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[Report] Advance HE's Race Equality Charter 

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[Report] Advance HE's Race Equality Charter 

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Find out about the principles of the charter and how it has developed.

ECU's Race Equality Charter (REC) aims to improve the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students within higher education.

ECU's Race Equality Charter (REC) provides a framework through which institutions work to identify and self-reflect on institutional and cultural barriers standing in the way of minority ethnic staff and students. Member institutions develop initiatives and solutions for action, and can apply for a Bronze or Silver REC award, depending on their level of progress.

REC is underpinned by five fundamental guiding principles:

1. Racial inequalities are a significant issue within higher education. Racial inequalities are not necessarily overt, isolated incidents. Racism is an everyday facet of UK society and racial inequalities manifest themselves in everyday situations, processes and behaviours.

2. UK higher education cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of the whole population and until individuals from all ethnic backgrounds can benefit equally from the opportunities it affords.

3. In developing solutions to racial inequalities, it is important that they are aimed at achieving long-term institutional culture change, avoiding a deficit model where solutions are aimed at changing the individual.

4. Minority ethnic staff and students are not a homogenous group. People from different ethnic backgrounds have different experiences of and outcomes from/within higher education, and that complexity needs to be considered in analysing data and developing actions.

5. All individuals have multiple identities, and the intersection of those different identities should be considered wherever possible.

By becoming a member of ECU's Race Equality Charter, institutions are committing to following these principles in how they approach race equality and address their institutional culture.

REC covers:

professional and support staff

academic staff

student progression and attainment

diversity of the curriculum

Developing the charter

In 2010 ECU began work evaluating initiatives which might lead to systemic change in race equality. There was a growing appetite for a race-specific charter within the sector and we identified that there was a pressing need to prioritise race equality, and for a vehicle to guide action across the sector. Many of ECU's key stakeholders were actively supportive of the development.

Following supportive feedback from sector stakeholders, in 2012 we began developing a race equality charter.

Following consultation, we developed a framework for the charter, building on the experience and methodology of ECU's Athena SWAN Charter. We held a second consultation in early 2014, and developed a revised framework taking account of the responses from the sector.

We then trialled the framework with volunteer institutions to help ensure the framework and approach are suitable for different institutions, whatever their size, specialism or local demographics. This resulted in 21 applications with eight institutions receiving a Bronze award. Further changes have been made following the trial and ECU's Race Equality Charter was fully launched in January 2016.

As with Athena SWAN, REC is an evolving charter. Institutions are expected to start at Bronze level and progress to Silver. In the longer-term we also anticipate the charter criteria changing as the sector progresses and race equality is advanced.

Evaluation

ECU plans to undertake an evaluation of REC's impact in 2020.

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About ECU's Race Equality Charter - Equality Challenge Unit

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Find out about the principles of the charter and how it has developed. ECU's Race Equality Charter (REC) aims to improve the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students within higher education.

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[Report] SCONUL's report on BAME staff experiences

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[Report] SCONUL's report on BAME staff experiences

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[Report] CILIP's 2015 Workforce Mapping Project 

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[Report] CILIP's 2015 Workforce Mapping Project 

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Workforce Mapping Booklet - CILIP: the library and information association

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The excellence and reputation of the UK higher education sector are recognised around the world. However, an attainment gap between students of different ethnicities exists at the vast majority of universities, and evidence suggests that these cannot be explained by a students' background or prior qualifications.

This report first explains what the attainment gap looks like in UK universities, followed by a summary of feedback from students and staff to two online calls for evidence. Information gathered through these surveys helped identify five steps to success. These are:

strong leadership

conversations about race and culture

racially diverse, inclusive environments

evidence and analysis

Subsequent chapters focus on each of these steps and the barriers that are preventing the sector from successfully closing the gap. They include recommendations for tackling the barriers to success.

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Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic student attainment at UK universities: #closingthegap

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The excellence and reputation of the UK higher education sector are recognised around the world. However, an attainment gap between students of different ethnicities exists at the vast majority of universities, and evidence suggests that these cannot be explained by a students' background or prior qualifications.

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[Article] 'How diverse is your reading list? Exploring issues of representation and decolonisation in the UK', Higher Education, p. 1-18 Schucan Bird, K. & Pitman, L. (2019)

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[Article] 'How diverse is your reading list? Exploring issues of representation and decolonisation in the UK', Higher Education, p. 1-18 Schucan Bird, K. & Pitman, L. (2019)

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Abstract

There is a growing impetus, from university students and administrations, to decolonise the curriculum and develop diverse reading lists. Yet, there is limited theoretical or empirical analysis of the authorship of current reading lists to justify this imperative. The present study developed and applied a method for auditing the authorship on reading lists of two modules, one from science and one from social science, in a research-intensive British university. The paper explores whether these reading lists can be considered descriptively representative of the student body or scholarly community. The analysis of reading lists found empirical basis for concerns that university curricula are dominated by white, male and Eurocentric authors, with some exceptions. The reading lists did not represent the diverse local student body but came closer to representing the demographic profile of academic staff. To interpret these findings, the paper argues that reading lists have a role to play in decolonising our universities, and offer opportunities to critique and deconstruct disciplinary boundaries. Further research is required to explore student and staff views of reading lists and the meaning of diversity, to evaluate existing tools, and address barriers to decolonising our curricula on a global scale.

Introduction: diversifying reading lists, decolonising the curriculum

Across the world, the impetus to develop diverse and inclusive reading lists in our universities is growing, but the drivers have varied. In former colonies in the Global South, such as South Africa, reading lists have been reviewed as part of a wider effort to decolonise the university (Heleta 2016; Luckett and Shay 2017; Le Grange 2016). In this context, the university curriculum constitutes a fruitful site, but not the only one (Pillay 2018), for challenging entrenched colonial structures. Calls for decolonisation highlight the dominance of Eurocentric curricula which 'reinforce white and Western dominance and privilege while at the same time being full of stereotypes, prejudices and patronising views about Africa and its people' (Heleta 2016: 2). Whilst these demands have a long history, it is recent student protests, such as #RhodesMustFall, that have reignited these debates (Le Grange 2016; Mngomezulu and Hadebe 2018). In this setting, the university curriculum represents a necessary opportunity to deliver change in higher education and beyond, as 'a microcosm of and impetus for broader societal transformation' (Le Grange 2016: 3. See also Heleta 2016; Luckett and Shay 2017).

In the UK, calls for an inclusive curriculum were initially driven by the growing internationalisation of the university body (Hubble and Bolton 2018) and the widening participation agenda. Initiatives seeking to increase the numbers of UK domiciled students from under-represented groups have been expansive (Donnelly and Evans 2018) and have had some, albeit uneven, success (Whitty et al. 2015; Equality Challenge Unit 2017b). Within this context, an inclusive curriculum was considered central to delivering equality for, and representation of, a diverse and international student body (HEA/ECU 2008; Hockings 2010). A diverse curriculum has also been aligned with attempts to address the attainment gap between Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students and their white peers (Stevenson 2012) (BAME students are less likely to attain a 'good', first or upper second-class, degree compared to their white peers. See Equality Challenge Unit 2017b). It is only more recently that the interrogation of curricula in the UK has been linked to the broader movement to decolonise the university and transform the knowledge base, rather than adding token diversity (Andrews 2019). Student protests, inspired by campaigns in other parts of the world, have questioned the whiteness of the curriculum and dominance of Eurocentric, Western thought, e.g. Rhodes must fall Oxford; 'Why is my curriculum white?', #LiberateMyDegree (Bhambra et al. 2018). Based on such movements, students have developed their own tools to broaden the range of perspectives on their reading lists (see the Alternative Reading List Project https://thealternativereadinglistproject.wordpress.com/).

Situated within these debates, UK universities are beginning to recognise that 'the content of university knowledge remains principally governed by the West for the West' (Bhambra et al. 2018: 6) with reading materials constituting a pertinent focus for reform (Stevenson 2012: 18). Yet, the sector does not have data about the authors included on programme/module reading lists as such empirical analysis is extremely rare. This article aims to ascertain whether there is empirical evidence to support claims that UK universities need to diversify their reading lists. In doing so, the article considers the meaning of diversification by reflecting on who and/or what requires better representation in our reading lists. Two core subject areas, one in the sciences and one in the social sciences, in a leading UK university, will be interrogated in an attempt to establish whether white, male and Eurocentric authors dominate university reading lists. This type of enquiry represents a crucial step towards developing and transforming our curricula in response to the global decolonisation agenda.

Reading lists and/as representation

Reading lists in higher education are representation devices, serving to reflect particular perspectives and knowledge. Pitkin's ( 1967) concept of descriptive representation is helpful for unpacking this representative function and the normative justifications for an inclusive and diverse reading list. Descriptive representation refers to the premise that a representational artefact should resemble the community from which it is drawn. The representational function 'must be intentional' (Pitkin 1967: 68), although not necessarily accurate, where the representative 'stands for' the wider community.

Descriptive representation of the student body

Within both Global South and North settings, critiques of the curriculum have highlighted the failure of reading lists to reflect or resemble the student body. The colonial curriculum in Africa, for example, is considered 'disconnected from African realities' (Heleta 2016: 4) and BAME students in the UK feel 'under-represented' as 'their histories and ancestral narrative [are] omitted from mainstream discourse' (Abou El Magd 2016). Seen through a lens of descriptive representation, the reading list becomes a tool to represent student perspectives, histories and interests. This would respond to concerns identified above (Abou El Magd 2016; Heleta 2016; Wolff 2016) and facilitate student belonging and engagement (Burke 2018; Hoffman et al. 2002). More broadly, a reading list that directly connects with student histories and experiences could be aligned with pedagogical shifts towards student-centred education where 'learning dwells within the student' (Neumann 2013: 164). As learning contexts become centred in students, reading lists could arguably serve to instil and represent the perspectives of the student body.

Descriptive representation of the scholarly community

Shifts towards inclusive curricula therefore offer transformative potential (Luckett and Shay 2017) that 're-conceptualizes the field in light of new knowledge, scholarship, and new ways of knowing' (Kitano cited in Cohn and Mullenix 2007: 16). The development of a diverse reading list would necessarily build on and critique the canon (Wolff 2016). In post-colonial contexts, this requires greater representation of perspectives, histories and approaches of scholars of the country (Le Grange 2016; Mngomezulu and Hadebe 2018) to 'build a knowledge base that takes learners and teachers beyond colonialist habit' (Phillips and Archer-Lean 2018). In other settings, calls for an inclusive reading list seek to recognise the contributions of historically marginalised groups by granting, for example, 'access to historic and contemporary narratives about women in STEM' (Blackburn 2017).

Seeking to develop a reading list that is descriptively representative of the scholarly community, however, is challenging. On the one hand, curricula could aspire to resemble the scholarly profile of each discipline as represented through professional disciplinary associations e.g. American Sociological Association (Bonilla-Silva 2017) or teaching departments in universities (e.g. Colgan 2017). Yet, disciplines vary according to how homogenous they have become (Altbach 2016) so descriptive representation may not be desirable in subfields with low diversity or female representation (Sumner 2018). On the other hand, drawing the reading list from the global scholarly community may provide a more holistic picture of the discipline but lack relevance to local scholars and their specialisms.

Methodology

Two small projects were undertaken to examine whether there is empirical evidence that white, male and Eurocentric/Western authors dominate reading lists in the UK context. This provides a lens through which to reflect on the meaning of a diverse curriculum and examine whether reading lists are descriptively representative of staff or students. The projects aimed to develop a method for auditing the authors on reading lists and apply this to two case studies.

The case studies

Each of the two projects undertook a case study so that, altogether, two module reading lists were analysed. Whilst work to decolonise reading lists has focused predominantly on the humanities and social sciences, the readings in science have remained almost entirely unexamined, and their perceived neutrality is less likely to be challenged (Last 2018). Therefore, an undergraduate science module on genetics methodology and a postgraduate social science module on research methods were selected for analysis. The setting of the work was a research intensive university in the UK, with the projects constituting part of, and funded by, the local 'Liberating the Curriculum' initiative (a staff and student group working to advance the inclusive curriculum). The two case studies were carried out separately, each by project teams comprising one British member of staff and one international student. As white women, the staff members were mindful of their own and others' racialized, gendered and ranked positionality in order to anticipate dangers that may emerge in the research process. In practice, this meant engaging in open reflection with colleagues and students to explore different interpretations of the data during its collection and analysis (Milner 2007).

The projects were undertaken in two inter-related stages. The first stage involved searching for literature to identify existing approaches for analysing reading lists. The second stage drew upon this literature, where possible, to develop a method of data collection and analysis.

Stage 1

Literature reviews were undertaken to identify existing studies, in any discipline, that have analysed authorship of academic research publications and/or university reading lists. The separate studies were identified and integrated across the projects. The search strategy included Google Scholar, pearl growing techniques (using key words drawn from relevant publications to search for further references), and citation checking (identifying references that cite, of have been cited by, key publications).

Stage 2

Informed by the literature identified in stage 1, methods were developed to examine the reading lists. The process of data collection for each project began with the creation of a spreadsheet that contained all of the references from each reading list. Each author was given an individual ID and for each multi-authored item, their place in the order was noted. The gender, ethnicity and geographical/institutional affiliation of each author was identified using information available about the author on institutional Web sites, profiles on other online platforms (such as LinkedIn) and biographical details included on the publication/journal article itself. Authors were grouped according to the categories listed in Table 1. In line with previous studies (Schucan Bird 2011; Dickersin et al. 1998; Eigenberg and Whalley 2015), the gender of the author was categorised as female, male or unclear and deduced from the first name, pronouns or photos. To identify the ethnicity/race of the author, the case studies experimented with different methods. The social science project used broad categories, based on the UK Institute of Race Relations definition of Black or Minority Ethnic (BME): 'terminology normally used in the UK to describe people of non-white descent'. The science case recorded the information as used in the data source and then grouped according to the categories afterwards. To assign a geographical area to each author, the institutional affiliation was identified by examining the details reported on the publication or the institutional Web site of the author. Although all data was from publicly accessible sources, the completed spreadsheets included assumptions about named individuals and were therefore held securely according to data protection principles.

Table 1 Categories used for data collection

Data analysis was undertaken in multiple stages. First, a descriptive overview of the gender, ethnicity/ race and geographical affiliation of all authors was created for each reading list. Second, single and multiple authored publications were analysed separately. The position of authors, and their demographic characteristics, in multiple authored papers was examined. Whilst there are different approaches to attributing credit to authors on publications, typically the most significant contributor is the author listed first in social science (Endersby 1996) and last in science (Tscharntke et al. 2007). Third, the findings were compared to local, national and international data on the student and staff bodies of the disciplines. This served to consider whether the reading lists were descriptively representative.

Findings

Stage 1

Stage 2

Table 2 Author demographics for social science and science

Social science

The reading list comprised 57 journal articles, book chapters or online reports specified for required and further reading. There were 144 different authors (see Table 2) with the number of authors ranging from one to 15 per publication. Teams of two or more authors wrote the majority (83%) of the publications on the reading list.

Gender

There were an equal proportion of female and male authors. The majority of co-authored papers (75%) included teams of men and women but the lead author was more likely to be male (55% led by men compared to 43% led by women). Further, teams of male authors were three times as common as female collaborations. Only one of the single author publications (10%) was written by a woman.

The reading list provides descriptive representation of female academic staff at levels greater than their proportion in the field of social science. The percentage of female authors listed on the reading list (50%) is higher than local (38%, University Staff statistics 2018) and national levels of female academic staff (46%, Equality Challenge Unit 2017a). The postgraduate student population, however, is not as well represented in terms of the national level population of 'social studies' at 66% (HESA 2019) or the local department of social sciences, at 73%.

Ethnicity

The majority of authors (90%) were identified as non-BME with four authors coded as unclear. None of the single author publications were written by a BME author. Of the co-authored publications, only 2% ( n  = 1) had a BAME lead author. A small proportion of the co-authored reports, 13%, included a BME author so the majority were written by teams of non-BME authors. Three percent of the total authors were BME and female, writing four publications (2%) on the reading list.

Compared to the proportion of BME academic staff in the social sciences, the reading list is descriptively representative. With 7% of authors coded as BME, the list mirrors levels of staff in these disciplines both locally (9% University Staff Statistics 2018) and nationally (10%, Equality Challenge Unit 2017a). Based on university wide statistics (2018/19), rather than specific social sciences data (which is not available), the proportion of BAME students ranges from 39% (UK domiciled) to 75% (non-UK domiciled) suggesting that the reading list fails to represent this student body.

Geography

The vast majority of the authors, 99%, were affiliated to universities in Europe, North American or Australasia. There were only two authors affiliated to institutions outside of these geographical areas, representing Brazil and Lebanon. These were listed in co-authored articles, as fourth author on a list of six (Brazil) and 13th on a publication with 14 authors (Lebanon). This meant that only 4% of all publications on the reading list included an author from the Global South.

There is no known data on the geographical affiliations of social science scholars around the world. Although limited in scope, there is some data on the nationalities of academics where 14% of staff in the UK report as non-EU nationals (UUK report). With 16% of authors affiliated to non-European universities, the reading list would arguably be descriptively representative of academic staff. The postgraduate student body in social science, however, is composed of 67% of 'overseas' (i.e. non-UK), of which 69% are from non-European countries (University Student Statistics 2018/19).

Science

The reading list comprised 68 individual articles, book chapters and Web-based data sets, with 146 authors. The number of authors per publication ranged from one to 23. The majority of the publications, 65% ( n = 44), were written by teams of two or more authors. This meant that just over a third of the reading list (35%, n  = 24) was written by a single author.

Gender

The majority of the authors on the reading list, 70%, were male. The gender of the authors of single-author publications ( n = 24) broadly reflected this ratio (62% male and 21% female). However, of the co-authored publications ( n = 44), 89% were led by male authors ( n  = 39). This included 12 publications written by the same team of male biologists.

In terms of descriptive representation, the proportion of female authors on the reading list (30%) fell short of the female student population at institutional level which is 67% for the biosciences. Nationally the proportion of female students is almost as high (Universities UK 2018). The reading list more accurately reflects the gender balance of staff in the local department, where women constitute 40%. There is a lack of data on the gender of academic staff in the biosciences nationally and internationally, but there is evidence of a steep decline in the number of women between researcher level and principal investigator in the life sciences (Lerchenmueller and Sorenson 2018).

Ethnicity

The majority of authors, 65%, were classified as white. Of the remaining authors, 18% were identified as Asian and 17% were unclear. Similarly, white authors (75%) wrote the majority of single author publications. Of the co-authored papers, 55% of the teams included at least one Asian author and 39% were led by an Asian author.

The high proportion of unclear information about ethnicity means that it is difficult to examine whether the list is descriptively representative.

Geography

The majority of authors, 90%, were from European, Australian or North American universities. Many of these authors were affiliated to universities in North America ( n = 91) or Europe ( n  = 35), with the latter group representing ten different European countries. Three countries in Asia (China, Singapore and The Philippines) were represented by ten authors who constituted 7% of authors. Of the publications on the reading list, 24% included an author from the Global South.

As with social science, there is no known data about the geographical affiliations of scholars. 32% of students at the local university are from outside the European Union.

Science and social science compared

The number of authors in both Social Science and Science reading lists was similar ( N = 144; N  = 146). Science had a lower proportion of female authors than social science with mixed findings regarding women's role in authorship. There were a higher proportion of female authors of single publications in science yet there were fewer female led co-authored papers compared to social science. Across both case studies, the majority of authors were identified as non-BAME/white and few authors were from Global South contexts (ranging from 4 to 7%). The number of individual authors on the science list for whom it was not possible to find gender and/or ethnicity data was significantly higher than for the social science list. Both lists were more representative of the local academic community than they were of the student body, which is much more diverse ethnically and more predominantly female.

Discussion

The findings suggest that there is empirical basis for claims that university reading lists in the UK context are dominated by white, male and Eurocentric authors. These conclusions are qualified by a couple of findings: the equal proportion of male/female authors on the social science reading list, and almost a third of authors on the science list identified as Asian. Analysis indicates that whilst these authors are descriptively representative of the local/national scholarly community, as far as we can know it, the demographic characteristics of the authors diverge from those of the student body. This discussion will consider how to interpret these findings. Firstly, reflections will be made on why descriptively representative reading lists matter. Secondly, the discussion will consider the conceptual and methodological challenges that hinder and potentially undermine the interrogation of reading lists. Thirdly, a set of recommendations for future research will be identified.

Descriptively representative reading lists: why do they matter?

Descriptive representation of local scholars, however, arguably remains problematic. The homogeneity of particular disciplines remains unchallenged and may not be compatible with local efforts to diversify the curriculum. Further, within the wider decolonisation agenda, descriptively representative lists need to acknowledge the global reach of the discipline which, due to lack of data, currently remains unknowable. Going forward, reading lists, as representational artefacts, can serve to highlight the constructed and partial nature of our disciplines. The boundaries of disciplines are, after all, contested and/ or fluid at national and international levels (e.g. see Leftwich 2004 for a discussion of political science). The creation of a reading list therefore enables lecturers to 'imprint and construct their values and identity and beliefs into a given programme' (Stokes and Martin 2008: 121). In this sense, aspiring to be descriptively representative will inevitably entail a device that 'presents a part of the world as being or looking a certain way' (Pitkin 1967: 70). This should serve to acknowledge inequalities in global knowledge production (Altbach 2016) and offer opportunities for staff and students to critique and deconstruct disciplinary boundaries (Luckett and Shay 2017). This would serve to counter the distinctively unrepresentative nature of the reading lists in relation to the student body. Whilst reading lists do not necessarily need to mirror student experiences to be legitimate (Wolff 2016), representation and recognition of student perspectives are essential for genuine parity of participation in higher education (Burke 2018; Luckett and Shay 2017).

