierarchies of race, gender and knowledge and construct new knowledge and social relations to imagine and build other possible futures. For me, a key starting point for a decolonised left in Europe is centering the ideas, knowledge, experiences and analyses of women of colour. In seeking to centre the most marginalised groups, we are not seeking to reaffirm essentialism. Instead, we are prioritising and amplifying subjugated knowledges that are, under a regime of colonality, dismissed and delegimitised. What would it mean for liberation struggles to act as if race, class, gender, sexuality, disability and legal status-intersectionality, in other words-always mattered to our political imaginations, organisations and mobilisations? In struggling for other possible worlds and other possible knowledges we seek to achieve cognitive justice and recognise women of colour as competent beings, knowers and doers.

Let us return to our project on minority women's anti-austerity activism to demonstrate what decolonality might look like in practice. When we seek to centre the knowledge and experience of women of colour, the meaning and lived experiences of the economic crisis and subsequent austerity measures shifts dramatically. Even before the 2008 economic crisis, people of colour and particularly women of colour in France and Britain were experiencing persistent economic and social hardships. However, this institutionalised social, political and economic exclusion does not particularly feature when we discuss poverty and inequality in Britain and France. Decolonality would take as a starting point the 'banality' of women of colour's poverty and inequality and seek to understand the processes that render women of colour's precarity a common sense reality unworthy of dedicated policy and political action. Once we understand that many women of colour exist in a constant state of economic crisis we can begin to dismantle fallacy of the construction of the 2008 economic crisis that erases women of colour's institutionalised inequality. We can then start asking more relevant questions such as 'whose crisis counts'; 'whose crisis are we naming through the misleading political narrative since 2008' and 'how are some women of colour organising and mobilising despite living in constant crisis'? In so doing, we bring into sharp relief the governing frameworks that erase women of colour as political agents and seek to tell counter-narratives about both crisis and resistance through a lens of intersectionality and decolonality.

I remain sceptical about decolonising the left. There is too much at stake in terms of preserving the mythical radical past and present of Marxism, feminism and anarchism. What we can do is expand those already existing spaces of decoloniality (which, of course, are not wholly unproblematic) in Black feminism and womanism, trans feminism, decarceration struggles, indigenous people's movements, migrants rights and sex workers rights in order to imagine and make real a different kind of future and geography of justice and equality.

Printed in Issue 15 Decolonise

Get it here

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
STRIKE! Magazine - Diversity is Liberalspeak: Why We Must Build a Decolonised Left

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What might it mean to decolonise left politics? I've been thinking a lot about this question in relation to the research project I co-direct with my colleague, Leah Bassel, Minority Women's Activism in Tough Times.

# data[].attributes.body
https://sistersofresistance.wordpress.com/2018/07/12/is-decolonizing-the-new-black/

# data[].attributes.body
https://archive.cilip.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/executive_summary_nov_2015-5_a4web_0.pdf

Executive summary of the Workforce Mapping survey

# data[].attributes.headline
‘Somewhat saddened, but not particularly surprised’: Investigating CILIP’s Workforce Mapping survey results, Librarians’ responses to it, and perceptions of diversity in the Library and Information sector.

# data[].attributes.subject
‘Somewhat saddened, but not particularly surprised’: Investigating CILIP’s Workforce Mapping survey results, Librarians’ responses to it, and perceptions of diversity in the Library and Information sector.

# data[].attributes.body
https://dagda.shef.ac.uk/dispub/dissertations/2015-16/External/Sarah_Arkle.pdf

Dissertation on the 2014-2015 Workforce Mapping Survey by Sarah Arkle (unfortunately the database is now only available to Sheffield University staff and students) If you wish to read the dissertation please contact Sarah at the email: sarah.arkle@gmail.com

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/01/ava-duvernay-oscars-so-white-diversity-academy-awards-language/429225/

# data[].attributes.headline
Critical Art Librarianship  Keynote- blog post

# data[].attributes.subject
Critical Art Librarianship  Keynote- blog post

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.emilydrabinski.com/critical-art-librarianship-conference/

# data[].attributes.body
https://brilliantmaps.com/colonialism-history/

# data[].attributes.body
https://libdiverse.wordpress.com/2018/06/11/so-you-want-to-be-an-ally/
One of the posts on the Libdiverse blog, includes lots of readings to follow up on.

# data[].attributes.body
https://asianlibrariansandadvisersgroup.com/

The blog isn't very up to date, but I have heard the group is active. Would welcome more information.

# data[].attributes.body
Saturday reading group on topics such as: Muslim Identities: Fashion and Dress

# data[].attributes.headline
MARY BEARD AND WHITE FEMINISM’S CROCODILE TEARS

# data[].attributes.subject
MARY BEARD AND WHITE FEMINISM’S CROCODILE TEARS

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.gal-dem.com/mary-beard-white-feminism/

# data[].attributes.headline
Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS (US)

# data[].attributes.subject
Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS (US)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
pushingthemargins.com | Правовая помощь юриста онлайн

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Правовая помощь юриста онлайн

# data[].attributes.headline
Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race

# data[].attributes.subject
Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race

# data[].attributes.body
http://renieddolodge.co.uk/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race/

(original blog post)

# data[].attributes.headline
DILON Diversity in Libraries of the North (UK) [Open to all]

# data[].attributes.subject
DILON Diversity in Libraries of the North (UK) [Open to all]

# data[].attributes.body
We are a friendly and active group made up of BME/POC/non-white library and information professionals.

# data[].attributes.body
https://theinkonthepageblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/21/the-diversity-discount/

# data[].attributes.headline
Study Invitation: Low Morale in Minority Academic Librarians (US based)

# data[].attributes.subject
Study Invitation: Low Morale in Minority Academic Librarians (US based)

# data[].attributes.body
https://theinkonthepageblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/04/study-invitation-low-morale-in-minority-academic-librarians/

# data[].attributes.headline
In 2017 a scholarly journal apologized for including no Black authors in an issue devoted to #BLM 😒 #WOCinLIS

# data[].attributes.subject
In 2017 a scholarly journal apologized for including no Black authors in an issue devoted to #BLM 😒 #WOCinLIS

# data[].attributes.body
https://twitter.com/daniellerapue/status/885963318883516416

# data[].attributes.body
Zine fest by and for people of colour | 13th October 2018 | Stall application deadline: 31st July 2018

https://twitter.com/OHzinefest

# data[].attributes.headline
Why Your Diversity Program May Be Helping Women but Not Minorities (or Vice Versa) (US)

# data[].attributes.subject
Why Your Diversity Program May Be Helping Women but Not Minorities (or Vice Versa) (US)

# data[].attributes.body
https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-your-diversity-program-may-be-helping-women-but-not-minorities-or-vice-versa