Conceptual and methodological challenges

In the process of developing and applying a method for interrogating reading lists, this project unearthed a range of potential conceptual and methodological pitfalls for such an endeavour. These are considered below.

Categories of diversity

This project principally used three dimensions, gender, ethnicity, and geographical affiliation, to assess diversity within the readings lists for two subjects. These dimensions of difference seem to be most highly considered in the literature, i.e. 'decolonizing' or 'gendering' the curriculum. Whilst this represents a useful starting point, there remains a range of other categories that could be potentially interrogated. The Equality Act (2010) in England and Wales identified eight characteristics that warrant protection from discrimination and harassment in higher education (age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation). Should the diversity of a curriculum/ reading list be assessed against all eight characteristics? Would it be possible to access such data? There are examples within the literature that suggest that perspectives of these groups require particular attention too. Critical disability studies (Goodley 2013) and queer theorists argue for a more inclusive framing of our disciplines (e.g. Smith and Lee 2015). There could be further characteristics, such as social class, that also warrant exploration. A robust theoretical framework, drawing on social and educational theory, is needed to justify the selection of particular characteristics. Such considerations seem lacking in the current moves to decolonize the curriculum.

Even with a strong rationale for selecting particular categories of difference, there are difficulties relating to their operationalization within the research process. The classification of ethnicity, for example, was distinguished in two different ways: common groupings (such as 'white' or 'Asian' in science) and broad categories ('non-BME' and 'BME' in social science). Both approaches suffer drawbacks, as there is no consensus on the appropriate terms to use for the scientific study of ethnicity and race (see Bhopal 2004). On the one hand, the use of 'BME' is seen as a somewhat 'blunt' instrument that attempts to be inclusive without taking into consideration the nuanced, locally defined populations (Bhopal 2004; Song 2018). On the other, large categories such as 'white' conceal heterogeneity, shifting demographic patterns and growing numbers of multiracial people (Song 2018). Further, there is virulent debate about whether a terminology of 'race' should also be used to meaningfully measure difference (Roth 2016; Song 2018). Similar debates about identity and classification continue to take place with regard to other variables such as gender and sexuality (e.g. Hines 2006). Again, deeper reflection is encouraged to create a framework for analysing reading lists that can be meaningful and theoretically justified.

In focusing on author demographics as static characteristics, projects to decolonize the curriculum arguably re-inscribe categories of difference. Concurrently, sociological theories recognize that, for example, 'ethnicity is imprecise and fluid' (Bhopal 2004; Roth 2016) that changes over time and context. Whilst seeking to incorporate fluid understandings of identity categories, these projects inadvertently re-affirm rigid and static categories of difference.

Data collection

This project used information available in the publications together with internet sources to collect data about authors on the reading lists. This presented a number of challenges including an absence of information and implicit/hidden forms of data. Researchers were required to extrapolate and draw inferences about author demographics, often based on photographic images. Whilst extrapolating demographics from photographs is relatively unproblematized in other studies (e.g. Eigenberg and Whalley 2015), this approach meant that the findings were mainly based on demographic proxies, with limited possibilities for ensuring accuracy (Sloan 2017; Mügge et al. 2018). The intersection of such proxies can generate further uncertainty unless, for example, gender detection methods are tailored to geographic and ethnic contexts (Karimi et al. 2016). Triangulating proxies with other methods may serve to validate the data by asking the individuals themselves (Sloan 2017) or asking scholars in the same field (Dickersin et al. 1998). Some familiarity with the scholars in the fields of study was helpful but validation of data was not systematically carried out and the accuracy of the data remains problematic.

Data analysis

The nature of the data collection presented a number of opportunities and challenges for the data analysis. First, data was collected at two different levels: for each author and per publication. The analysis needed to interrogate and draw inferences from both metrics. Whilst there are examples of studies that have integrated both levels of data (e.g. Crow and Smykla 2015), greater consideration is required to recognize the relative contribution of each level of analysis to the overall conclusions. Second, the analysis aimed to acknowledge and explore demographic characteristics and how they related to sole/multiple authorship. This meant, for example, examining whether women were evenly represented across the author positions (as sole or co-authors) (West et al. 2013). The practice of authoring papers and attributing authorship, however, varies across disciplines and so comparison remains difficult (Helgesson and Eriksson 2018). Further, in multiple author publications, authorship and author order remains a 'vexed issue' (McCann and Polacsek 2018) with no consensus on how scientific merit is attributed to individuals (Helgesson and Eriksson 2018). Therefore, without clear guidance on how to interpret authorship order, it remains difficult to draw inferences on the intersection of author contribution and demographics. Third, data was collected on a number of demographic factors which provided an opportunity to analyse intersectionality and authorship. The intersectional analysis, however, was limited by the small numbers of authors for each category of difference and an inability to address the normative underpinnings of such analysis (Hancock 2007). Fourth, attempts to compare the demographic characteristics of the authors on the reading lists with wider student and staff bodies, i.e. analyse descriptive representation, were hampered by difficulties in identifying and accessing data on these populations.

Ethical issues and data protection

Collecting personal data from online sources generates a number of ethical and legal concerns pertaining to informed consent, privacy and anonymity (Wilkinson and Thelwall 2011). Informed consent for research participants is a fundamental element of science/social science research but is this necessary when interrogating author demographics from module reading lists? On the one hand, the researcher is collecting personal data and making judgments about individuals. On the other hand, there are conditions in which informed consent may not be necessary for documents, text or observations taking place in public online space (Hudson and Bruckman 2004; Wilkinson and Thelwall 2011). As Convery and Cox ( 2012) propose, a form of 'negotiated ethics' may be necessary which means that particular types of data collection, such as author's geographical affiliation, may not require informed consent because such information is intentionally public (Willis 2017). Categories of gender and ethnicity, however, are not explicitly presented as public data and so may arguably require consent from the participants for research use and analysis.

The issues of privacy and anonymity are complex in this project given the central role played by identity in the data collection and analysis. Nonintrusive research may not raise privacy concerns but the collection and analysis of implicit data requires further consideration. As Wilkinson and Thelwall ( 2011) suggest, revealing the identity of an individual may simply involve the transference of identity from one public space (online) to another (academic publication). This may, or may not, be potentially sensitive so good practice procedures for data protection should be followed to ensure that data about individuals remained confidential. The legal framework in the UK changed after the research was carried out, and the GDPR needs to apply to all future work (UKRI 2018). This may influence requirements for consent and anonymity.

Recommendations for future research

The paucity of research examining authorship and reading lists (Piscioneri and Hlavac 2013) suggest that there are key strands of work that need to be progressed in order to understand and develop inclusive reading lists in universities. First, there is a lack of research examining student views of reading lists. Qualitative research is required to uncover student expectations of reading lists and their reactions to diversity in the curriculum (Wolff 2016). This should necessarily consider students from different disciplines, where expectations and views are likely to differ. Second, more research is needed to identify staff views of reading lists and to re-examine the role of reading lists in higher education (Stokes and Martin 2008). Third, normative and empirical work is required to fully unpack the conceptual and methodological issues involved in reviewing the diversity of reading lists. With the university sector prompting their staff to develop more 'inclusive' reading lists (Stevenson 2012), further work is needed to reflect on the challenges of doing so and then provide ethical and rigorous tools to perform such a task. Fourth, further research needs to explore reading lists as artefacts of substantive representation: do author identities influence the type and content of their research? Finally, more extensive and global data is required to detail the number and characteristics of staff and students in our disciplines. Current knowledge is incomplete.

Conclusions

This article provides empirical support for diversification of reading lists in higher education but also highlights a number of challenges that need careful consideration so as not to undermine the endeavour. There are a range of implications.

First, universities need to engage in a transparent and informed discussion about what a 'diverse/inclusive/decolonised' reading list actually looks like. This process needs to engage with a range of stakeholders, including staff and students, to ensure clarity and commitment to the agenda (Whitsed and Green 2016). These discussions should be context-sensitive (Wolff 2016) and be founded on an understanding of the relevant theoretical, methodological and ethical debates (such as those discussions raised in this article).

Second, higher education institutions and agencies (such as Advance HE in the UK) need to develop coherent and consistent strategies that can move the sector towards more inclusive and diverse programmes of study. Current approaches focus on individual responses in a single classroom or module (Sleeter 2016) but a strategic, sector-wide response is required. To meet the aims of the global decolonisation agenda and strive for genuine inclusivity of students, these approaches need to be 'transformative' (Luckett and Shay 2017; Kitano cited in Cohn and Mullenix 2007; Sleeter 2016) where 'universities must completely rethink, reframe and reconstruct the curriculum' (Heleta 2016: 5).

Third, academics and lecturers should not wait for institutional responses but engage with the debates raised here and begin to critically reflect on their own reading lists (Heleta 2016). However, further analytical and methodological work needs to be undertaken to develop a toolkit for teachers to review their own curriculums. Universities need to invest in research to develop and trial methods for interrogating diversity in module reading lists. Some tools are beginning to emerge (e.g. UCL Inclusive Curriculum Healthcheck 2018; Sumner 2018), but there is a lack of research evaluating their relevance, implementation or outcome. More detailed, step-by-step instruction, based on evidence, would help to support teachers in higher education to start the process of analysing their modules through a critical, 'transformative' lens (see Cohn and Mullenix 2007).

Fourth, sector-wide strategies should recognise the structural challenges that face the global agenda to decolonise/diversify reading lists. The nature of academic publishing, for example, means that the dominance of the Global North necessarily shapes the landscape for research and knowledge production (Collyer 2016). The development of more diverse reading lists will therefore need to be accompanied by a range of initiatives to challenge inequalities in knowledge production and bring marginalised perspectives into the centre (Altbach 2016; Tickner 2013).

References

1. HESA (2019) Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2017/18 https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/17-01-2019/sb252-higher-education-student-statistics Last accessed 6 June 2019.

2. Jordan, L., Bovill, C., Othman, S. M., Saleh, A. M., Shabila, N. P., & Watters, N. (2013). Is student-centred learning a Western concept? Lessons from an academic development programme to support student-centred learning in Iraq. Teaching in Higher Education, 19(1), 13-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2013.827649.

3. Karimi, F., Wagner, C., Lemmerich, F., Jadidi, M. & Strohmaier, M. (2016). Inferring gender from names on the web: a comparative evaluation of gender detection methods. https://doi.org/10.1145/2872518.2889385.

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5. Phillips, S. R., & Archer-Lean, C. (2018). Decolonising the reading of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing: reflection as transformative practice. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(1), 24-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1539956.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the UCL Liberating the Curriculum Working Group for the grants that enabled us to carry out the original projects; to our research assistants, Mahmoud Arif and Jin Gao for their hard work; and to Dr Hazel Smith of the Faculty of Biosciences and Dr Alison O'Mara-Eves of the Department of Social Sciences at UCL, who volunteered their modules for analysis. The constructive feedback from the two anonymous peer reviewers was invaluable in allowing us to develop our ideas.

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1. Department of Social Science, UCL Institute of Education, 18 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0NR, UK

2. London, UK

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1. K. Schucan Bird

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How diverse is your reading list? Exploring issues of representation and decolonisation in the UK

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There is a growing impetus, from university students and administrations, to decolonise the curriculum and develop diverse reading lists. Yet, there is limited theoretical or empirical analysis of the authorship of current reading lists to justify this imperative.

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[Webpage] Recommendations beyond "Decolonising the University" - Global Social Theory 

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[Webpage] Recommendations beyond "Decolonising the University" - Global Social Theory 

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A list of recommendations for staff and students from Lucy Mayblin

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DECOLONISING THE UNIVERSITY - GLOBAL SOCIAL THEORY

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A new co-edited volume by Gurminder K Bhambra, Dalia Gebrial, and Kerem Nisancioglu Decolonising the University , was in the Times Higher by Jenny Pickerill arguing that more practical suggestions on where to start the project of decolonisation within universities were required.

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[Blog post] How diverse is your reading list? (Probably not very…) El Kadi, T. H. (2019) 

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[Blog post] How diverse is your reading list? (Probably not very…) El Kadi, T. H. (2019) 

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The dominance of scholars from the global North is widespread, and this extends to the student curriculum. Data on reading lists shows large authorial imbalances, which has consequences for the methodological tools available in research and allows dominant paradigms in disciplines to remain unchallenged. This post originally appeared on the Citing Africa Blog and is accompanied by a series of podcasts on the same subject.
Students have long recognised that their reading lists are skewed towards a Eurocentric understanding of the world. I still remember my frustration looking at my reading list for a course I took during my undergraduate degree entitled 'The state and politics in Africa'. The course started directly with a discussion of the colonial era, providing us with no insights on pre-colonial Africa as if the continent's political history started with the arrival of European powers. To make things worse, the reading list contained almost exclusively Western authors.

Scholars based in the global North are widely perceived to produce knowledge of 'better quality', and they benefit from powerful networks and means to disseminate their research. Meanwhile, authors based in the global South are often marginalised from academic debates, and their research is less likely to figure on leading international peer-reviewed journals. The lack of publications from authors based in the South in top journals means that it is challenging for course conveners to draft geographically-balanced reading lists.

While universities across the UK have started paying attention to this issue, there is still a long way to go until reading lists become more inclusive. In the meantime, you can assess the geographical diversity of your reading list by following the method described below.
Assessing representation in reading lists: method and caveats
As part of Citing Africa, LSE's Firoz Lalji Centre podcast series on knowledge production about the African continent, Dr Laura Mann and I conducted a survey of the reading lists of leading Development Studies programmes in the UK, Ghana, South Africa and Sudan. This survey aimed to analyse if the dominance of Northern scholars is widespread and whether curriculums at African universities are embedded with domestic and pan-African debates. The process consisted of collecting reading lists, coding them according to the authors' institutional affiliation and discipline, and examining the results.

To code our collected reading lists, we used the help of Zotero, a citation management software. We searched for readings online and saved them into the corresponding Zotero folder. We then exported the reading list in a CSV file and transformed the file into an excel spreadsheet. The next step consisted of looking up the name of each author and identifying their institutional affiliation. We created individual columns for the author's institution, their department, and the country of the institution. If the author was based in Africa, we would assign a 1 to the reading, and if they were based outside of Africa, we would assign a 0. For co-authored papers, we only coded information for the first three authors.

The results indicated a grim reality. Non-Africa based scholars represented between 73.2 and 100 per cent of cited authors in surveyed reading lists. Out of the 274 assigned readings for a Development Studies course at a leading British university, only one reading was from an author based at an African institution. Course conveners at African universities included their papers and those of their colleagues in their reading lists, raising the share of African-based authors to a maximum of 26.78 per cent at a top South African university. However, we have not noticed much of a pan-African citation pattern. You can check out our results in more details at this link. For confidentiality reasons, we have anonymised university names.

It is important here to highlight the limitations of this survey. First, collecting reading lists was not an easy task. We faced considerable resistance from course convenors, who refused to share with us this data. Out of the dozens of course convenors we contacted via email, explaining our research project and requesting reading lists, only one South African, one Ghanaian and one Sudanese convenor accepted to collaborate. The rest of our emails were systematically ignored.

After consulting LSE's research ethics and receiving favourable answers, we decided to request reading lists directly from students. We were then able to collect whole reading lists from five research universities in the UK, two in South Africa, one in Ghana and one in Sudan. We were initially aiming to include Kenyan universities in our survey but we were unfortunately unable to collect reading lists from such institutions. Our sample was thus small, and our results are not generalisable.

Second, it was tricky to identify the affiliation of some scholars at the time the paper was published. Some scholars had completed their PhDs in Europe or the US and started working and publishing in those locations before joining African universities. Determining their affiliation was not a straight forward task, and this may have resulted in some inaccuracies in the coding process.

However, despite these limitations, the results of our survey concord with other studies on publications from African-based authors in leading Development Studies and African Studies journals. The narrow dissemination of research from African institutions in 'prestigious' journals confines the repertoire of methodological tools that are available in research and limits learning and teaching. It also allows dominant approaches and paradigms in some disciplines to remain unchallenged. For instance, in the fields of economics, and particularly in US universities, orthodox paradigms became hegemonic to the extent of excluding different views, especially those from the global South.
A path forward
Through Citing Africa, we attempt on a small scale to help young African-based scholars increase their share of international publications by providing them with advice on the peer-review process. We also contribute to the discussion on decolonising the curriculum and open some critical questions on the state of North-South knowledge production. Our survey of reading lists, along with other surveys recently initiated by several UK departments is a good start in the process of shedding light on asymmetries in knowledge dissemination, but it remains a first step.

For more substantial change to the world of academic publishing and more balanced reading lists, broader structures need to be remodelled. For instance, universities in the North need to re-evaluate their incentive structures. At the moment, research quality is assessed by the impact factor of journals instead of how representative the research is to social realities. Scholars in privileged positions in Northern universities should take papers published by scholars in developing countries more seriously by adding them to their courses' reading lists, actively engaging with them and citing them whenever possible.

It is also important to highlight the intimate relationship between knowledge and power and make students aware of the history of knowledge production in developing countries. The low rates of academic publishing from scholars in the global South are due to a myriad of reasons, including the impact of prevailing economic paradigms that negatively affect not only the capacity of developing countries to produce scholarship, but also their development trajectories.

Crucially, knowledge dissemination is a function of wealth and power, and thus decolonising knowledge may require moving beyond the world of academia and challenging the dominant order in the global economy to truly empower societies and knowledge production systems in the global South.
View the full infographic data here. If you are interested in checking the representativeness of your reading list, tweet us your results using #CitingAfrica. Note: This review gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Impact blog, or of the London School of Economics. The Citing Africa podcast investigates the decline of Africa-based contributions in top international academic journals, provides practical guidance to young scholars seeking to publish their own work and takes a critical look at the wider context of knowledge production about the African continent. About the Author
Tin Hinane El Kadi is a political economy researcher working on the ESRC-funded research project 'Tale of two green valleys' at the London School of Economics and a data analyst for the Citing Africa project.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How diverse is your reading list? (Probably not very...)

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The dominance of scholars from the global North is widespread, and this extends to the student curriculum. Data on reading lists shows large authorial imbalances, which has consequences for the methodological tools available in research and allows dominant paradigms in disciplines to remain unchallenged.

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Sussex: Students and staff co-produce the curriculum through new educational justice project

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Sussex: Students and staff co-produce the curriculum through new educational justice project

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Students and staff co-produce the curriculum through new educational justice project

Sussex students recently led and participated in a project designed to ensure that the curriculum is critical, inclusive and evolving.

Spearheaded by Ella Asheri, USSU's Undergraduate Education Officer for 2018-19, the Co-producing the Curriculumpilot saw a diverse group of students, module convenors and associate tutors work together to revise modules from the Schools of Global Studies and English. The pilot was supported and facilitated by Dr Althea-Maria Rivas, Lecturer in Development Studies, Helen Dixon, guest lecturer and practitioner in feminist participatory methodology, and Dyuti Ailawadi, Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Anthropology.

A series of workshops involved activities relating to:

diagnostics

curriculum and assessment

pedagogy and relationships

institutional obstacles and hiring practices

moving forward.

Participants used an anti-racist and feminist framework to analyse and revise teaching content and approaches.

The project encourages undergraduate and postgraduate students to become active participants in their education, by offering an opportunity to discuss their experiences and what happens in the classroom from different viewpoints.

After the completion of the pilot Ella commented: "It's hard to put into words how rewarding it feels to start a project from scratch that I feel so passionately about. The positive response to the pilot was overwhelming, which has given me hope of an education that actively dismantles inequalities."

Chris Harding, Undergraduate Education Officer for 2019-20, continued: "The Co-producing the Curriculum project is so important because it allows students and teachers to work together to create courses which work for all. The project helps forge a closer academic community in which students are put at the centre and issues such as the BAME attainment gap and equality and diversity are tackled."

Pilot feedback showed a high level of commitment from the students and staff involved and highlighted important lessons learned which will be incorporated into future workshops.

Khadija Hossain, a first-year English student and member of Decolonise Sussex, said: "I feel so lucky to have been part of this project. The faculty have been so open to our suggestions, and I feel confident that they care about our experiences with our courses as well as being committed to start making the changes that will create an inclusive curriculum. Students need to feel like they have a say in what they learn and how they learn and this project has enabled such a conversation."

Third-year Anthropology and International Development student Yuvinka Ribera Hurtado spoke in support of the initiative: "Personally, the project has been a great opportunity to get to know some of my professors and educational practitioners. I see this project as a great step forward to decolonise the curriculum by forging stronger relationships between University staff members and students, and I invite others to actively become part of its continuation."

Staff also gave positive feedback, with Dr Pamela Thurschwell, Reader in the Department of English, commenting: "The workshop let us bring to the foreground questions about the politics of selection that always go into constructing any curriculum, although they often do so in an unspoken way. Which works are included? Which get left out? Which texts have an easy route to becoming "classics" and which texts might be lost unless we work hard to make sure they are not? The module I worked on looks and feels different because of the process. It was great to be in a room with a group of people so committed to thinking about the best possibilities for what teaching can be."

Dr Lyndsay McLean, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and International Development, added: "This was a fantastic collaborative process resulting in a more inclusive and challenging module, which incorporates a wider diversity of knowledges, new exciting pedagogies and a strong focus on reflective practice."

The team behind the project - the first of its type at Sussex - hope to reach more students and staff in the upcoming academic year, and that the success of the pilot will encourage institutional and departmental support.

If you'd like to leave a comment, enter your ITS username, password, and your comment. The comment may need approval before it is displayed, so don't expect your comment to appear right away.

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Students and staff co-produce the curriculum through new educational justice project

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Sussex students recently led and participated in a project designed to ensure that the curriculum is critical, inclusive and evolving. Spearheaded by Ella Asheri, USSU's Undergraduate Education Officer for 2018-19, the Co-producing the Curriculumpilot saw a diverse group of students, module convenors and associate tutors work together to revise modules from the Schools of Global Studies and English.

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[Book] Decolonising the University - Bhambra, G., Gebrial, D. & Nişancıoğlu, K. 

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[Book] Decolonising the University - Bhambra, G., Gebrial, D. & Nişancıoğlu, K. 

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Search results: Found 1

Decolonising the University

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Abstract

In 2015, students at the University of Cape Town demanded the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes, the imperialist, racist business magnate, from their campus. The battle cry '#RhodesMustFall' sparked an international movement calling for the decolonization of the world's universities. Today, as this movement grows, how will it radically transform the terms upon which universities exist? In this book, students, activists and scholars discuss the possibilities and the pitfalls of doing decolonial work in the home of the coloniser, in the heart of the establishment. Subverting curricula, enforcing diversity, and destroying old boundaries, this is a radical call for a new era of education. Offering resources for students and academics to challenge and resist coloniality inside and outside the classroom, Decolonising the University provides the tools for radical pedagogical, disciplinary and institutional change.

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Search results: Found 1 Decolonising the University Loading... Export citation Choose an application Abstract In 2015, students at the University of Cape Town demanded the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes, the imperialist, racist business magnate, from their campus. The battle cry '#RhodesMustFall' sparked an international movement calling for the decolonization of the world's universities.

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[Talis Link] Goldsmith's Liberate Our Library Reading List

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[Talis Link] Goldsmith's Liberate Our Library Reading List

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[Article] 'Trippin’ Over the Color Line: The Invisibility of Race in Library and Information Studies', InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 1(2),  Honma, T. (2005) 

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[Article] 'Trippin’ Over the Color Line: The Invisibility of Race in Library and Information Studies', InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 1(2),  Honma, T. (2005) 

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Abstract

The issue of race has been evaded in the field of Library and Information Studies (LIS) in the United States through an unquestioned system of white normativity and liberal multicultural discourse. To counteract these paradigms, this paper draws from various scholarly writings about race and racial formation in order to center race as the primary axis of analysis in the reinterpretation of major theoretical issues in LIS. Beginning with an analysis of the historical construction of libraries as an institution complicit in the production and maintenance of white racial privilege and then turning toward present-day discourses surrounding diversity and multiculturalism, this paper discusses at length the epistemological forms of racism that exist in LIS.

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Trippin' Over the Color Line: The Invisibility of Race in Library and Information Studies

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Author(s): Honma, Todd | Abstract: The issue of race has been evaded in the field of Library and Information Studies (LIS) in the United States through an unquestioned system of white normativity and liberal multicultural discourse.

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[Article] On dark continents and digital divides: Information inequality and the reproduction of racial otherness in Library and Information Studies. Journal of Information Ethics, 25(1) Hudson, D.J. (2016). 

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[Article] On dark continents and digital divides: Information inequality and the reproduction of racial otherness in Library and Information Studies. Journal of Information Ethics, 25(1) Hudson, D.J. (2016). 

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[Article] Democracy, Diversity and Decolonisation: Staff-student partnerships in a reading list review - Thomas, D. (2020) 

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[Article] Democracy, Diversity and Decolonisation: Staff-student partnerships in a reading list review - Thomas, D. (2020) 

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Surprisingly, there is a paucity in research illuminating the unchallenged epistemological and ontological underpinnings of the reading lists of higher education (HE) study programs from a cultural, sociological or political perspective. This provided impetus for my conception and creation of what I call a "reading list review" at the University of Kent.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) consist of hyper-diverse student cohorts who are not positively represented on current reading lists. Western perceptions advance a notion that students are learning in 'post-racial' HEIs, where reading lists are colour-blind, meritocratic, liberal physical and online resources. Arguably, these perceptions have little appreciation for approaches to knowing and knowledge production from the global South. Such misconceptions are problematic. Professor Heidi Mirza challenges these perceptions in stating, "by adopting 'colour-blind' and 'complacent' bureaucratic approaches, universities can claim to be doing something, while really doing nothing at all to change the status quo" (Mirza 2018: 7). The reading list review is one of many strategies can be employed to challenge the status quo.

A reading list review is a process whereby staff and students engage in a collaborative, power-sharing relationship to explore the extent to which the contents, concepts and context of a program's reading lists are representative of diverse knowledge systems, then actively make recommendations towards redress. The process includes a desk-based review of the reading lists, as well as focus groups with staff and students, in order to gain nuanced understandings of their perceptions.

I use the term 'diverse' in a similar manner to Budd Hall and Rajesh Tandon (2017) to represent an ecosystem inclusive and equally representative of traditionally excluded groups such as racialised groups, Indigenous peoples, those generally excluded on the basis of gender, class or sexuality, as well as their White counterparts.

Following a superfluity of research that highlights the statistical significance of race in shaping attainment in HE (Broecke and Nicholls 2007; Singh 2011; Richardson 2015; Mountford-Zimdars et al. 2015) and the Office for Students' directives to "eliminate the unexplained gap in degree outcomes (1sts or 2:1s) between white students and black students by 2024-25, and to eliminate the absolute gap (the gap caused by both structural and unexplained factors) by 2030-31" (OfS 2018), a review of the perspectives presented within the curriculum via the reading lists becomes imperative.

Due to its understanding of racism as a socially pervasive, permanent feature of modern social formations, Critical Race Theory is used as an analytical framework to guide the reading list review.

Initial findings reveal that reading lists are comprised of inherently White, European, male authors, indicating an 'apartheid of knowledge' that produces epistemic inequality. Expectations and perceptions surrounding the reading lists also suggests that there are divergent views between staff and students in relation to its meaning, form and function.

Arguably, reading lists are a compass that students may utilise to traverse their academic terrain. Therefore, the primary objectives of the review are to investigate the extent to which its demographic composition impact on students' interest and engagement with the curriculum, and to demonstrate the extent to which pedagogic interventions can be operationalised through reading lists in order to gain an understanding of student and teaching staff's perceptions and expectations.

Several academics have critiqued the methodology employed in reviewing the reading lists, highlighting a lack of rigor. A reading list review should not be perceived as a myopic approach to improving body count through identity politics, but rather, as a catalyst for more sustainable institutional conversation and strategy to redress structural inequalities and realise transformational change (Thomas 2020 forthcoming).

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Democracy, Diversity and Decolonisation: Staff-student partnerships in a reading list review

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Surprisingly, there is a paucity in research illuminating the unchallenged epistemological and ontological underpinnings of the reading lists of higher education (HE) study programs from a cultural, sociological or political perspective. This provided impetus for my conception and creation of what I call a "reading list review" at the University of Kent.

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[Article] Decolonizing Higher Education: Black Feminism and the Intersectionality of Race and Gender - Heidi Safia Mirza

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[Article] Decolonizing Higher Education: Black Feminism and the Intersectionality of Race and Gender - Heidi Safia Mirza

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Journal Homepage
Journal Title: Journal of Feminist Scholarship

ISSN: 2158-6179 (Online)

Publisher: University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

LCC Subject Category: Social Sciences: The family. Marriage. Woman: Women. Feminism

Country of publisher: United States

Language of fulltext: English

Full-text formats available: PDF, HTML

AUTHORS
Heidi Safia Mirza (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Abstract | Full Text

Drawing on black feminist theory, this paper examines the professional experiences of postcolonial diasporic black and ethnicized female academics in higher education. The paper explores the embodiment of gendered and racialized difference and reflects on the power of whiteness to shape everyday experiences in such places of privilege. The powerful yet hidden histories of women of color in higher education, such as the Indian women suffragettes and Cornelia Sorabji in late nineteenth century, are symbolic of the erasure of an ethnicized black feminist/womanist presence in mainstream (white) educational establishments. The paper concludes that an understanding of black and ethnicized female agency and desire for education and learning is at the heart of a black feminist analysis that reclaims higher education as a radical site of resistance and refutation.

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Journal Homepage Journal Title: Journal of Feminist Scholarship ISSN: 2158-6179 (Online) Publisher: University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth LCC Subject Category: Social Sciences: The family. Marriage. Woman: Women.

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Decolonization is not a metaphor - Eve Tuck & K. Wayne Yang

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Decolonization is not a metaphor - Eve Tuck & K. Wayne Yang

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[Article] On addressing ‘Whiteness’ during clinical psychology training - Nicholas Wood, Nimisha Patel

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[Article] On addressing ‘Whiteness’ during clinical psychology training - Nicholas Wood, Nimisha Patel

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In discussing 'Whiteness', a context is provided as to current issues facing British clinical psychology, with an overview of the history of clinical psychology in the United Kingdom, and a particular focus on how issues of immigration, diversity, and racism have been addressed. Following this, the constantly changing training context of clinical psychologists within Britain is explored, with lacunae evident around confronting institutional racism and Black trainee experiences. The history of addressing this issue within the University of East London's clinical psychology training programme is outlined, as well as the recent introduction of workshops to focus on 'Whiteness' and 'decolonising' the profession, in response to consistent trainee concerns. This is integrated with respect to focusing on the sorts of psychologists that might be needed to advance and transform the profession positively in the current global political climate.

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On addressing 'Whiteness' during clinical psychology training - Nicholas Wood, Nimisha Patel, 2017

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In discussing 'Whiteness', a context is provided as to current issues facing British clinical psychology, with an overview of the history of clinical psychology in the United Kingdom, and a particular focus on how issues of immigration, diversity, and racism have been addressed.

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[Article] Curriculum Reform in UK Higher Education - Priya Raghavan

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[Article] Curriculum Reform in UK Higher Education - Priya Raghavan

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I recently had the opportunity to work as an RA on a transnational review of readings for a Gender course, with an aim to incorporate more thinking from the 'Global South'. The rather formidable undertaking proved in equal parts challenging, rewarding, and deeply unsettling. Efforts to interrogate epistemic practices in universities draw from a veritable history of academic and activist efforts, often led by marginal groups, challenging entrenched institutional power at considerable risk. In acknowledgement of the significant debts owed to these critical interventions, this blog is an attempt to reflect on some of the disquieting elements of implementing curriculum reform in UK Higher Education.

Commitments to displace epistemic hierarchies and their neo-colonial effects often begin with moves to diversify the curriculum: to include more authors and works based in and on the 'Global South'. The virtues of such an undertaking seem largely un-controversial: surely, a reading list that is more representative of the range of debates and inquiries across the world can only aid processes of epistemic democratisation. There is, however, a veiled danger inherent to diversity initiatives: the risk of disappearing the culpability of the department, university and discipline in preserving neo-colonial, racial structures of privilege. A diverse reading list often presents an aesthetic fix to disguise or conceal the continued coloniality of knowledge and other practices within institutes. Saha wrote about the political and ideological function served by diversity initiatives, i.e. " managing the demands for equality while keeping racial hierarchies intact." Such ideological subterfuge is particularly damaging in the contemporary context of UK HE, where racial, class and gender hierarchies remain seemingly settled realities.

Further, diversity moves also often fail to appreciate the distinction between epistemic and embodied difference. Racist or colonial ideologies routinely find perfectly hospitable harbour in the works of 'Southern' academics. The formulaic inclusion of 'diverse' works does not necessarily dent the coloniality of knowledge unless there is an express and attentive interest in ensuring so. Recent illustrations of this in popular politics and culture include the appointment of Tory Home Minister Sajid Javid, and Kanye West's endorsement of Trump. In fact, the ultimate testament to the potency and guile of coloniality is that subaltern subjects are often its most willing agents. The intellectual contributions of these subjects serve to fortify oppressions, and betray the often appreciative, even beholden nature of the subaltern's relationship with coloniality. While this is by no means a fresh or novel reflection, it might bear repeating while finding ways to work with 'diversity' that are vigilant to the risks of what Crenshaw has referred to as the "demographic defence".

Gopal articulates an important distinction in this regard- to her, "to decolonise and not just diversify curriculums is to recognise that knowledge is inevitably marked by power relations." Gopal's sentiment is one that most campus movements seem particularly alive to: demands for the decolonization of universities are underwritten by a sharp attentiveness to relations of power in the production of knowledge. Attending to these power relations, however, proves exceptionally challenging given the simultaneously embedded, as well as dexterous nature of institutional power in the academy. By this I mean that epistemic hierarchies are preserved not only through structural rootedness, but also through the agile adaptability of power to fold in, and reinforce itself through critique. Institutional response to decolonial, anti-racist critique then becomes a strategy of appropriation and re-legitimisation rather than disruption.

To clarify this point, I look to Novetzke's work on the Brahmin double. The Brahmins in India are historically the caste group divinely consecrated as having a monopoly over authorized knowledge production; at the very helm of the violent and oppressive caste system. In pre-colonial India, Novetzke argues that critiques of the caste system circulated by Brahmins themselves served to deflect or diffuse criticism away from the privileged Brahmins, while cementing their role as 'knowledge specialists'. When universities in the UK claim diverse or decolonial thinking and practice, there is a similar risk of displacing and appropriating a radical and deeply critical politics, instrumentalising it in the service of legitimating UK HE. Through processes of what Crenshaw has called "ideological gentrification", subaltern critiques are occupied through their take up in the hegemonic white western university, and emptied of their radical, redistributive originary roots. In the face of sustained critiques of racism, neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism, the inclusion of anti-racist, anti-capitalist and decolonial texts and critiques from the 'Global South' serve, above all, to redeem and reaffirm the Northern university as a citadel for the reproduction of exclusive and exclusionary knowledge practices.

The self-preserving tendency of epistemic power and privilege works in various other diffuse ways, posing serious methodological challenges to the project of curriculum reform. Libraries and institutional research resources impose a first set of exclusions, often failing to provide access to important but less globally visible or recognised Southern resources, while re-inscribing the linguistic hegemony of English within the western academy. 'Universal' research tools, including Google Scholar, Worldcat etc present a secondary form of erasure: results on these sites are ranked by number of citations. Such a formula inevitably abets accumulated epistemic advantage: more frequently cited, inevitably Northern, often white works are foregrounded while others are systematically obscured. Beyond the constraints of access, Connell and Hountondji describe the political economy of knowledge production, where academics from the South are forced to engage with, and often orient their works around theories of the 'Northern metropole'. In fact, most Southern theoretical interventions that circulate within Northern universities are either produced by Southern authors within Northern universities, or by Southern authors writing to/against Northern texts (Hountondji). Thus, even popular Southern critiques of Northern knowledge practices take reference from, and fundamentally orient themselves in relation to the hegemony of the North. This in turn serves to re-naturalise the universality of Northern epistemes even as they are questioned, and re-provincialise Southern knowledges even as they are asserted.

A final methodological impediment to interrupting epistemic hierarchies took the frustrating form of my own trained limitations. Throughout the review, I felt fundamentally constrained by my own indoctrination into and within the Western academy, attained through generations of caste and class privilege channelled in the single-minded pursuit of this ultimate inclusion. My careful cultivation for and within the academy left me with habits of mind that materially affected every stage of my engagement with texts: how I encountered them, processed them, assigned value, defended inclusion, reasoned exclusion. Not only am I myself scarcely the de-colonial solution, but through my coached complicity, I am fundamentally impaired in my ability to apprehend or heed it.

My role and location within the Western academy brings me to my closing concern that efforts to reform syllabi often re-produce a binary between the Imperial Global North, and a monolithic, subaltern Global South. This binary then occludes native hierarchies, which often mimic the violent, civilisational and oppressive inclinations of Western coloniality. Within the Indian context, this often takes the form of the erasure of dalit epistemes through the global elevation of Brahminical accounts of dalit and other subaltern realities. While post-colonial theory and its progenitor subaltern studies found considerable purchase in the western academy as anti-colonial critique, it remained the preserve of a small and elite group of urban, upper class and upper caste theorists, from a historically privileged Bengali Brahmin lineage. Dalit activists and scholars ( Karthick, Chandal, etc.) have expressed censorious views on the manner in which these theorists mediated and monopolised discourse on post-colonial subaltern existence, and accumulated stature and privilege for themselves: reproducing Brahminism and Brahmin privilege through anti-colonial and even anti-Brahmin critique. My entanglement with the Western academy is but a symptom of the selective embrace of the non-threatening, advantaged, interpellated native in a manner that secures rather than challenges my own, as well as the academy's carefully accumulated privileges and futurity. Thus, it is imperative to remain alert to erasure and oppression in Northern and Southern garb, recognise them as often linked and even symbiotic, and decry them both with equal fervour.

Despite the litany of limitations above, this blog is by no means a nihilistic call to abandon any de-colonial aspirations, and resign ourselves to an inevitably sexist, racist, neo-liberal, colonised academy. What it asks for is to think of these not as failures or aberrations in an otherwise noble institution, but as symptomatic of the very nature of the scholarly project, woven inextricably into the tapestry of knowledge production in UK HE. We must continue to insist on diversity in curricula, panels, citations, classrooms and beyond- but we must also see how we are all implicated, even invested in regimes of epistemic inequity. In a rather absurdly perverse manner, each of us participating in UK HE has a stake in the academy even as we are marginalised within it, and that stake often takes the ironic form of contributing to its continued hegemony. Acknowledging our complicities, and the contradictions and limitations they pose to the possibility of a truly democratic, decolonial academy requires more than reforming space: it demands ceding it. This could take the form of lending names, reputations, resources and labour to critical knowledge projects in the global South; resisting the marketization of education; addressing racialised, gendered and classed attainment gaps at all levels: above all placing an expressly redistributive rather than purely recognitive politics at the heart of our efforts. For us participants in UK HE, working to reform it from within means acknowledging that we are reluctant but complicit denizens of Lorde's 'Master's House': unable to affect systemic, radical change unless we challenge or renounce its sanctuary.

Priya Raghavan started her LSE funded doctorate at the Gender Institute in 2016. Her work examines the production of a binary between victimhood and agency through discourses of sexual violence in India.

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Curriculum Reform in UK Higher Education

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I recently had the opportunity to work as an RA on a transnational review of readings for a Gender course, with an aim to incorporate more thinking from the 'Global South'. The rather formidable undertaking proved in equal parts challenging, rewarding, and deeply unsettling.

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[Article] White fragility : why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism - Robin DiAngelo

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[Article] White fragility : why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism - Robin DiAngelo

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- Link is to initial article - book also available for further reading!

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White Fragility | DiAngelo | The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy

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[Article] How do black trainees make sense of their 'identities' in the context of clinical psychology training - Petrishia Samuel Paulraj

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[Article] How do black trainees make sense of their 'identities' in the context of clinical psychology training - Petrishia Samuel Paulraj

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How do black trainees make sense of their 'identities' in the context of clinical psychology training?

This research explored how Black trainees in Clinical Psychology (CP) make sense of their identities in the context of training. In particular there was a focus on the influence of language, power and material realities on this process. This study was set in the context of CP's historic and current socio-political contexts, including the profession's historic relationship to 'race' and the current context of Personal and Professional Development (PPD) and 'equality and diversity' agendas. Identities are seen as integral to the personal development of CP trainees, however Black trainees' perspectives on this had been largely neglected. The study involved in-depth interviews with twelve trainee clinical psychologists who self-identified as Black. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis informed by Foucault's ideas on power, identities and discourse, from a critical realist social constructionist epistemology. Three main themes were identified. Theme One encompassed participants' talk about how they construct and relate to the term Black. Power relations and discourses both within CP and wider society influenced participants' construction of Blackness. Theme Two encompassed participants' accounts on being positioned as simultaneously hyper-visible and invisible within the culture of CP, forcing them embark on a journey in negotiating their identities. The third theme related to participants' account of this journey, which was constructed as on-going, cyclical and lonely, with little or no support from training programmes. Based on the analysis, implications for future research and the practice of CP training are considered. This research argues that CP needs to fulfil its duty of care towards existing Black trainees before attempting to 'diversify' further.

How do black trainees make sense of their 'identities' in the context of clinical psychology training?

Paulraj, Petrishia Samuel

https://search.proquest.com/docview/1885888098

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How do black trainees make sense of their 'identities' in the context of clinical psychology training? - ProQuest

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This research explored how Black trainees in Clinical Psychology (CP) make sense of their identities in the context of training. In particular there was a focus on the influence of language, power and material realities on this process.

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[Article] On the coloniality of being: contributions to the development of a concept - Nelson Maldonado-Torres

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[Article] On the coloniality of being: contributions to the development of a concept - Nelson Maldonado-Torres

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1. Sections of this essay were presented in talks at the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University on 5 November 2003 and in the Critical Theory and Decolonization Conference at Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill on 30 May 2004.

2. They include Fernando Coronil, Santiago Castro-Gómez, Oscar Guardiola, Edgardo Lander, Walter Mignolo, Anibal Quijano, Freya Schiwy, Catherine Walsh, and others.

3. See Walter Mignolo (). For a more recent source see Walter Mignolo (). The concept also appears in a recent essay by Sylvia Wynter ().

9. On the 'coloniality of power' see Quijano ( Quijano , Aníbal (2000) 'Colonialidad del poder y clasificación social' . Journal of World-Systems Research , vol. XI, no. 2 , pp. 342 - 86 . Accesible en 2000 http://jwsr.ucr.edu . , , ).

10. The idea of the coloniality of knowledge ('colonialidad del saber') becomes the organizing theme of Edgardo Lander ( 2000 Lander , Edgardo (ed.) (2000) La colonialidad del saber: eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales: perspectivas latinoamericanas . Caracas, Ven.: Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales (FACES-UCV); Instituto Internacional de la UNESCO para la Educación Superior en América Latina y el Caribe (IESALC) . ).

12. Mignolo takes Fanon as a major source for his own articulation of the coloniality of Being. See Mignolo (2003, p. 669).

13. For a clarification on the relation between genetic, existential, and genealogical/historical levels of analysis see Nelson Maldonado-Torres (forthcoming). In this book I articulate genetic, existential, and genealogical/historical reflections on modernity on the basis of Lévinas, Fanon, and Dussel's work. This essay represents a transition between Against War and a new book project preliminarily entitled Fanonian Meditations.

14. See Aníbal Quijano ().

15. See Aníbal Quijano and Immanuel Wallerstein ( Quijano, Aníbal and Immanuel, Wallerstein . 1992. Americanity as a Concept, or the Americas in the Modern World-System'. 1992 International Social Science Journal, 44: 549-57. ).

16. Quijano (2000, p. 533).

17. See Walter Mignolo (2003).

18. See Quijano (1992, n.p.).

19. See Gordon (1995, 2000), Nelson Maldonado-Torres (2006) and Wynter ().

20. On 'global coloniality' see Georas ( 1997 Georas , Chloe S. (1997) 'From Colonial Empire to Culture Empire: Re-reading Mitterand's Paris' . MA thesis, Binghamton University . ), Grosfoguel (), and Mignolo (, 2000).

21. Translation of 'desde entonces, en las relaciones intersubjetivas y en las prácticas sociales del poder, quedó formada, de una parte la idea de que los no-europeos tienen una estructura biológica no solamente diferente a la de los europeos; sino, sobre todo, perteneciente a un tipo o a un nivel 'inferior'.' See Quijano (1992, n.p.).

22. Dussel (, p. 133).

23. Dussel (1996, p. 133).

24. The model or paradigm of existence referred to with the concept Imperial Man has more concrete manifestation: European and American Man. I have referred to the overcoming of these modes of selfhood in terms of the 'death' of Imperial Man. See Maldonado-Torres ( 2005 Maldonado-Torres , Nelson (2005) 'Post-continental Philosophy and the Decolonial Turn: Introduction to Conference Mapping the Decolonial Turn: Post/Trans-Continental Interventions in Philosophy, Theory, and Critique' , University of California at Berkeley, 21 April . , ).

25. See Quijano's comments on modern dualism in Quijano ( Quijano , Aníbal (2000) 'Colonialidad del poder y clasificación social' . Journal of World-Systems Research , vol. XI, no. 2 , pp. 342 - 86 . Accesible en 2000 http://jwsr.ucr.edu . , pp. 554-6).

26. Recall Du Bois's sentence about the twentieth century: 'The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line, the relation of the lighter and darker races in Asia, Africa, America and the islands of the sea' (Du Bois 1999, p. 17).

28. The rest of this section reproduces a discussion that I develop more in the six chapter of Maldonado-Torres (forthcoming).

30. Wynter (1995, pp. 5-57).

35. In this respect, Dussel writes: 'El sujeto europeo que comienza por ser un 'yo conquisto' y culmina en la 'voluntad de poder' es un sujeto masculino. El ego cogito es el ego de un varón'. [The European subject who begins in the mode of 'I conquer' and reaches its climax in the 'will to power' is a masculine subject. The ego cogito is the ego of a male.] (Dussel 1977, p. 50). Dussel also comments in this text on the ways in which the colonized male subject repeats the same behavior toward colonized women.

36. Dussel (1977, p. 99).

38. This idea is the basis of Maldonado-Torres (forthcoming).

41. See Heidegger (1962, pp. 28-35).

42. For a Heideggerian critique of theology see Heidegger (1962, pp. 74-5).

43. On Dasein's existential character see Heidegger (1962, pp. 32-35).

45. For reflections on being-toward-death and authenticity see Heidegger (1962, pp. 279-304).

47. Heidegger (1962, p. 76).

48. See Heidegger (1962, pp. 46, 71-2).

49. Fanon (1968, p. 110).

50. Fanon (1968, pp. 119-20).

51. Fanonian meditations refers to a decolonial horizon of re-thinking the idea of first philosophy, just as Descartes did in his Meditations on First Philosophy. It is also the title of a book project in progress.

53. See Fanon (1968, p. 8).

55. This analysis is informed by Lewis Gordon description of sexual and racial dynamics. See Gordon (2005, pp. 73-88). Gordon writes: 'For, in an antiblack world, a black penis, whatever its size, represents a threat. Given our discussion of the black signifying the feminine, the underlying nature of the threat should be obvious: the black penis is feared for the same reason that a woman with a penis is feared. She represents a form of revenge' (p. 83).

57. I am referring to Fanon (1968).

58. The idea of 'love' appears in several parts of Black Skin, particularly in the conclusion.Gordon (2000, pp. 13-15).

59. Gordon (2000, pp. 13-15).

62. I owe the concept of 'desgeneración' to Laura Pérez.

63. Benveniste (, pp. 34, 40).

64. See Lévinas ( Lévinas , Emmanuel (1974) 1974 Otherwise than Being or, Beyond Essence . Trans. Alphonso Lingis . Pittsburgh, PA : Duquesne University Press , 1998. Reprint, Trans. of Autrement qu'être ou, Au-delà de l'essence . ).

67. Decolonization and 'des-gener-acción' characterize forms of thought and action that are central to what Mignolo refers as the geo-politics and the body-politics of knowledge in his contribution to this volume. They are the privileged forms of action that emerge and are characteristic of the Decolonial Turn (see below).

69. See Coles (1997).

74. For reflections on the decolonial attitude see Maldonado-Torres ( Maldonado-Torres , Nelson (forthcoming) forthcoming Against War: Views from the Underside of Modernity . Durham : Duke University Press . , n.p., 2005, , n.p.).

75. This is a point incessantly made other figures of the Decolonial Turn: Lewis Gordon, Walter Mignolo Chela Sandoval, and Sylvia Wynter, among others.

76. Du Bois, 1999, p. 9. See an acute analysis of this question in Gordon (2000, pp. 62-95).

78. I develop this point more in Maldonado-Torres ().

79. For references to the unfinished project of decolonization see Grosfoguel ( Grosfoguel , Ramón (2005) 'Subaltern Epistemologies, Decolonial Imaginaries and the Redefinition of Global Capitalism' . Grosfoguel , Ramón , Maldonado-Torres , Nelson and Saldívar , José David (2005) 'Latin@s and the'Euro-American' Menace: The Decolonization of the US Empire in the 21st Century' . In 2005 Review , vol. 28 , n.p . ); Ramón Grosfoguel 2005 Latin@s in the World-System , eds Ramón Grosfoguel , Nelson Maldonado-Torres and José David Saldívar . Boulder, Co : Paradigm Press . ), Maldonado-Torres (forthcoming) and Mignolo (2000). et al. (

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1. Sections of this essay were presented in talks at the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University on 5 November 2003 and in the Critical Theory and Decolonization Conference at Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill on 30 May 2004. 2.

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[Article] A critical race theory discourse: critical race theory, cognitive psychology and the social meaning of race: why individualism will not solve racism - Greta McMorris

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[Article] A critical race theory discourse: critical race theory, cognitive psychology and the social meaning of race: why individualism will not solve racism - Greta McMorris

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[Article] Outline of Ten Theses on Coloniality and Decoloniality -Nelson Maldonado-Torres

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[Article] Outline of Ten Theses on Coloniality and Decoloniality -Nelson Maldonado-Torres

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[Article] Decolonising the university curriculum- L Le Grange

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[Article] Decolonising the university curriculum- L Le Grange

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Aoki, T. 1999 Rethinking curriculum and pedagogy. Kappa Delta Pi Record. Summer, 180-181.

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Decolonising the university curriculum | Le Grange | South African Journal of Higher Education

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Aoki, T. 1999 Rethinking curriculum and pedagogy. Kappa Delta Pi Record. Summer, 180-181. Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G. and H. Tiffin. 2000. Post-colonial studies: The key concepts. London: Routledge. Chetty, R. and C. Knaus. 2016. Why South Africas universities are in the grip of a class struggle. Sunday Times. http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/opinion/2016/01/13/Why-South-Africa%E2%80%99s-universities-are-in-the-grip-of-a-class-struggle.

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[Article] Advice to White allies: insights from faculty of Color - Gloria S. Boutte & Tambra O. Jackson

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[Article] Advice to White allies: insights from faculty of Color - Gloria S. Boutte & Tambra O. Jackson

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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. Advice is offered with the larger goal of helping White allies think about ways to shift the gaze from educators' politics to the wellbeing of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Suggestions for how White allies can better support faculty of Color are presented.

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Advice to White allies: insights from faculty of Color

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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.

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[Article] Cracking the fortress: can we really decolonize psychology - Suntosh R Pillay

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[Article] Cracking the fortress: can we really decolonize psychology - Suntosh R Pillay

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It so happens that the unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of people, their laziness, and let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps.

Frantz Fanon (1963, p. 147), The Wretched of the Earth

A crack is the perfectly ordinary creation of a space or moment in which we assert a different type of doing.

John Holloway (2010, p. 21), Crack Capitalism

Is decolonization just the latest trendy buzzword and a lofty aspiration that academics claim to do in their spare time? Why is Western psychology innocently labeled "psychology" but African psychology geographically located? Are the Black Consciousness theories of Frantz Fanon and Steve Biko routinely taught to students? These were some of the questions I posed at a plenary debate at the 22nd annual South African Psychology Congress held by the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) in Johannesburg in September 2016. I wondered aloud whether our research dissertations ever actually create real change for the populations studied, or merely provide us a ticket into the profession. The audience laughed as I cracked this self-reflective "joke" but, as I paused for silent spaces, I hoped that by turning the mirror on ourselves, my peers realized that the joke was sadly on us. My intention in asking these questions was to enhance "the revolutionary potential of small-scale resistances" ( Cornish, Haaken, Moskovitz, & Jackson, 2016, p. 116).

How did it come to be that a field of inquiry, whose primary purposes are to understand and benefit people, fails so miserably at both? Psychologists directly and indirectly facilitated the oppression of Black people and colluded with the illegitimate apartheid regime ( Nicholas & Cooper, 1993). That Hendrik Verwoerd, the chief architect of apartheid, was a psychologist, does not help the reputation of our profession. Despite noteworthy progress ( Cooper, 2014; Hayes, 2003; Painter, Kiguwa & Böhmke, 2013; Suffla & Seedat, 2004), the haunting ghosts of our dark history were never properly exorcised, replaced instead with postcolonial voices that firmly disciplined psychology into its place in the capitalist, global order. This new fortress-post-1994 psychology-was rebranded but still highly inaccessible and largely irrelevant to the majority despite endless pleas for relevance ( de la Rey & Ipser, 2004; Kessi, 2016; Long, 2013, 2014, 2016a, 2016b; MacLeod, 2004; Pillay, 2016; Pillay, Ahmed, & Bawa, 2013; Rock & Hamber, 1994; Strümpfer, 1981).

So it is with a strange, perhaps awkward, ambivalence that I write this editorial. On the one hand, I am eager to put thoughts to paper to enhance a social justice orientation and critical psychological lens in how we approach our work. On the other hand, the term "decolonization" is both an evocative and provocative term that leads us into murky waters that very few psychologists authentically engage in. As such, my eagerness is tempered by trepidation, because this debate is a complex mix of historical, epistemological, methodological, theoretical, ideological, philosophical, pedagogical, discursive, ethical, and practical concerns; all of which are far too vast to engage seriously within a short editorial. As such, I have decided to frame my response as a brief reflection and review of recent noteworthy attempts to "crack the fortress" of psychology and start laying the foundation for a new enterprise altogether, one not complicit in varieties of violence. At best, this editorial is an attempt at practical agenda-setting; at worst, it swells the rhetoric.

"Cracking" the status quo

No doubt as psychologists we know that change is usually met with resistance and defense by those who benefit from the status quo. Given Western-oriented psychology's comfortable position in the global marketplace, and South African psychology's co-option into it, calls for decolonization may seem like futile attempts to crack through an impenetrable fortress. After all, "psychology" as we know it is embedded in private and public healthcare, academia, popular culture, and international consciousness. The question of decolonizing psychology seems a sub-section of the more depressing question of whether or not we can decolonize society.

However, drawing on Holloway's (2010) metaphor of "cracks" in a vulnerable, problematic system, Cornish et al. (2016) note that "[the] metaphor serves as signifier of small spaces and everyday acts of resistance . . . the small cracks that cumulatively produce the crumbling of seemingly impenetrable edifices of power" (p. 116). This is a pragmatic theory of change, relying on our willingness and ability to amplify short-term resistances and do things differently -widen the cracks-so that the fortress, held up by people, places, and practices, can no longer be sustained.

Fortunately, even if psychology is resistant to change, the zeitgeist has necessitated decolonization onto the national agenda. The student-led Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall movements were the tipping points for this conversation, critiquing the "rainbow nation" and "transformation" discourse and replacing a politics of hope and reconciliation with a politics of radical dissent and anger ( Pillay, 2016). This redirected the "transformation" agenda in South African politics and citizenship with a more specific focus: decolonization.

Kessi (2015) further critiques the hidden agenda of "transformation" talk:

The reality is that the transformation discourse serves to sanitise, normalise, or conceal oppressive practices. When we speak of decolonisation, it becomes obvious why Rhodes must fall, whereas "transformation" inserts doubt or the possibility of "dialogue" into what are clearly cultural symbolisms of oppression and violence. By talking of a decolonised university, we highlight the historical legacies of capitalism, racism and patriarchy.

Ratele (2014) also laments the lackluster progress thus far:

I am against so-called transformation because the transformation we have settled for in PsySSA and other spaces and institutions in society is in large measure not what some of us dreamt about [where] middle-class, white, heteropatriarchal privilege and power is alive and well in our society. This power and privilege informs the teaching and education of psychology students and the practice of psychology. (p. 30)

Long (2016a) has further argued we move beyond the rhetoric of "Africanizing" psychology:

it is not the "whiteness" of psychology that leaves most South Africans cold, but its customary indifference to the question of class. The "decolonization" of the discipline cannot be achieved through the heady, though ultimately empty, rhetoric of "Africanization," but only through a searching examination of the material conditions of oppression-and their disastrous psychological sequelae-that most of our fellow citizens continue to endure. (p. 431)

These diverse views show a recognition by psychologists in South Africa that we are not immune to calls for the decolonization of society, and we must engage seriously in this evolving conversation. Decolonization, despite being an extension of the ongoing relevance debate ( Long, 2016b), is useful in that it introduces far more specificity into what a "relevant" psychology ought to look like by historically locating the debate as the dismantling, or cracking, of oppressive postcolonial relations of power. It calls for a specific psychopolitical orientation of the profession. As Kessi and Kiguwa (2015) similarly argue, "Psychology's intersection with politics remains a core entry point for engaging a decolonisation project for a more relevant discipline" (p. 4).

Recent advances

There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. (Leonard Cohen, Anthem)

Optimistically, the Journal of Social and Political Psychology began a special thematic section on "Decolonizing Psychological Science" in 2015. This is a global, open access, ongoing academic effort to publish a series of articles exploring the provisional theories and practices of decolonization. Series editors Adams, Dobles, Gómez, Kurtiş, and Molina (2015) argue that "a responsible psychology requires decolonisation of its hegemonic forms of knowing and being" and describe three emerging approaches to decolonization-indigenization, accompaniment, and denaturalization; along with two existing conceptual approaches-cultural psychology and liberation psychology.

Glen Adams was then invited to present a paper at the 22nd South African Psychology Congress in September 2016 to elaborate on the above. It is worth quoting the abstract here:

In the accompaniment approach to decolonisation, "global expert" researchers from centres of hegemonic knowledge production travel to marginalised communities to lend expertise and work alongside local inhabitants in struggles for social justice. In the indigenisation approach to decolonisation, locally grounded researchers draw upon local knowledge to modify "standard" practice and produce psychologies that are more responsive to local realities. In the denaturalisation approach to decolonisation, researchers draw upon local knowledge and experience of marginalised communities as an epistemic resource to reveal and dismantle the coloniality of knowledge and being in hegemonic psychology.

The above framework provides a useful way of thinking about existing and future work. This foregrounding of decolonization at the national Psychology Congress may be an indication of PsySSA's commitment (rhetorically and aesthetically, at least) to appear relevant. These included a keynote address "Is South African Psychology Serving Humanity?" by Professor Saths Cooper, President of the International Union of Psychological Science and inaugural PsySSA president; an interdisciplinary plenary debate "Mapping the terrain: Decoloniality in South Africa"; a plenary debate that included representatives from each Psychology registration category, "Psychology's response/ability: Crisis or catharsis?"; and the second annual Siphiwe Ngcobo memorial lecture, "Engaging the psychology of decolonization" by Professor Norman Duncan, in which he offered a useful framework for decolonizing the curricula.

The scientific program itself included four specific items that referred to decolonization in their abstracts: "Decoloniality and the liberatory potential of African-centered psychology" (Mkhize N); "From psychology in Africa to African psychology: Going nowhere slowly" (Makhubela M); and two roundtable debates "What does Equity and Transformation in PsySSA mean?" (Pillay SR) and "Transforming the curricula" (Maree D, Pule N, Ndala-Magoro N, Blokland L, Fynn A, Barnes B, Mkhize N).

This cursory review of the program shows promising emerging narratives within PsySSA and may omit presentations that contributed to the decolonization debate but was not foregrounded in its title or abstract, such as the symposia hosted by the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi), a USA-based grouping invited by PsySSA; the Student Division, who focused on Fees Must Fall and student protests; and symposia hosted by Divisions for community and social psychology, gender and sexuality, trauma and violence, and African psychology.

This Congress built on the earlier International Conference on Community Psychology (ICCP) that took place in Durban in May 2016, a first for Africa, with the theme of Global dialogues on critical knowledges, liberation and community. Decolonization featured strongly, both in content and creative forms of delivery, aptly described as "creative undisciplining" by Professor Nelson Maldonado-Torres during his keynote address ( Malherbe, Helman, & Cornell, 2016).

Numerous other dialogue events on decolonization-applicable but not specific to psychology-took place across universities in 2016, such as the College of Human Sciences International Decoloniality Conference hosted by the University of South Africa (UNISA) in August 2016.

Additionally, the recent special edition on anti-apartheid activist Robert Sobukwe, in the local journal Psychology in Society (PINS) ( Hayes & Hook, 2016), continues to offer an independent, psychopolitical, sustained critique of oppressive power relations and PINS is filled with diverse theoretical resources needed for a decolonization project ( Hayes, 2003; Painter, 2014).

Toward a decolonial agenda

The crack is simply a push towards self-determination. ( Holloway, 2010, p. 38)

Against the backdrop of this decolonial turn in psychology, fundamental cracks expose a weakening fortress. Holloway (2010) says "the method of the crack" views dominant systems "from the perspective of its crisis, its contradictions, its weaknesses, and . . . to understand how we ourselves are those contradictions" (p. 9). Are we therefore willing to continue scrutinizing and cracking our modes of being and doing psychology?

Admittedly, it would be naïve to suggest that a burst of agency and motivation among us will automatically lead to a vague utopian future that has yet to be clearly articulated. Instead, there needs to be dramatic interplay between agency and structure, that is, between psychologists deliberately disrupting their spheres of influence, and the active dismantling of the oppressive, violent structures that sustain mainstream, hegemonic, Western-oriented psychology (and its global marketplace function). This interplay between the individual and the system involves what Ascion (2016) calls unthinking modernity-an ambitious agenda of re-creating a society not dominated by the conditions of modernity, the very conditions that gave rise to the development of Western psychology as we know it ( Pickren & Rutherford, 2010).

I would therefore argue that if we want to find ourselves on the right side of history this time around, and sustain this decolonial turn, we actively widen these cracks by creating ways of bridging rhetoric and reality, evolving from the virtuous aesthetics of socially relevant conferences and papers into the messy pragmatics of being socially responsive organizations and individuals. This is in fact the challenge of South African psychology, incessantly questioning its real-world relevance for decades ( Long, 2016b).

In continuing to crack this edifice, I propose an initial agenda of five areas that require an urgent decolonial orientation with new forms of practice-Curriculum, Research, Selections, Interventions, and Attitudes:

First, the curriculum must be cracked and the contents and processes laid bare: What is being taught? Why is it being taught? How it is being taught? Who is teaching it? What is the purpose of teaching it? How is competence being examined? Is there is a hidden curriculum? This includes continuous professional development activities. If the symbol of a postcolonial fortress is taken literally, it is a university.

Second, our research agendas must be cracked to challenge the relevance of our research topics, methods, assumptions, analyses, and dissemination methods. If the contents of this postcolonial fortress are raided, we will find unapplied and irrelevant dissertations and journal articles.

Third, selection processes must be cracked to determine whether the selection of students into psychology courses-especially the key Honours and Master's degrees-and the hiring of psychologists in all settings is fair and equitable, in line with broader national plans of demographic and ideological redress. If the vanguard of this fortress is seen, they will typically come bearing long titles and wielding substantial power to remain beneficiaries of the status quo.

Fourth, the interventions that makes up psychological practice must be cracked-psychotherapies, counseling, assessment and testing techniques, public health programs, policies, and media. If the activities inside this fortress are observed, they are ahistorical, depoliticized, and contextually distant.

Fifth, attitudes, however they manifest, must be routinely documented so that we have some measure of whether the cracks in the systems are translating into discursive and material shifts among all of us as a body of professionals. Interventions to transform attitudes and foster a critical consciousness within the discipline may be needed. If the conversations inside the fortress are heard, they are currently anxious, angry, defensive, and confused.

It is our moral and intellectual imperative that decolonization does not just remain a buzzword and that we creatively and carefully rebel toward forms of psychological practices that truly benefit all South Africans. In this rebellion, we will meet resistance and take risks, but as Holloway (2010) reminds us, "cracks exist on the edge of impossibility, but they do exist" (p. 71). A luta continua.

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Cracking the fortress: can we really decolonize psychology? - Suntosh R Pillay, 2017

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It so happens that the unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of people, their laziness, and let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps. Frantz Fanon (1963, p.

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[Article] From Liverpool to New York City: behind the veil of a Black British male scholar inside higher education - Mark Christian

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[Article] From Liverpool to New York City: behind the veil of a Black British male scholar inside higher education - Mark Christian

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This paper speaks to the experience of Black British male experience in academia, with emphasis on UK and US colleges and universities. It is an autoethnographic study in terms of relating, witnessing, and noting both learning and teaching experiences within the confines of higher education in the UK and US. The idea behind this paper is to highlight the need for greater access and opportunity for Black scholars to teach and study without stress and strain on their minds and bodies. There are a number of studies that confirm the efficacy in sharing one's experience as an 'insider' within academia as a person of color. But there are few studies that speak directly to the reality of teaching and researching within the context of Africana or Black Studies in higher education. It is noted that academia should be a place whereby liberal arts of all genres are accepted and respected; in this sense, there is still a long way to go before we can attest to the affirmative of this point of view.

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From Liverpool to New York City: behind the veil of a Black British male scholar inside higher education

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This paper speaks to the experience of Black British male experience in academia, with emphasis on UK and US colleges and universities. It is an autoethnographic study in terms of relating, witnessing, and noting both learning and teaching experiences within the confines of higher education in the UK and US.

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[Article] Addressing dualisms in student perceptions of a historically white and black university in South Africa - Ronelle Carolissen & Vivienne Bozalek

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[Article] Addressing dualisms in student perceptions of a historically white and black university in South Africa - Ronelle Carolissen & Vivienne Bozalek

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Normative discourses about higher education institutions may perpetuate stereotypes about institutions. Few studies explore student perceptions of universities and how transformative pedagogical interventions in university classrooms may address institutional stereotypes. Using Plumwood's notion of dualism, this qualitative study analyses unchallenged stereotypes about students' own and another university during an inter-institutional collaborative research and teaching and learning project. The project was conducted over 3 years and 282 psychology, social work and occupational therapy students from a historically black and white institution in South Africa, participated in the study. Both black and white students from differently placed higher education institutions display prejudices and stereotypes of their own and other institutions, pointing to the internalisation and pervasiveness of constructions and hegemonic discourses such as whiteness and classism. It is important to engage with subjugated student knowledges, in the context of transformative pedagogical practices, to disrupt dominant views and cultivate processes of inclusion in higher education.

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Addressing dualisms in student perceptions of a historically white and black university in South Africa

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Normative discourses about higher education institutions may perpetuate stereotypes about institutions. Few studies explore student perceptions of universities and how transformative pedagogical interventions in university classrooms may address institutional stereotypes. Using Plumwood's notion of dualism, this qualitative study analyses unchallenged stereotypes about students' own and another university during an inter-institutional collaborative research and teaching and learning project.

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[Article] Challenges in Promoting Race Dialogues in Psychology Training: Race and Gender Perspectives - Rita Chi-Ying Chung, Fred Bemak, Regine M. Talleyrand et al

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[Article] Challenges in Promoting Race Dialogues in Psychology Training: Race and Gender Perspectives - Rita Chi-Ying Chung, Fred Bemak, Regine M. Talleyrand et al

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Given today's racial diversity and the ongoing racial tensions in our communities as a result of police shootings of unarmed Black men, terrorist acts in the United States and globally, and expressions of racism and xenophobia in the political arena, it is essential for psychologists to be culturally competent. Four diverse faculty members engaged in a self-study of their multicultural teaching practices to explore the challenges inherent in participating in authentic race dialogues. In this article, we discuss the findings from our independent and collective analysis of faculty narratives and provide recommendations for facilitating honest and courageous race dialogues in graduate psychology training.

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Challenges in Promoting Race Dialogues in Psychology Training: Race and Gender Perspectives - Rita Chi-Ying Chung, Fred Bemak, Regine M. Talleyrand, Joseph M. Williams, 2018

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Given today's racial diversity and the ongoing racial tensions in our communities as a result of police shootings of unarmed Black men, terrorist acts in the United States and globally, and expressions of racism and xenophobia in the political arena, it is essential for psychologists to be culturally competent.

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[Article] Building the anti-racist university: next steps - Shirley Anne Tate &Paul Bagguley

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[Article] Building the anti-racist university: next steps - Shirley Anne Tate &Paul Bagguley

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Introduction: first steps

This special issue emerged out of the continuing concern with how best to deal with institutional racism in higher education institutions (HEIs) that we have long shared as colleagues in the Center for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (CERS) at the University of Leeds, as discussed by Ian Law in this volume. The 2013 conference 'Building the Anti-racist University: Next Steps' was focused on looking forward to what needed to be done now in the twenty-first century drawing on twentieth/twenty-first century experience of institutional gains followed by their attrition in some cases and fundamental institutional inertia in others. Both of these responses to addressing institutional racism worked against organizational change even as equality and diversity policies aimed at changing the face of universities were instituted.

The papers in this special issue are the results of the thinking instantiated by the call for papers and the transdisciplinary, transnational theoretical, and practice-based discussions at the conference on experiences of institutional racial equality change processes and strategies as both partial successes and abject failures. We take both successes and failures forward as lessons learned into the new arena for anti-racist work in which we find ourselves, the neoliberal, 'post-race' university which by and large still caters for national/international elites, where some knowledge is commodified on a global scale and others continue to be erased. What is distinctive about this special issue is the international character of the collection demonstrating common political concerns globally about racism in higher education. Yet there remain some puzzling absences - no contribution from mainland Europe, the Caribbean, or Australia and New Zealand for example. This may perhaps reflect our networks, how we framed the conference, or be an indication that racism in higher education does not get much attention in these contexts in which anti-black and anti-Indigenous racisms persist. Notwithstanding these absences, one goal of this special issue is to further expand the global debate on racism and anti-racism in universities. The papers highlight a multiple range of issues regarding students, academic staff, and knowledge systems but all seek to challenge the complacency of the 'post-race' present that is dominant in, northwest Europe and North America, Brazil's mythical 'racial democracy' and South Africa's post-apartheid 'rainbow nation'. The papers also originate from a variety of disciplines - Sociology, Economics, Pyschology, Education, and Youth and Community Work.

For the countries represented by the papers - Brazil, South Africa, Canada, the USA, and the UK - what is clear is that we are not yet past the need for anti-racist institutional action. What these nations share in common is that they were all touched by the machinations of European empire whether as colonized or colonizer. This has led to the instantiation of European whiteness as superior and abjection of the difference of racialized others. From within this colonial psyche which still exists in the twenty-first century, these nations actively deracinate politics, subjectivities, political economy, and affective relationalities when they re-imagine themselves to be 'post-race' states where all citizens can have a share in the good life because now only class matters. Universities have also taken on the mantle of upholding societal 'post-race' status through those very same equality and diversity policies and strategies which have not been effective (Ahmed ). Frances Henry et al's article on higher education in Canada foregrounds racism as a critical variable shaping racialized and Indigenous peoples' lives and experiences. This issue is pronounced in Canadian universities, where employment equity, diversity, and other policies aimed at equality amount to no more than well-worded mission statements and some minor cosmetic changes which leave structural racial inequality intact. In Canada inequality, indifference, and reliance on outmoded conservative traditions characterize the modern neoliberal university which continues to work on racial lines. Whether one examines representation in terms of numbers of racialized and Indigenous faculty members and their positioning within the system, their earned income as compared to white faculty, their daily life experiences of racism within the university as workplace irrespective of status, or interactions with colleagues and students, the results are that racialized and Indigenous faculty and the disciplines or areas of their expertise are, on the whole, low in numbers and even lower in terms of power, prestige, and influence within the HEIs. From the viewpoint of the USA, Ryan P. Adserias, Lavar J. Charleston, and Jerlando F.L. Jackson assert that implementing racial diversity agendas within decentralized, loosely coupled, and change-resistant institutions such as colleges and universities is a global challenge. They see a shift in organizational culture as imperative in order to produce the change needed for a diversity agenda to thrive. This article synthesizes the literature on proven strategies and offers case studies of how a variety of leadership styles has and can fuel much needed racial diversity efforts or lead to institutional inertia.

More work needs to be done into the twenty-first century because of, not in spite of, the 'post-race' consensus in order to develop a maximal, transformative approach to institutional change, rather than a minimal meeting of legal obligations in those countries where an anti-discrimination framework exists. In the UK, progress in the field of anti-racism in HEIs has slowed and has dissipated across the sector within a proliferation of policy statements on equity, diversity, and harassment as well as ethnic monitoring of staff and student access and progression, for example. These approaches have been inadequate and do not reflect the necessary institutional effort required to establish real and lasting anti-racism in the UK higher education sector, or indeed, in Canada, the USA, Brazil, and South Africa built on a foundation of innovative and effective policy and practice. This special issue draws together the foci emerging from the debates within each paper on curriculum, pedagogy, access, policy, process, experience, outcomes, racialization, and racism in HEIs in Canada, the USA, the UK, Brazil, and South Africa to help in crafting an agenda for building the global anti-racist university into the 'post-race' twenty-first century.

To aid in this endeavor, the papers in this special issue look at the following key themes in their locally contextualized debates and research on institutional racism in HEIs in Canada, Brazil, South Africa, the UK, and USA:

Institutional whiteness is shared across all of the papers in the issue so let us turn next to briefly look at whiteness and institutional racism in contemporary university spaces in the 'post-race' UK.

Whiteness, institutional racism and universities as 'post-race' spaces

We began the debate within Racism Studies about whether or not we are yet 'post-race' societies some time ago (Goldberg ). Whatever side of the debate on which we fall what this special insists is that institutional racism is still very much a part of the fabric of the university spaces we inhabit, texturing our experiences and this is the case no matter how much we might wish that it were otherwise. Academia is an institution in which faculty and administration continue to be predominantly white especially at professor, vice chancellor, and top management levels and the curricula continue to be unashamedly white as well. Continuing dissatisfaction with this state of affairs led to the emergence of student-led campaigns in the UK on 'why is my curriculum white?' ( http://www.nus.org.uk/en/news/why-is-my-curriculum-white/) and 'why isn't my professor black?' ( http://www.dtmh.ucl.ac.uk/isnt-professor-black-reflection/). These concerns with the lack of change in terms of racial justice transformation have led over the last few years to the mobilization of thousands of students to public meetings in universities across the country and their political attachment to other global campaigns such as '#Black Lives Matter' in the USA and 'Rhodes Must fall' in South Africa. Much of this public debate and campus-based campaigning has emerged since our conference, yet they indicate its political timeliness.

The UK student mobilizations became more apparent after a historic panel at the UCL on 10 March 2014 entitled 'Why isn't my professor black?' The members of the panel were Professor Michael Arthur President and Provost (UCL), Dr Deborah Gabriel (Founder and CEO of Black British Academics), Dr Lisa Palmer (Newman University), Dr Shirley Anne Tate (University of Leeds), Dr William Ackah (Birkbeck College, University of London), and Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman (UCL) who organized the panel. The event was 'sold out' within days and a bigger venue had to be arranged in order to seat the hundreds of people who attended. The UCL panel is widely seen to have been the catalyst for anti-racist student campaigns and student calls to decolonize the university in the UK. At this panel, the vice chancellor of UCL asserted that that university would develop the first Black Studies program in the UK to show its commitment to this area of academic endeavor globally. However, this has not yet materialized at UCL and progress on this achievement seems to have dissipated. In South Africa and the UK, there has also been the 'Rhodes Must Fall' campaign and in South Africa the 'Fees Must Fall' campaign. All of these student-led mobilizations have been a call to action for anti-racist change not just within universities but also societally. Cynically, UK universities have responded with once yearly well-publicized Black History Month events as part of their equality and diversity strategies, part of a public demonstration of their commitment to anti-racist change. These are sometimes run as public events by their Public Relations offices to show 'there is no racism here', irrespective of the fact of the shameful BME employment statistics within UK HEIs at present and the prevailing issue of BME student lack of achievement. There continues to be under-representation of BME staff even while there has been a year-on-year increase in BME students (Equality Challenge Unit 2015 http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/equality-higher-education-statistical-report-2015/ accessed 1 August, 2016). The numbers of BME staff have increased from 4.8% in 2003/4 to 6.7% in 2013/14 (ECU 2015 Equality Challenge Unit. 2015 Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Report. ). Further, black staff members continue to be low paid and low status in comparison with white colleagues (ECU 2015 Equality Challenge Unit. 2015 Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Report. ).

Whilst much previous work in the UK focused on racial inequalities in access to university (McManus et al. , and M. Demetriou. 1998. "Factors Affecting Likelihood of Applicants Being Offered a Place in Medical Schools in the United Kingdom in 1996 and 1997: A Retrospective Study." Connor, Helen , Claire Tyler, Tariq Modood, and Jim Hillage. 2004. Bagguley, Paul , and Yasmin Hussain. 2007. 1998 2004 2007 The Role of Higher Education in Providing Opportunities for South Asian Women. Bristol: The Policy Press. ) more recent work has revealed a significant 'attainment gap' between white, black, and ethnic minority students. Data from the United Kingdom's Equality Challenge Unit ( Why the Difference? A Closer Look at Higher Education Minority Ethnic Students and Graduates. Research Report No. 552. London: Institute for Employment Studies. ; Bagguley and Hussain British Medical Journal 317: 1111-1117.10.1136/bmj.317.7166.1111 ; Connor et al. http://www.ecu.ac.uk/guidance-resources/student-recruitment-retention-attainment/student-attainment/degree-attainment-gaps/accessed 1 August 2016) showed that in 2012/13 57.1% of UK-domiciled BME students received an upper second class or first class degree, compared with 73.2% of white British students. This is what the ECU refers to as an attainment gap of 16.1%. Whilst the gap varies between minority ethnic groups, 43.8% of self-classified 'Black Other' students achieved a higher class of degree - a gap of 29.4% compared to white students. Such an attainment gap should make universities ponder what it is about, what happens within their walls, classrooms, and curricula that suppresses the emergence of BME student excellence. Students have already highlighted those aspects of university life which impact their experiences negatively in terms of the campaigns mentioned above, that is, continuing institutional racism, curricula which continue to be Euro-centric and faculty which do not reflect the UK's demographic diversity. These very issues were raised in terms of schooling by Bernard Coard's () How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Subnormal in British Schools and Maureen Stone's () The Education of the Black Child in Britain: The Myth of Multi- racial Education. One could say then that the UK education system has not moved past race and, indeed, is configured to maintain the dominance of those racialized as white.

This dominance is also maintained through a second feature of the university landscape in the UK that has been receiving increasing attention. That is, the lack of progression of black and ethnic minority students into the academic workforce. For example, at the time of writing there were only 18 black women full professors in the UK (the Times Higher 17 August 2016). One particular paradox here is that whilst black and ethnic minority students are more likely than white students to study for a taught Master's, they are less likely to move on to a PhD ( http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2016/201614/) which is the first step towards an academic career in the UK. In contrast, white graduates were almost twice as likely as BME graduates to go on to a research degree soon after graduating. This research by the government's Higher Education Funding Council demonstrates some level of official concern, but this contrasts with the lack of real action for change within universities, such as student mentoring and scholarship possibilities. Indeed, if the majority of UK BME students attend non-Russell Group universities this already means that they stand less chance of getting an ESRC/AHRC scholarship than their Russell Group counterparts. The organization of scholarship funding through the doctoral training centers/partnerships model potentially could be the location of unwitting racial exclusion even though on the face of it the system seems to be operating on a meritocratic basis. Such enduring inequalities at the heart of UK HEIs supposedly built upon those long-held Eurocentric virtues of fairness and meritocracy reveal an ongoing monumental structural racial inequality and ongoing racist practices.

'Post-race' we are not (Goldberg ) indeed, nor are we in the grip of Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's () 'color-blind racism'. Racism is not color blind nor is 'race' 'post'. In his paper, Ian Law addresses this issue by firmly locating the work of CERS within the long sociological tradition placing 'race' and racism at the center of the making of Western modernity, from Du Bois, Cooper, Césaire, and Fanon to contemporary theorists including Hall, Hesse, Collins, Goldberg, Glissant, and Winant. For him, it is important to keep the spotlight on racism as a primary field of research and practice in order to enable the global transformation of HEIs. At the curriculum level, this necessity is also highlighted by Ronelle Carolissen and Vivienne Bozalek's paper which draws on an interdisciplinary, inter-professional teaching, learning and research project set up across a historically disadvantaged (black) and a historically advantaged (white) HEI in Cape Town, South Africa, and across differently valued professions (Psychology, Social Work, and Occupational Therapy) in order to address the historical and current racial inequities caused by apartheid's instantiation of racial difference and unquestioned white privilege irrespective of class. As these papers show, 'post-race' and 'color-blind' are pervasive institutional discourses which provide us with ways in which we can understand the insidious neoliberal racialization within which we find ourselves in the societies from which the papers in this issue draw. Pete Harris, Chris Haywood, and Mairtin Mac an Ghaill's article explores this neoliberal racialization by exploring the experiences of black and Muslim students by looking at how 'teaching otherwise' can create an alternative representational space. This space in turn enables a transformation in perspectives of self through pedagogy which is much needed in the future in UK HEIs if neoliberal racialization is to be effectively tackled.

Neoliberal racialization continues to be difficult to deal with because it is catalyzed by whiteness or 'whiteliness' (Yancy Yancy, George . 2008. 2008, 2012 Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Yancy, George . 2012. Look a White! Philosophical Essays on Whiteness. : Temple University Press. ) which are discursive and non-discursive aspects of institutional life which

[...] becomes a deeply political, existentially Yancy, George . 2008. lived, social category that shapes the subjectivities and future racialist/racist practices of whites. Whiteness is a way of performing both one's phenotypic white body/one's subjectivity structured around a specific white racist epistemic orientation (Yancy 2008 Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. , 48).

The social body as skin, subjectivity, and epistemology are central to whiteness. As such, whiteness continues to be the motor of the egregious institutional racism which continues unabated even in the face of affirmative action programs. Joaze Bernardino-Costa and Ana Elisa De Carli Blackman look at the theme of the struggle against racism in Brazil and the adoption of affirmative action policies through the public universities of the nation because of the anti-racist actions of the 'movimento negro' (black rights movement). Affirmative action sprang from a Supreme Federal Court ruling in 2011 on the constitutionality of racially targeted policies in the University of Brasilia and the subsequent National Congress approval of quotas to be adopted by all federal universities in Brazil. However, even after much public debate, campaigning, and law making, the article shows that much still needs to be done, such as the adoption of affirmative action in postgraduate schools and in the contracting of teachers as well as the reconfiguration of the curriculum and of the research agendas of Brazilian universities. At this point in Brazil following the coup and the spread of conservative politics across the country seen in the recent local elections, there is increasing unease and much uncertainty about the future of quotas in debates from the Left. From the viewpoint of the USA, Gary A. Dymski looks at the institutional and specific disciplinary uptake of the diversity imperative and its successes and failures at the University of California Riverside (UCR) through its outreach, student support, and 'pipeline' programs. The strong performance of UCR in attracting and retaining students of color in 2014 led to its being ranked first in a poll of US universities meeting the 'Obama criteria' of access/diversity/affordability/success. However, Dymski shows that much more still needs to be done into the future at both discipline and institutional levels as well as within political economy if students of color are to succeed in entering the professions.

The necessity for affirmative action policies illustrates that whiteliness is the bedrock of organizational culture and is embedded within institutional structures and processes as well as knowledge production and canonization which in combination enable racism 'to melt into thin air' (Gordon ). Whiteness works through a governmental (Foucault ) process of subjectification motivated by self-interest, personal benefit, and entitlement to undisputed privilege which Charles Mills (, 40) makes clear in the Racial Contract

Both globally and within particular nations, then, white people, Europeans and their descendants, continue to benefit from the Racial Contract, which creates a world in their cultural image, political states differentially favouring their interests, an economy structured around the racial exploitation of others, and a moral psychology (not just in whites sometimes in nonwhites also) skewed consciously and unconsciously toward privileging them, taking the status quo of differential racial entitlement as normatively legitimate, and not to be investigated further.

Whiteliness is at the center of our putatively 'post-race' world and indeed has mythologized 'post-race' as a new form of 'racialized governmentality' which rules black, minority ethnic and white psyches, social spaces, and institutions alike. This is a racialized governmentality in which those racialized as non-white can be accused of racism against those racialized as white in a sleight of hand and perversion of knowledge and history which refuses white power and privilege as foundational to a description of racism. This is illustrated in Diane Watt's pedagogical focus on those 'difficult conversations' on racism aimed at enabling students to develop a critical understanding of the significance of anti-oppressive thought and practices. She found that when reflecting on anti-oppressive practices was made a core part of the curriculum this faced resistance from some white students who sought to undermine classroom debates about these issues effectively silencing those white students who wish to actively engage with anti-racist theory and practices. British black and South Asian students also felt marginalized by this resistance having to defend their experiences, or sometimes strategically avoiding the debates for fear of adversely affecting their relationships with some white students. Watt's paper powerfully illustrates the potentially contradictory outcomes of attempts at anti-racist practice within university teaching environments. Of course, this racialized governmentality is very little different from the evasive racism which Ruth Frankenberg's () White Women Race Matters: The Social construction of Whiteness described in the twentieth century. 'Anyone can be racist' underlies racialized governmentality and must be critiqued as well as opposed as a mindset or perspective on the world if we are to change universities into workplaces which are not zones of toxic shock for faculty as well as into places of study in which students do not feel alienated.

What is interesting is that the pervasive power of whiteliness continues to be denied and indeed is balked at, remaining unsayable within universities. This regime of unsayability allied with the deniability of white power and privilege is why anti-racism has not worked. We cannot ameliorate something which we think does not exist because it is unsayable and deniable. Further, if we do notice and say 'this is racism' our acknowledgment is always tied to an individual failure or pathology on the part of both BME students and faculty and their white anti-racist allies. This culture of blame making means that we continually refuse institutional accountability for failure to address racism. Moreover, and much more insidiously, since the problem is constructed as that of those racialized as not-white and their allies racialized as white who continue to say that whiteliness is the root of the problem of continuing racial inequalities in universities, this claim falls on deaf ears. Such falling on deaf ears brings to mind Gayatri Spivak's () subaltern who could never be brought into the scene of representation as recognizable political subject. Beyond the body racialized as black or minority ethnic, subalternity also continues to be the circumscribed space of anti-racist thought, practice and knowledge systems within UK universities.

Anti-racism has not worked as we can see in the continuing struggles for racial equality represented in the papers in this volume in societies in which 'race' continues to matter even though we might wish it were otherwise. Mark Christian's contribution highlights this persistence and its impacts at the level of the individual. His article speaks to black British male experience in US colleges and universities. It is an autoethnographic study in terms of relating, witnessing, and noting both learning and teaching experiences. The paper highlights the need for greater access and opportunity for black scholars to teach and study without stress and strain on their minds and bodies, especially for those facing the daily reality of teaching and researching within the context of Africana or black Studies in higher education. Christian notes that academia should be a place where liberal arts of all genres and their teachers are accepted and respected but there is still a long way to go before we can attest to the affirmative of this point of view.

Although saying anti-racism has failed fills us with feelings of political despondency, especially in the current UK context of BREXIT, failure must be acknowledged in order to build possible futures from the materials at hand in each country represented in this volume. The local is important to bear in mind because there cannot be a one size fits all approach to change even though we can say that we can learn from successes, failures, and hopeful shoots of change in each context. What we are talking about here we must remember is a very specific understanding of racism which has very specific Black Atlantic foci and approaches to its amelioration as we see from Mills () above. What can we say though about anti-racism's failure within neoliberal institutions and neoliberal racialization?

Anti-racism's failure within universities

What institutionalized anti-racist policy and practice within institutions has done is to seek institutional transformation through changing structures and processes which militate against equality of access, process, and outcome because of the impact of whiteliness. This has basically been a liberal-inclusive approach based on a commitment to diversity which has not taken on board the pervasiveness of the Racial Contract. The Contract's pervasiveness is assured by the intensity of the affective attachment to privilege of those who benefit from it. It is further embedded within the psychic life of institutions and those who occupy and build them so that they can continue to occupy a world of instutitionalized racial inequality while chanting the 'post-race' mantra. In fact, to speak of being 'post-race' denies racism's contemporary existence (Goldberg ) and relegates it to a best forgotten past. It is interesting how one can say that racism does not matter while watching the events unfold which led to the 'Black Lives Matter' campaign in the US, or the shooting of Mark Duggan and its aftermath in the UK, or the continuing under-representation of Indigenous People in universities in Brazil and Canada, or the 'Rhodes Must Fall' campaign in South Africa. How can this will to silence continuing racism through asserting 'post-race' status in UK universities be explained?

By way of explication, let us turn again to the Racial Contract and the process of becoming white. This latter

has nothing to do with a so-called genetic racial substratum, but everything to do with what happens at the level of social constitutionality, how the human being comes Yancy, George . 2008. to be the white self that is both constituted by and constitutes white racism. (Yancy 2008 Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. , 48)

The process of becoming white is linked to the Contract which itself is based on keeping European and European descent white superiority in place for its signatories at the levels of political economy, culture, psyche, and epistemology. This ensures the continuation of racial exploitation and a normative position in which white privilege need not be questioned. Racism is silenced through what Mills (, 18) calls 'epistemologies of ignorance'. However, 'ignorance' does not mean 'unknowing' as we would expect from its etymology.

Rather, what we have instead are 'white misunderstanding, misrepresentation, evasion and self-deception on matters related to race' (Mills , 19). In the twenty-first century what Mills' Tate, Shirley Anne . 2013. "Racial Affective Economies, Disalienation and 'Race Made Ordinary'." Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Encarnación . 2016. "Sensing Dispossession: Women and Gender Studies between Institutional Racism and Migration Control Policies in the Neo-liberal University." white 'mis' means is not that we live with white understandings, representations, evasions, and deceptions which are abnormal, bad, wrong, or divergent, all of which would be the normal understandings of 'mis'. Rather, what walks amongst us and stalks the halls of academic life is a knowing ignorance of whiteness and its racist impacts so that whiteness remains innocent of racism and unproblematically claims that space because of its 'unknowledges'. Whiteliness and white supremacy do not need to be defended against the charge of racism because of 'unknowledges'. 'Sometimes these "unknowledges" are consciously generated, while at other times they are unconsciously generated and supported (...) [but] they work to support white privilege and supremacy' (Sullivan and Tuana , 2). 'Unknowledges' are linked to pervasive institutional racism through helping to maintain racism's deniability. These deniability regimes are crucial to the continuation of whiteness in universities through its racial affective economies and cultures of disattendability (Tate 2013 2016 Women's Studies International Forum 54: 167-177.10.1016/j.wsif.2015.06.013 ). This is the weight of whiteliness which anti-racism has not managed to erase or even ameliorate even with all of the equality and diversity paperwork which exists in the different contexts examined in the papers here. This is its failure. It is not a failure produced by anti-racists but is one that was a direct result of its institutionalization and colonization as 'equality and diversity' after it had been stripped of its potential for critique and action. After all, it is impossible to allow unfettered institutional access to something which has such a fundamental critique of that from which you benefit and that which ultimately is not in your interest to change. We continue to struggle to name racism and to act against it within the university sector because of 'equality and diversity' as the preferred approach to racial inequity and institutional transformation. Ethnic and Racial Studies 37 (13): 2475-2490. ), curricula, and interpersonal relationalities which lead to promotion or lack of it, student/staff experiences of racial privilege/disprivilege, and denial of access to the institution in the first place (Gutiérrez Rodríguez ,

Recognizing the basis of institutional inertia around racism or the erasure of past anti-racist changes leads us to now think about how to re-engage with the continuing necessity for anti-racist action in 'post-race' times. The question for the conference was 'Building the Anti-racist University: What next?' as it is for all of those who strive for racial intersectional equality. That 'next' is an important, indeed a vital shift, which will take us into thinking about how we can take forward the student campaign's call to decolonize the institution as our future option in the face of anti-racism's failure to make lasting and fundamental anti-racist changes to UK HEIs.

Decolonizing the university in 'post-race' times

What is it that we mean when we use this buzzword, what is it to decolonize this whiteliness and white supremacy to which even those living with and through racial disprivilege can ascribe because of the pervasiveness of the Racial Contract? Let us begin from looking at what Glissant () tells us about epistemological, societal, and self-liberation within his take on creolization as a rhizomatic movement which disrupts identitarian politics as it produces new subjectivities, a new 'common' (Hardt and Negri ) which recognizes white supremacy and racism as we break away from knowing unknowledges. Glissant locates the Caribbean archipelago as a zone of diversity which separates it from continental thought based on the One of universalism. His work makes us see the 'poetics of relation' within the decolonial moment as a break from the 'philosophies of the One of the West' (Glissant). The 'One of the West' here is whiteliness whether read as psyche, institution, process, structure, affect, or political economy, for example. That is, Glissant enables us to continue to think about the project of decoloniality in terms of knowledge, power, becoming, and affect.

Let us begin to think the university as a contact zone, a zone of creolization which still continues to imagine itself as the place of imperial whiteness. Glissantian creolization is an ongoing relational process which inscribes the principle of non-hierarchical unity with a relation of equality with and respect for the other as different from oneself within a natural openness to other cultures. The principle of equality and respect for the other as different not inferior is crucial to the decolonial moment as it is through this that we can begin to prise open what Marley () calls 'mental slavery', what Fanon () would term the 'colonial psyche' and what Mills () has called 'a moral psychology'. This lays out the necessity for psychic and epistemological decolonization which both looks at whites' and at racialized others' complicity in keeping the status quo in place because of the benefits that they feel they gain. Creolization, like decolonial thinking, does not universalize itself unlike the One of the West but 'brings into Relation' hitherto disparate constituencies (Glissant , 90). Relation produces new identities through erranty, a psychic mode of affirming racial identities as an antidote for and in opposition to exile which can potentially erode one's identity (Glissant , 20). Errantry builds a new racialized and racializing common as it includes both collective and individual in knowing that 'the Other is within us and affects how we evolve as well as the bulk of our conceptions and the development of our sensibility' (Glissant , 27). This recognition of the fact of whiteliness within us as individuals and communities is essential in decolonizing racialized psyches whether those are black, Indigenous, People of Color, or white as we build what Glissant describes above as a non-hierachical unity. A unity which for our purposes is an anti-racist common.

Decoloniality thus necessitates working at the levels of the manifestation of white racialized power and its attendant prescriptions of what counts as knowledge, who can occupy the category human and its negative affects which circulate and make HEIs the site of pain for both faculty and students alike. To include a consideration of affect as being in need of decolonization is an important addition to the trio of the coloniality of power, coloniality of knowledge, and coloniality of being which is the usual approach to decolonial thought (for example, Maldonado-Torres 2016 Maldonado-Torres, Nelson . 2016. "Fanon e Foucault sobre Modernidade, Poder, Conhecimento, e a Zona do Não Ser [Fanon and Foucault on Modernity, Power, Knowledge and Being]." Paper presented at International Seminar on a Black Perspective on Decoloniality, University of Brasilia, Brazil, . ). Resisting the coloniality of knowledge through demanding epistemological decolonization is an essential aspect of the decolonial project and it is not a happy coincidence that UK students have this firmly in their sights with the campaign 'why is my curriculum white?' This question has been a long time coming but is a significant one especially if one thinks about the 'post-race' context. That is, if 'race' does not matter only class, then why is there still a blinding whiteness in terms of what counts as knowledge, in terms of what has become the canon, what gets taken up, and what remains erased? What we now need is a necessary re-reading of 'post-race' which sees it as pointing only to the construction of a present and future time and space in which whiteness as 'race' power and privilege is erased, in which the anti-black/People of Color/Indigenous racism it generates ceases to exist.

For the first time in UK history and that of Europe, there is a black Studies degree in a university - Birmingham City University. This did not emerge at UCL-home of the Galton Collection and Galton Lecture Theater in memory of the man who first coined the term 'eugenics' in 1883 - even though its promise began there. This development is quite momentous and must be applauded as a response to the issue of the white curriculum. This does not take away from all the work which has been engaged in for years by colleagues at other UK institutions but begs the question of why the Russell Group as a whole did not make a similar response. Similarly, it is important to ponder why this innovation came from a new university in a multi-racial city like Birmingham with its rich black intellectual and activist history, including being the home of the now defunct Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham. This makes us note the affects attached to white epistemology across the university sector where even now very few courses which look in a sustained and in-depth way at racism and black Studies exist and those that do are currently being dismantled. These whitely affective attachments create a connection between the white body irrespective of gender, class, sexuality, age, and location and the white epistemological tradition constructed as superior, whatever the discipline. Both bodies and epistemology attain value because of this connection so, of course, it is clear that a Black Studies program already sets into train a destabilization of these certainties. This inherent critique of the value of whiteness as body and knowledge is perhaps what led to the demise of many Black Studies programs in the 'post-race' US and what has led to the demise/diminution of those few courses that there were in the UK.

What has changed in the Higher Education sector to now enable the emergence of a Black Studies program at undergraduate level in the UK? Perhaps, it is that very same neoliberal racialization and commodification of knowledge to be sold to niche international and national markets which has enabled this development. Perhaps, everything is related to political economy in the end as the profit imperative in marketized UK universities necessitates the development of an international/national market in students willing to pay for a 'British education'. Ironically, marketization might be the motor which drives the development of curricula which attempt to be non-Eurocentric as it 'brings into relation' previously disconnected constituencies.

It continues to be necessary to draw together the issues emerging from the debates throughout the articles in this special issue on curriculum, pedagogy, access, policy, process, experience, outcomes, subjectivities, racialization, and racism in HEIs in Brazil, South Africa, Canada, the USA, and the UK to craft an agenda for building the anti-racist university into the 'post-race' twenty-first century in contexts where white privilege and power remain. These must be 'the next steps' but ones which are continuously reiterated and reinscribed as racism morphs because white privilege will continue to be maintained in the face of future decolonial assault.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Shirley Anne Tate
Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
s.a.tate@leeds.ac.uk Paul Bagguley
Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

References

. 2012. On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.10.1215/9780822395324

Bagguley, Paul , and Yasmin Hussain. 2007. The Role of Higher Education in Providing Opportunities for South Asian Women. Bristol: The Policy Press.

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo . 2014. Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America. 4th ed. Plymouth: Rowman and Littlefield.

Connor, Helen , Claire Tyler, Tariq Modood, and Jim Hillage. 2004. Why the Difference? A Closer Look at Higher Education Minority Ethnic Students and Graduates. Research Report No. 552. London: Institute for Employment Studies.

Equality Challenge Unit. 2015 Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Report.

Foucault, Michel . 1980. Power Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. Edited by . Brighton: The Harvester Press.

Frankenberg, Ruth . 1993. White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness. : University of Minnesota Press.

Glissant, Édouard . 1997. Poetics of Relation. Translated by . Ann Arbour, MI: University of Michigan Press.10.3998/mpub.10257

Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Encarnación . 2010. "Decolonizing Post-colonial Rhetoric." In Decolonizing European Sociology, edited by Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Manuela Boatca, and Sergio Costa, 49-69. Abingdon: Ashgate.

Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Encarnación . 2016. "Sensing Dispossession: Women and Gender Studies between Institutional Racism and Migration Control Policies in the Neo-liberal University." Women's Studies International Forum 54: 167-177.10.1016/j.wsif.2015.06.013

Maldonado-Torres, Nelson . 2016. "Fanon e Foucault sobre Modernidade, Poder, Conhecimento, e a Zona do Não Ser [Fanon and Foucault on Modernity, Power, Knowledge and Being]." Paper presented at International Seminar on a Black Perspective on Decoloniality, University of Brasilia, Brazil, .

, and M. Demetriou. 1998. "Factors Affecting Likelihood of Applicants Being Offered a Place in Medical Schools in the United Kingdom in 1996 and 1997: A Retrospective Study." British Medical Journal 317: 1111-1117.10.1136/bmj.317.7166.1111

Spivak, Gayatri . 1995. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" In Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory: A Reader, edited by and , 66-111. Hemel Hempstead: Simon and Schuster International Group.

Tate, Shirley Anne . 2013. "Racial Affective Economies, Disalienation and 'Race Made Ordinary'." Ethnic and Racial Studies 37 (13): 2475-2490.

Yancy, George . 2012. Look a White! Philosophical Essays on Whiteness. : Temple University Press.

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Building the anti-racist university: next steps

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This special issue emerged out of the continuing concern with how best to deal with institutional racism in higher education institutions (HEIs) that we have long shared as colleagues in the Center for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (CERS) at the University of Leeds, as discussed by Ian Law in this volume.

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[Article] Building the Anti-racist University, action and new agendas - Ian Law

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[Article] Building the Anti-racist University, action and new agendas - Ian Law

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Introduction: first steps

This special issue emerged out of the continuing concern with how best to deal with institutional racism in higher education institutions (HEIs) that we have long shared as colleagues in the Center for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (CERS) at the University of Leeds, as discussed by Ian Law in this volume. The 2013 conference 'Building the Anti-racist University: Next Steps' was focused on looking forward to what needed to be done now in the twenty-first century drawing on twentieth/twenty-first century experience of institutional gains followed by their attrition in some cases and fundamental institutional inertia in others. Both of these responses to addressing institutional racism worked against organizational change even as equality and diversity policies aimed at changing the face of universities were instituted.

The papers in this special issue are the results of the thinking instantiated by the call for papers and the transdisciplinary, transnational theoretical, and practice-based discussions at the conference on experiences of institutional racial equality change processes and strategies as both partial successes and abject failures. We take both successes and failures forward as lessons learned into the new arena for anti-racist work in which we find ourselves, the neoliberal, 'post-race' university which by and large still caters for national/international elites, where some knowledge is commodified on a global scale and others continue to be erased. What is distinctive about this special issue is the international character of the collection demonstrating common political concerns globally about racism in higher education. Yet there remain some puzzling absences - no contribution from mainland Europe, the Caribbean, or Australia and New Zealand for example. This may perhaps reflect our networks, how we framed the conference, or be an indication that racism in higher education does not get much attention in these contexts in which anti-black and anti-Indigenous racisms persist. Notwithstanding these absences, one goal of this special issue is to further expand the global debate on racism and anti-racism in universities. The papers highlight a multiple range of issues regarding students, academic staff, and knowledge systems but all seek to challenge the complacency of the 'post-race' present that is dominant in, northwest Europe and North America, Brazil's mythical 'racial democracy' and South Africa's post-apartheid 'rainbow nation'. The papers also originate from a variety of disciplines - Sociology, Economics, Pyschology, Education, and Youth and Community Work.

For the countries represented by the papers - Brazil, South Africa, Canada, the USA, and the UK - what is clear is that we are not yet past the need for anti-racist institutional action. What these nations share in common is that they were all touched by the machinations of European empire whether as colonized or colonizer. This has led to the instantiation of European whiteness as superior and abjection of the difference of racialized others. From within this colonial psyche which still exists in the twenty-first century, these nations actively deracinate politics, subjectivities, political economy, and affective relationalities when they re-imagine themselves to be 'post-race' states where all citizens can have a share in the good life because now only class matters. Universities have also taken on the mantle of upholding societal 'post-race' status through those very same equality and diversity policies and strategies which have not been effective (Ahmed ). Frances Henry et al's article on higher education in Canada foregrounds racism as a critical variable shaping racialized and Indigenous peoples' lives and experiences. This issue is pronounced in Canadian universities, where employment equity, diversity, and other policies aimed at equality amount to no more than well-worded mission statements and some minor cosmetic changes which leave structural racial inequality intact. In Canada inequality, indifference, and reliance on outmoded conservative traditions characterize the modern neoliberal university which continues to work on racial lines. Whether one examines representation in terms of numbers of racialized and Indigenous faculty members and their positioning within the system, their earned income as compared to white faculty, their daily life experiences of racism within the university as workplace irrespective of status, or interactions with colleagues and students, the results are that racialized and Indigenous faculty and the disciplines or areas of their expertise are, on the whole, low in numbers and even lower in terms of power, prestige, and influence within the HEIs. From the viewpoint of the USA, Ryan P. Adserias, Lavar J. Charleston, and Jerlando F.L. Jackson assert that implementing racial diversity agendas within decentralized, loosely coupled, and change-resistant institutions such as colleges and universities is a global challenge. They see a shift in organizational culture as imperative in order to produce the change needed for a diversity agenda to thrive. This article synthesizes the literature on proven strategies and offers case studies of how a variety of leadership styles has and can fuel much needed racial diversity efforts or lead to institutional inertia.

More work needs to be done into the twenty-first century because of, not in spite of, the 'post-race' consensus in order to develop a maximal, transformative approach to institutional change, rather than a minimal meeting of legal obligations in those countries where an anti-discrimination framework exists. In the UK, progress in the field of anti-racism in HEIs has slowed and has dissipated across the sector within a proliferation of policy statements on equity, diversity, and harassment as well as ethnic monitoring of staff and student access and progression, for example. These approaches have been inadequate and do not reflect the necessary institutional effort required to establish real and lasting anti-racism in the UK higher education sector, or indeed, in Canada, the USA, Brazil, and South Africa built on a foundation of innovative and effective policy and practice. This special issue draws together the foci emerging from the debates within each paper on curriculum, pedagogy, access, policy, process, experience, outcomes, racialization, and racism in HEIs in Canada, the USA, the UK, Brazil, and South Africa to help in crafting an agenda for building the global anti-racist university into the 'post-race' twenty-first century.

To aid in this endeavor, the papers in this special issue look at the following key themes in their locally contextualized debates and research on institutional racism in HEIs in Canada, Brazil, South Africa, the UK, and USA:

Institutional whiteness is shared across all of the papers in the issue so let us turn next to briefly look at whiteness and institutional racism in contemporary university spaces in the 'post-race' UK.

Whiteness, institutional racism and universities as 'post-race' spaces

We began the debate within Racism Studies about whether or not we are yet 'post-race' societies some time ago (Goldberg ). Whatever side of the debate on which we fall what this special insists is that institutional racism is still very much a part of the fabric of the university spaces we inhabit, texturing our experiences and this is the case no matter how much we might wish that it were otherwise. Academia is an institution in which faculty and administration continue to be predominantly white especially at professor, vice chancellor, and top management levels and the curricula continue to be unashamedly white as well. Continuing dissatisfaction with this state of affairs led to the emergence of student-led campaigns in the UK on 'why is my curriculum white?' ( http://www.nus.org.uk/en/news/why-is-my-curriculum-white/) and 'why isn't my professor black?' ( http://www.dtmh.ucl.ac.uk/isnt-professor-black-reflection/). These concerns with the lack of change in terms of racial justice transformation have led over the last few years to the mobilization of thousands of students to public meetings in universities across the country and their political attachment to other global campaigns such as '#Black Lives Matter' in the USA and 'Rhodes Must fall' in South Africa. Much of this public debate and campus-based campaigning has emerged since our conference, yet they indicate its political timeliness.

The UK student mobilizations became more apparent after a historic panel at the UCL on 10 March 2014 entitled 'Why isn't my professor black?' The members of the panel were Professor Michael Arthur President and Provost (UCL), Dr Deborah Gabriel (Founder and CEO of Black British Academics), Dr Lisa Palmer (Newman University), Dr Shirley Anne Tate (University of Leeds), Dr William Ackah (Birkbeck College, University of London), and Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman (UCL) who organized the panel. The event was 'sold out' within days and a bigger venue had to be arranged in order to seat the hundreds of people who attended. The UCL panel is widely seen to have been the catalyst for anti-racist student campaigns and student calls to decolonize the university in the UK. At this panel, the vice chancellor of UCL asserted that that university would develop the first Black Studies program in the UK to show its commitment to this area of academic endeavor globally. However, this has not yet materialized at UCL and progress on this achievement seems to have dissipated. In South Africa and the UK, there has also been the 'Rhodes Must Fall' campaign and in South Africa the 'Fees Must Fall' campaign. All of these student-led mobilizations have been a call to action for anti-racist change not just within universities but also societally. Cynically, UK universities have responded with once yearly well-publicized Black History Month events as part of their equality and diversity strategies, part of a public demonstration of their commitment to anti-racist change. These are sometimes run as public events by their Public Relations offices to show 'there is no racism here', irrespective of the fact of the shameful BME employment statistics within UK HEIs at present and the prevailing issue of BME student lack of achievement. There continues to be under-representation of BME staff even while there has been a year-on-year increase in BME students (Equality Challenge Unit 2015 http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/equality-higher-education-statistical-report-2015/ accessed 1 August, 2016). The numbers of BME staff have increased from 4.8% in 2003/4 to 6.7% in 2013/14 (ECU 2015 Equality Challenge Unit. 2015 Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Report. ). Further, black staff members continue to be low paid and low status in comparison with white colleagues (ECU 2015 Equality Challenge Unit. 2015 Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Report. ).

Whilst much previous work in the UK focused on racial inequalities in access to university (McManus et al. , and M. Demetriou. 1998. "Factors Affecting Likelihood of Applicants Being Offered a Place in Medical Schools in the United Kingdom in 1996 and 1997: A Retrospective Study." Connor, Helen , Claire Tyler, Tariq Modood, and Jim Hillage. 2004. Bagguley, Paul , and Yasmin Hussain. 2007. 1998 2004 2007 The Role of Higher Education in Providing Opportunities for South Asian Women. Bristol: The Policy Press. ) more recent work has revealed a significant 'attainment gap' between white, black, and ethnic minority students. Data from the United Kingdom's Equality Challenge Unit ( Why the Difference? A Closer Look at Higher Education Minority Ethnic Students and Graduates. Research Report No. 552. London: Institute for Employment Studies. ; Bagguley and Hussain British Medical Journal 317: 1111-1117.10.1136/bmj.317.7166.1111 ; Connor et al. http://www.ecu.ac.uk/guidance-resources/student-recruitment-retention-attainment/student-attainment/degree-attainment-gaps/accessed 1 August 2016) showed that in 2012/13 57.1% of UK-domiciled BME students received an upper second class or first class degree, compared with 73.2% of white British students. This is what the ECU refers to as an attainment gap of 16.1%. Whilst the gap varies between minority ethnic groups, 43.8% of self-classified 'Black Other' students achieved a higher class of degree - a gap of 29.4% compared to white students. Such an attainment gap should make universities ponder what it is about, what happens within their walls, classrooms, and curricula that suppresses the emergence of BME student excellence. Students have already highlighted those aspects of university life which impact their experiences negatively in terms of the campaigns mentioned above, that is, continuing institutional racism, curricula which continue to be Euro-centric and faculty which do not reflect the UK's demographic diversity. These very issues were raised in terms of schooling by Bernard Coard's () How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Subnormal in British Schools and Maureen Stone's () The Education of the Black Child in Britain: The Myth of Multi- racial Education. One could say then that the UK education system has not moved past race and, indeed, is configured to maintain the dominance of those racialized as white.

This dominance is also maintained through a second feature of the university landscape in the UK that has been receiving increasing attention. That is, the lack of progression of black and ethnic minority students into the academic workforce. For example, at the time of writing there were only 18 black women full professors in the UK (the Times Higher 17 August 2016). One particular paradox here is that whilst black and ethnic minority students are more likely than white students to study for a taught Master's, they are less likely to move on to a PhD ( http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2016/201614/) which is the first step towards an academic career in the UK. In contrast, white graduates were almost twice as likely as BME graduates to go on to a research degree soon after graduating. This research by the government's Higher Education Funding Council demonstrates some level of official concern, but this contrasts with the lack of real action for change within universities, such as student mentoring and scholarship possibilities. Indeed, if the majority of UK BME students attend non-Russell Group universities this already means that they stand less chance of getting an ESRC/AHRC scholarship than their Russell Group counterparts. The organization of scholarship funding through the doctoral training centers/partnerships model potentially could be the location of unwitting racial exclusion even though on the face of it the system seems to be operating on a meritocratic basis. Such enduring inequalities at the heart of UK HEIs supposedly built upon those long-held Eurocentric virtues of fairness and meritocracy reveal an ongoing monumental structural racial inequality and ongoing racist practices.

'Post-race' we are not (Goldberg ) indeed, nor are we in the grip of Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's () 'color-blind racism'. Racism is not color blind nor is 'race' 'post'. In his paper, Ian Law addresses this issue by firmly locating the work of CERS within the long sociological tradition placing 'race' and racism at the center of the making of Western modernity, from Du Bois, Cooper, Césaire, and Fanon to contemporary theorists including Hall, Hesse, Collins, Goldberg, Glissant, and Winant. For him, it is important to keep the spotlight on racism as a primary field of research and practice in order to enable the global transformation of HEIs. At the curriculum level, this necessity is also highlighted by Ronelle Carolissen and Vivienne Bozalek's paper which draws on an interdisciplinary, inter-professional teaching, learning and research project set up across a historically disadvantaged (black) and a historically advantaged (white) HEI in Cape Town, South Africa, and across differently valued professions (Psychology, Social Work, and Occupational Therapy) in order to address the historical and current racial inequities caused by apartheid's instantiation of racial difference and unquestioned white privilege irrespective of class. As these papers show, 'post-race' and 'color-blind' are pervasive institutional discourses which provide us with ways in which we can understand the insidious neoliberal racialization within which we find ourselves in the societies from which the papers in this issue draw. Pete Harris, Chris Haywood, and Mairtin Mac an Ghaill's article explores this neoliberal racialization by exploring the experiences of black and Muslim students by looking at how 'teaching otherwise' can create an alternative representational space. This space in turn enables a transformation in perspectives of self through pedagogy which is much needed in the future in UK HEIs if neoliberal racialization is to be effectively tackled.

Neoliberal racialization continues to be difficult to deal with because it is catalyzed by whiteness or 'whiteliness' (Yancy Yancy, George . 2008. 2008, 2012 Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Yancy, George . 2012. Look a White! Philosophical Essays on Whiteness. : Temple University Press. ) which are discursive and non-discursive aspects of institutional life which

[...] becomes a deeply political, existentially Yancy, George . 2008. lived, social category that shapes the subjectivities and future racialist/racist practices of whites. Whiteness is a way of performing both one's phenotypic white body/one's subjectivity structured around a specific white racist epistemic orientation (Yancy 2008 Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. , 48).

The social body as skin, subjectivity, and epistemology are central to whiteness. As such, whiteness continues to be the motor of the egregious institutional racism which continues unabated even in the face of affirmative action programs. Joaze Bernardino-Costa and Ana Elisa De Carli Blackman look at the theme of the struggle against racism in Brazil and the adoption of affirmative action policies through the public universities of the nation because of the anti-racist actions of the 'movimento negro' (black rights movement). Affirmative action sprang from a Supreme Federal Court ruling in 2011 on the constitutionality of racially targeted policies in the University of Brasilia and the subsequent National Congress approval of quotas to be adopted by all federal universities in Brazil. However, even after much public debate, campaigning, and law making, the article shows that much still needs to be done, such as the adoption of affirmative action in postgraduate schools and in the contracting of teachers as well as the reconfiguration of the curriculum and of the research agendas of Brazilian universities. At this point in Brazil following the coup and the spread of conservative politics across the country seen in the recent local elections, there is increasing unease and much uncertainty about the future of quotas in debates from the Left. From the viewpoint of the USA, Gary A. Dymski looks at the institutional and specific disciplinary uptake of the diversity imperative and its successes and failures at the University of California Riverside (UCR) through its outreach, student support, and 'pipeline' programs. The strong performance of UCR in attracting and retaining students of color in 2014 led to its being ranked first in a poll of US universities meeting the 'Obama criteria' of access/diversity/affordability/success. However, Dymski shows that much more still needs to be done into the future at both discipline and institutional levels as well as within political economy if students of color are to succeed in entering the professions.

The necessity for affirmative action policies illustrates that whiteliness is the bedrock of organizational culture and is embedded within institutional structures and processes as well as knowledge production and canonization which in combination enable racism 'to melt into thin air' (Gordon ). Whiteness works through a governmental (Foucault ) process of subjectification motivated by self-interest, personal benefit, and entitlement to undisputed privilege which Charles Mills (, 40) makes clear in the Racial Contract

Both globally and within particular nations, then, white people, Europeans and their descendants, continue to benefit from the Racial Contract, which creates a world in their cultural image, political states differentially favouring their interests, an economy structured around the racial exploitation of others, and a moral psychology (not just in whites sometimes in nonwhites also) skewed consciously and unconsciously toward privileging them, taking the status quo of differential racial entitlement as normatively legitimate, and not to be investigated further.

Whiteliness is at the center of our putatively 'post-race' world and indeed has mythologized 'post-race' as a new form of 'racialized governmentality' which rules black, minority ethnic and white psyches, social spaces, and institutions alike. This is a racialized governmentality in which those racialized as non-white can be accused of racism against those racialized as white in a sleight of hand and perversion of knowledge and history which refuses white power and privilege as foundational to a description of racism. This is illustrated in Diane Watt's pedagogical focus on those 'difficult conversations' on racism aimed at enabling students to develop a critical understanding of the significance of anti-oppressive thought and practices. She found that when reflecting on anti-oppressive practices was made a core part of the curriculum this faced resistance from some white students who sought to undermine classroom debates about these issues effectively silencing those white students who wish to actively engage with anti-racist theory and practices. British black and South Asian students also felt marginalized by this resistance having to defend their experiences, or sometimes strategically avoiding the debates for fear of adversely affecting their relationships with some white students. Watt's paper powerfully illustrates the potentially contradictory outcomes of attempts at anti-racist practice within university teaching environments. Of course, this racialized governmentality is very little different from the evasive racism which Ruth Frankenberg's () White Women Race Matters: The Social construction of Whiteness described in the twentieth century. 'Anyone can be racist' underlies racialized governmentality and must be critiqued as well as opposed as a mindset or perspective on the world if we are to change universities into workplaces which are not zones of toxic shock for faculty as well as into places of study in which students do not feel alienated.

What is interesting is that the pervasive power of whiteliness continues to be denied and indeed is balked at, remaining unsayable within universities. This regime of unsayability allied with the deniability of white power and privilege is why anti-racism has not worked. We cannot ameliorate something which we think does not exist because it is unsayable and deniable. Further, if we do notice and say 'this is racism' our acknowledgment is always tied to an individual failure or pathology on the part of both BME students and faculty and their white anti-racist allies. This culture of blame making means that we continually refuse institutional accountability for failure to address racism. Moreover, and much more insidiously, since the problem is constructed as that of those racialized as not-white and their allies racialized as white who continue to say that whiteliness is the root of the problem of continuing racial inequalities in universities, this claim falls on deaf ears. Such falling on deaf ears brings to mind Gayatri Spivak's () subaltern who could never be brought into the scene of representation as recognizable political subject. Beyond the body racialized as black or minority ethnic, subalternity also continues to be the circumscribed space of anti-racist thought, practice and knowledge systems within UK universities.

Anti-racism has not worked as we can see in the continuing struggles for racial equality represented in the papers in this volume in societies in which 'race' continues to matter even though we might wish it were otherwise. Mark Christian's contribution highlights this persistence and its impacts at the level of the individual. His article speaks to black British male experience in US colleges and universities. It is an autoethnographic study in terms of relating, witnessing, and noting both learning and teaching experiences. The paper highlights the need for greater access and opportunity for black scholars to teach and study without stress and strain on their minds and bodies, especially for those facing the daily reality of teaching and researching within the context of Africana or black Studies in higher education. Christian notes that academia should be a place where liberal arts of all genres and their teachers are accepted and respected but there is still a long way to go before we can attest to the affirmative of this point of view.

Although saying anti-racism has failed fills us with feelings of political despondency, especially in the current UK context of BREXIT, failure must be acknowledged in order to build possible futures from the materials at hand in each country represented in this volume. The local is important to bear in mind because there cannot be a one size fits all approach to change even though we can say that we can learn from successes, failures, and hopeful shoots of change in each context. What we are talking about here we must remember is a very specific understanding of racism which has very specific Black Atlantic foci and approaches to its amelioration as we see from Mills () above. What can we say though about anti-racism's failure within neoliberal institutions and neoliberal racialization?

Anti-racism's failure within universities

What institutionalized anti-racist policy and practice within institutions has done is to seek institutional transformation through changing structures and processes which militate against equality of access, process, and outcome because of the impact of whiteliness. This has basically been a liberal-inclusive approach based on a commitment to diversity which has not taken on board the pervasiveness of the Racial Contract. The Contract's pervasiveness is assured by the intensity of the affective attachment to privilege of those who benefit from it. It is further embedded within the psychic life of institutions and those who occupy and build them so that they can continue to occupy a world of instutitionalized racial inequality while chanting the 'post-race' mantra. In fact, to speak of being 'post-race' denies racism's contemporary existence (Goldberg ) and relegates it to a best forgotten past. It is interesting how one can say that racism does not matter while watching the events unfold which led to the 'Black Lives Matter' campaign in the US, or the shooting of Mark Duggan and its aftermath in the UK, or the continuing under-representation of Indigenous People in universities in Brazil and Canada, or the 'Rhodes Must Fall' campaign in South Africa. How can this will to silence continuing racism through asserting 'post-race' status in UK universities be explained?

By way of explication, let us turn again to the Racial Contract and the process of becoming white. This latter

has nothing to do with a so-called genetic racial substratum, but everything to do with what happens at the level of social constitutionality, how the human being comes Yancy, George . 2008. to be the white self that is both constituted by and constitutes white racism. (Yancy 2008 Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. , 48)

The process of becoming white is linked to the Contract which itself is based on keeping European and European descent white superiority in place for its signatories at the levels of political economy, culture, psyche, and epistemology. This ensures the continuation of racial exploitation and a normative position in which white privilege need not be questioned. Racism is silenced through what Mills (, 18) calls 'epistemologies of ignorance'. However, 'ignorance' does not mean 'unknowing' as we would expect from its etymology.

Rather, what we have instead are 'white misunderstanding, misrepresentation, evasion and self-deception on matters related to race' (Mills , 19). In the twenty-first century what Mills' Tate, Shirley Anne . 2013. "Racial Affective Economies, Disalienation and 'Race Made Ordinary'." Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Encarnación . 2016. "Sensing Dispossession: Women and Gender Studies between Institutional Racism and Migration Control Policies in the Neo-liberal University." white 'mis' means is not that we live with white understandings, representations, evasions, and deceptions which are abnormal, bad, wrong, or divergent, all of which would be the normal understandings of 'mis'. Rather, what walks amongst us and stalks the halls of academic life is a knowing ignorance of whiteness and its racist impacts so that whiteness remains innocent of racism and unproblematically claims that space because of its 'unknowledges'. Whiteliness and white supremacy do not need to be defended against the charge of racism because of 'unknowledges'. 'Sometimes these "unknowledges" are consciously generated, while at other times they are unconsciously generated and supported (...) [but] they work to support white privilege and supremacy' (Sullivan and Tuana , 2). 'Unknowledges' are linked to pervasive institutional racism through helping to maintain racism's deniability. These deniability regimes are crucial to the continuation of whiteness in universities through its racial affective economies and cultures of disattendability (Tate 2013 2016 Women's Studies International Forum 54: 167-177.10.1016/j.wsif.2015.06.013 ). This is the weight of whiteliness which anti-racism has not managed to erase or even ameliorate even with all of the equality and diversity paperwork which exists in the different contexts examined in the papers here. This is its failure. It is not a failure produced by anti-racists but is one that was a direct result of its institutionalization and colonization as 'equality and diversity' after it had been stripped of its potential for critique and action. After all, it is impossible to allow unfettered institutional access to something which has such a fundamental critique of that from which you benefit and that which ultimately is not in your interest to change. We continue to struggle to name racism and to act against it within the university sector because of 'equality and diversity' as the preferred approach to racial inequity and institutional transformation. Ethnic and Racial Studies 37 (13): 2475-2490. ), curricula, and interpersonal relationalities which lead to promotion or lack of it, student/staff experiences of racial privilege/disprivilege, and denial of access to the institution in the first place (Gutiérrez Rodríguez ,

Recognizing the basis of institutional inertia around racism or the erasure of past anti-racist changes leads us to now think about how to re-engage with the continuing necessity for anti-racist action in 'post-race' times. The question for the conference was 'Building the Anti-racist University: What next?' as it is for all of those who strive for racial intersectional equality. That 'next' is an important, indeed a vital shift, which will take us into thinking about how we can take forward the student campaign's call to decolonize the institution as our future option in the face of anti-racism's failure to make lasting and fundamental anti-racist changes to UK HEIs.

Decolonizing the university in 'post-race' times

What is it that we mean when we use this buzzword, what is it to decolonize this whiteliness and white supremacy to which even those living with and through racial disprivilege can ascribe because of the pervasiveness of the Racial Contract? Let us begin from looking at what Glissant () tells us about epistemological, societal, and self-liberation within his take on creolization as a rhizomatic movement which disrupts identitarian politics as it produces new subjectivities, a new 'common' (Hardt and Negri ) which recognizes white supremacy and racism as we break away from knowing unknowledges. Glissant locates the Caribbean archipelago as a zone of diversity which separates it from continental thought based on the One of universalism. His work makes us see the 'poetics of relation' within the decolonial moment as a break from the 'philosophies of the One of the West' (Glissant). The 'One of the West' here is whiteliness whether read as psyche, institution, process, structure, affect, or political economy, for example. That is, Glissant enables us to continue to think about the project of decoloniality in terms of knowledge, power, becoming, and affect.

Let us begin to think the university as a contact zone, a zone of creolization which still continues to imagine itself as the place of imperial whiteness. Glissantian creolization is an ongoing relational process which inscribes the principle of non-hierarchical unity with a relation of equality with and respect for the other as different from oneself within a natural openness to other cultures. The principle of equality and respect for the other as different not inferior is crucial to the decolonial moment as it is through this that we can begin to prise open what Marley () calls 'mental slavery', what Fanon () would term the 'colonial psyche' and what Mills () has called 'a moral psychology'. This lays out the necessity for psychic and epistemological decolonization which both looks at whites' and at racialized others' complicity in keeping the status quo in place because of the benefits that they feel they gain. Creolization, like decolonial thinking, does not universalize itself unlike the One of the West but 'brings into Relation' hitherto disparate constituencies (Glissant , 90). Relation produces new identities through erranty, a psychic mode of affirming racial identities as an antidote for and in opposition to exile which can potentially erode one's identity (Glissant , 20). Errantry builds a new racialized and racializing common as it includes both collective and individual in knowing that 'the Other is within us and affects how we evolve as well as the bulk of our conceptions and the development of our sensibility' (Glissant , 27). This recognition of the fact of whiteliness within us as individuals and communities is essential in decolonizing racialized psyches whether those are black, Indigenous, People of Color, or white as we build what Glissant describes above as a non-hierachical unity. A unity which for our purposes is an anti-racist common.

Decoloniality thus necessitates working at the levels of the manifestation of white racialized power and its attendant prescriptions of what counts as knowledge, who can occupy the category human and its negative affects which circulate and make HEIs the site of pain for both faculty and students alike. To include a consideration of affect as being in need of decolonization is an important addition to the trio of the coloniality of power, coloniality of knowledge, and coloniality of being which is the usual approach to decolonial thought (for example, Maldonado-Torres 2016 Maldonado-Torres, Nelson . 2016. "Fanon e Foucault sobre Modernidade, Poder, Conhecimento, e a Zona do Não Ser [Fanon and Foucault on Modernity, Power, Knowledge and Being]." Paper presented at International Seminar on a Black Perspective on Decoloniality, University of Brasilia, Brazil, . ). Resisting the coloniality of knowledge through demanding epistemological decolonization is an essential aspect of the decolonial project and it is not a happy coincidence that UK students have this firmly in their sights with the campaign 'why is my curriculum white?' This question has been a long time coming but is a significant one especially if one thinks about the 'post-race' context. That is, if 'race' does not matter only class, then why is there still a blinding whiteness in terms of what counts as knowledge, in terms of what has become the canon, what gets taken up, and what remains erased? What we now need is a necessary re-reading of 'post-race' which sees it as pointing only to the construction of a present and future time and space in which whiteness as 'race' power and privilege is erased, in which the anti-black/People of Color/Indigenous racism it generates ceases to exist.

For the first time in UK history and that of Europe, there is a black Studies degree in a university - Birmingham City University. This did not emerge at UCL-home of the Galton Collection and Galton Lecture Theater in memory of the man who first coined the term 'eugenics' in 1883 - even though its promise began there. This development is quite momentous and must be applauded as a response to the issue of the white curriculum. This does not take away from all the work which has been engaged in for years by colleagues at other UK institutions but begs the question of why the Russell Group as a whole did not make a similar response. Similarly, it is important to ponder why this innovation came from a new university in a multi-racial city like Birmingham with its rich black intellectual and activist history, including being the home of the now defunct Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham. This makes us note the affects attached to white epistemology across the university sector where even now very few courses which look in a sustained and in-depth way at racism and black Studies exist and those that do are currently being dismantled. These whitely affective attachments create a connection between the white body irrespective of gender, class, sexuality, age, and location and the white epistemological tradition constructed as superior, whatever the discipline. Both bodies and epistemology attain value because of this connection so, of course, it is clear that a Black Studies program already sets into train a destabilization of these certainties. This inherent critique of the value of whiteness as body and knowledge is perhaps what led to the demise of many Black Studies programs in the 'post-race' US and what has led to the demise/diminution of those few courses that there were in the UK.

What has changed in the Higher Education sector to now enable the emergence of a Black Studies program at undergraduate level in the UK? Perhaps, it is that very same neoliberal racialization and commodification of knowledge to be sold to niche international and national markets which has enabled this development. Perhaps, everything is related to political economy in the end as the profit imperative in marketized UK universities necessitates the development of an international/national market in students willing to pay for a 'British education'. Ironically, marketization might be the motor which drives the development of curricula which attempt to be non-Eurocentric as it 'brings into relation' previously disconnected constituencies.

It continues to be necessary to draw together the issues emerging from the debates throughout the articles in this special issue on curriculum, pedagogy, access, policy, process, experience, outcomes, subjectivities, racialization, and racism in HEIs in Brazil, South Africa, Canada, the USA, and the UK to craft an agenda for building the anti-racist university into the 'post-race' twenty-first century in contexts where white privilege and power remain. These must be 'the next steps' but ones which are continuously reiterated and reinscribed as racism morphs because white privilege will continue to be maintained in the face of future decolonial assault.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Shirley Anne Tate
Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
s.a.tate@leeds.ac.uk Paul Bagguley
Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

References

. 2012. On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.10.1215/9780822395324

Bagguley, Paul , and Yasmin Hussain. 2007. The Role of Higher Education in Providing Opportunities for South Asian Women. Bristol: The Policy Press.

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo . 2014. Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America. 4th ed. Plymouth: Rowman and Littlefield.

Connor, Helen , Claire Tyler, Tariq Modood, and Jim Hillage. 2004. Why the Difference? A Closer Look at Higher Education Minority Ethnic Students and Graduates. Research Report No. 552. London: Institute for Employment Studies.

Equality Challenge Unit. 2015 Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Report.

Foucault, Michel . 1980. Power Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. Edited by . Brighton: The Harvester Press.

Frankenberg, Ruth . 1993. White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness. : University of Minnesota Press.

Glissant, Édouard . 1997. Poetics of Relation. Translated by . Ann Arbour, MI: University of Michigan Press.10.3998/mpub.10257

Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Encarnación . 2010. "Decolonizing Post-colonial Rhetoric." In Decolonizing European Sociology, edited by Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Manuela Boatca, and Sergio Costa, 49-69. Abingdon: Ashgate.

Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Encarnación . 2016. "Sensing Dispossession: Women and Gender Studies between Institutional Racism and Migration Control Policies in the Neo-liberal University." Women's Studies International Forum 54: 167-177.10.1016/j.wsif.2015.06.013

Maldonado-Torres, Nelson . 2016. "Fanon e Foucault sobre Modernidade, Poder, Conhecimento, e a Zona do Não Ser [Fanon and Foucault on Modernity, Power, Knowledge and Being]." Paper presented at International Seminar on a Black Perspective on Decoloniality, University of Brasilia, Brazil, .

, and M. Demetriou. 1998. "Factors Affecting Likelihood of Applicants Being Offered a Place in Medical Schools in the United Kingdom in 1996 and 1997: A Retrospective Study." British Medical Journal 317: 1111-1117.10.1136/bmj.317.7166.1111

Spivak, Gayatri . 1995. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" In Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory: A Reader, edited by and , 66-111. Hemel Hempstead: Simon and Schuster International Group.

Tate, Shirley Anne . 2013. "Racial Affective Economies, Disalienation and 'Race Made Ordinary'." Ethnic and Racial Studies 37 (13): 2475-2490.

Yancy, George . 2012. Look a White! Philosophical Essays on Whiteness. : Temple University Press.

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Building the anti-racist university: next steps

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This special issue emerged out of the continuing concern with how best to deal with institutional racism in higher education institutions (HEIs) that we have long shared as colleagues in the Center for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (CERS) at the University of Leeds, as discussed by Ian Law in this volume.

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[Article] Whiteliness and institutional racism: hiding behind (un)conscious bias - Shirley Anne Tate & Damien Page

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[Article] Whiteliness and institutional racism: hiding behind (un)conscious bias - Shirley Anne Tate & Damien Page

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'Unconscious bias happens by our brains making incredibly quick judgements and assessments without us realising. Biases are influenced by background, cultural environment and experiences and we may not be aware of these views and opinions, or of their full impact and implications. This article opposes this point of view by arguing that bias is not unconscious but is (un)conscious and linked to Charles Mills' 'Racial Contract' and its 'epistemologies of ignorance'. These epistemologies emerge from what the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) calls 'our background, cultural environment and personal experience'. Asserting that racism stems from 'unconscious bias' diminishes white supremacy and maintains white innocence as a 'will to forget' institutional racism. In equality and diversity training 'unconscious bias' has become a performative act to move beyond racism through training to participate in a constructed 'post-racial' reality. The article argues that through decolonizing 'unconscious bias', 'white fragility' and 'self-forgiveness' we can begin to see hidden institutional whiteliness at the base of (un)conscious bias.

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Whiteliness and institutional racism: hiding behind (un)conscious bias

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'Unconscious bias happens by our brains making incredibly quick judgements and assessments without us realising. Biases are influenced by background, cultural environment and experiences and we may not be aware of these views and opinions, or of their full impact and implications.

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[Article] Training educators in anti-racism and pluriculturalismo: recent experiences from Brazil - Alexandre Emboaba Da Costa

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[Article] Training educators in anti-racism and pluriculturalismo: recent experiences from Brazil - Alexandre Emboaba Da Costa

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This article examines educator participation in training initiatives based on Brazilian federal education legislation (Law 10,639 from 2003) in one city in the state of São Paulo. Law 10,639/03 represents a significant moment in the institutionalization of ethno-racial policies in Brazil over the past 15 years. It makes obligatory the teaching of African and Black Brazilian history and culture in all school subjects, and requires in-depth study of black contributions in the social, economic, and political spheres. The article first contextualizes understandings of race and racism in Brazil, followed by an elaboration of the political and epistemological underpinnings of ethno-racial educational reforms focused on Afro-descendants. The article then analyzes the contradictory processes that emerge from teacher training initiatives where the perspectives of anti-racism, multiculturalism ( pluriculturalismo), racial democracy, and miscegenation intermingle and get reconfigured into understandings that have the potential to advance as well as impede critical engagement with racism and racial inequality. Rather than view teacher training initiatives as default decolonization or inevitable co-optation, this article outlines a more complex and contradictory account of state-society collaborations on educational initiatives. The article reveals the practical challenges of decolonization to argue that anti-racist activism in the educational sphere must take seriously the variable and contingent results of such political efforts in order to meet teachers where they are at while also challenging them to go beyond these limitations.

Additional information

Funding

Funding. The writing of this article was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship [Grant No. 756-2011-0464].

Acknowledgements

I thank audience members at presentations of previous versions of this article at the Latin American Studies Association 2013 Congress (Washington, DC), the Tereza Lozano Long 2013 Conference 'Refashioning Blackness' (University of Texas, Austin), and Professor George Sefa Dei's study group at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto) for their helpful comments on the presentation of previous versions of this article. I also thank Aparna Mishra Tarc for her comments on a previous draft of this article.

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Training educators in anti-racism and pluriculturalismo: recent experiences from Brazil

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This article examines educator participation in training initiatives based on Brazilian federal education legislation (Law 10,639 from 2003) in one city in the state of São Paulo. Law 10,639/03 represents a significant moment in the institutionalization of ethno-racial policies in Brazil over the past 15 years.

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[Article] The Color of Supremacy: Beyond the discourse of ‘white privilege’ - Zeus Leonardo

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[Article] The Color of Supremacy: Beyond the discourse of ‘white privilege’ - Zeus Leonardo

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The Color of Supremacy: Beyond the discourse of 'white privilege'

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(2004). The Color of Supremacy: Beyond the discourse of 'white privilege'. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 137-152.

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[Article] Why is My Curriculum White? - Michael A. Peters

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[Article] Why is My Curriculum White? - Michael A. Peters

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You have to be careful, very careful, introducing the truth to the Black man who has never previously heard the truth about himself, his own kind, and the white man ... The Black brother is so brainwashed that he may even be repelled when he first hears the truth.

-Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1965

In a recent story by Minna Salami in 1. See The Guardian entitled 'Philosophy has to be about more than white men', the following claim is made 'The campaign to counter the narrow-mindedness of university courses is gathering pace because philosophy should investigate all human existence.' http://www.theguardian.com/education/commentisfree/2015/mar/23/philosophy-white-men-university-courses. Minna Salami is the founder of the MsAfropolitan blog, which covers Africa and the diaspora from a feminist perspective. I would like to thank Tina besley from drawing my attention to this story and for discussing the underlying issues. View all notes

Salami makes reference to a 20-minute video with the title Why is My Curriculum White? made by UCL (University College London) students who propose responses to this question pointing out the lack of awareness that the curriculum is white comprised of 'white ideas' by 'white authors' and is a result of colonialism that has normalized whiteness and made blackness invisible. This is a fundamental educational challenge that has not been addressed by the educational establishment, nor by the majority of philosophers including philosophers of education. Racism rarely figures on philosophy of education conference agendas and papers discussing the ethics of education that tend to talk in general and abstract terms neglecting issues of race or gender.

Salami is writing a blog rather than a philosophy paper yet she makes the argument that 'we should not dismiss white, western, or male thinking simply on the premises that it is white, western, or male' while at the same time acknowledging, by reference to Michael McEachrane's statement, 'Modern philosophical concepts of personhood, human rights, justice and modernity are deeply shaped by race.'2. See McEachrane's (2014) Afro- Nordic Landscapes: Equality and Race in Northern Europe. Salami also makes reference to Dirk J. Louw's 'Ubuntu: An African Assessment of the Religious Other' at http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Afri/AfriLouw.htm. View all notes

My purpose was not to take issue with Salami but to take seriously the issues that she and UCL students are making. In view of the events in Ferguson, USA, where social unrest and a series on ongoing protests began the day after the shooting of Michael Brown (9, August 2014), it is necessary to raise the question again of the roots of US racism and racism in general. This is exactly the topic of 3. The Stone features the writing of contemporary philosophers for the New York Times moderated by Simon Critchley. 4. See The Stone interviews conducted by George Yancy of prominent American philosophers. View all notes Yancy's latest interview features 'Noam Chomsky on the Roots of American Racism.' http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/noam-chomsky-on-the-roots-of-american-racism/?_r=1. George Yancy is himself a philosopher who works on 'critical philosophy of race, critical whiteness studies, and philosophy of the Black experience' as he say on his university webpage ( http://www.duq.edu/academics/faculty/george-yancy). His latest edited collection is White Self- Criticality beyond Anti- Racism: How Does It Feel to Be a White Problem? (2014). View all notes

Chomsky provides a brief history in terms of slave labor camps, a major factor in American's success and current wealth, the harsh criminalization that followed after the end of slavery and the new Jim Crow that neoliberalism under Reagan initiated in the 1970s as part of the 'drug war.' Chomsky says:

The national poet, Walt Whitman, captured the general understanding when he wrote that "The nigger, like the Injun, will be eliminated; it is the law of the races, history ... A superior grade of rats come and then all the minor rats are cleared out." It wasn't until the 1960s that the scale of the atrocities and their character began to enter even scholarship, and to some extent popular consciousness, though there is a long way to go.

Yet Ferguson demonstrates that Obama's 'post-racial America' is a kind of mythology despite the critical scholarship of Yancy and Chomsky and others.5. In this regard see James Anderson's AERA lecture, 'A Long Shadow: The American Pursuit of Political Justice and Education Equality', that explores the historic and inseparable relationship between the right and freedom to vote and the pursuit of education equality. Video, transcript, and slides at http://www.aera.net/Newsroom/AERAHighlightsE-newsletter/AERAHighlightsOctober2014/JamesDAndersonDeliversEleventhAnnualAERABrownLecturetoRecordAudience/tabid/15698/Default.aspx. View all notes Part of the problem is what scholars call internal colonization that Cesaire, Fanon, and Malcolm X knew too well mean that the dominant ideology had become internalized and thus part of the psychological make-up of the oppressed.

Afro-American studies departments emerged in the 1960s after student activism although the reconstruction of African-American history began much earlier with W.E.B. Du Bois in the late nineteenth century. The origins cannot be separated from the Civil Rights context. Students for a Democratic Society at Berkeley held a conference called 'Black Power and its Challenges' inviting Black civil rights leaders. Then came the demand for Black Studies:

The black freedom movement, in both the civil rights phase (1955-1965) and Black Power component (1966-1975), fostered the racial desegregation and the empowerment of black people within previously all-white institutions. The racial composition of U.S. colleges changed dramatically. In 1950 approximately 75,000 blacks were enrolled in colleges and universities. In the 1960s three quarters of all black students attended HBCUs. By 1970, approximately 700,000 blacks were enrolled in college, three quarters of whom were in predominantly white institutions.6. http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1742/African-American-Studies.html. View all notes

Black Studies was also strengthened through the growth of Black Legal Studies and Critical Legal Studies in the 1970s that drew heavily of changes to the political culture occurring during the counter culture of the 1960s. Critical Legal Studies explored how the practices of legal institutions, legal doctrine, and legal education worked to buttress dominant white culture and rule of law devoid of hidden class and race interests. Critical race studies applied critical theory to the intersections of race, law, and power providing a critique of liberalism and revisionist accounts of American civil rights law. Critical race theory and critical pedagogy also pursued these issues theorizing the notion of whiteness as property. As Delgado and Stefancic () comment:

Although CRT began as a movement in the law, it has rapidly spread beyond that discipline. Today, many in the field of education consider themselves critical race theorists who use CRT's ideas to understand issues of school discipline and hierarchy, tracking, controversies over curriculum and history, and IQ and achievement testing.7. See http://www.odec.umd.edu/CD/RACE/CRT.PDF. See also Leonardo () Critical Theory and Race, Educational Philosophy & Theory monograph series. View all notes

Even with these movements for justice and social change, recent surveys would suggest that little progress has been made in eliminating systematic or institutional racism in the US.8. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/07/college-student-survey-race_n_6632854.html. View all notes

Anti-racist education differed strongly from multicultural education, designed to eliminate the practice of classifying people according to their skin color or racial identity. Anti-racist education in Britain and the US criticized the liberal assumptions of multiculturalism by uncovering and dismantling the hidden power structures that were responsible for inequality and racism in institutions. Educational institutions, in particular, it is claimed play a fundamental role in reproducing white privilege and schools are seen as places where racism and stereotypes against ethnic and minority groups take place through a variety of means. The curriculum and pedagogy have been analyzed as sites for this kind of reproduction that takes place through misinterpretations of history and the 'othering' of minorities, shaping both white and non-white subjectivities and identities.

Gillborn ( (2006). Critical race theory and education: Racism and anti-racism in educational theory and praxis. 2006 Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 27, 11-32. ) focusing on the UK argues 'conventional forms of anti-racism have proven unable to keep pace with the development of increasingly racist and exclusionary education policies that operate beneath a veneer of professed tolerance and diversity', especially in the context of 'conservative modernization' and the resurgence of racist nationalism which if anything has increased under austerity programs since Gillborn wrote his essay. He concludes by suggesting 'Racism is complex, contradictory, and fast-changing: it follows that anti-racism must be equally dynamic' (p. 26).

Gillborn's analysis is entirely salutary. After 50 years of struggle in the form of multiple movements, it is heartbreaking and extremely frustrating for Blacks, for indigenous peoples, for minority groups and for society as a whole that there has been so little progress or that social change has been resisted, destabilized, and undermined. At the same time, it is encouraging that a new generation of students and scholars is actively pursuing 'whiteness as ideology'. The UCL collective remarks:

Although often treated as something biological, fixed or even benevolent, 'race' is an ideologically constructed social phenomenon. Therefore, when we talk about whiteness, we are not talking about white people, but about an ideology that empowers people racialised as white.

To the question 'why is the curriculum white?' they provide eight answers (summarized here):

Even if one disagrees with the statement of these reasons it is clear that there is a general philosophical problem concerning the curriculum and that efforts to resolve it so far have been only partially effective.

One of the difficulties has been that western philosophy itself has been part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Of all disciplines, it has seemed most resistant to taking race seriously and only recently have Black philosophers begun to deconstruct and dismantle the ideology of 'whiteness' as it affects our institutions in education, in government, and in the law.

I have used the term 'white philosophy' to designate the notion of color-blind philosophy which it my view

has special application to American philosophy for its extraordinary capacity to ignore questions of race and for its incapacity to recognize the centrality of the empirical fact of blackness and whiteness in American society and as part of the American deep unconscious structuring politics, economics and education.10. See 'White philosophy in/of America' (Peters, (2011). White philosophy in/of America, 2011 Pragmatism Today. Retrieved from http://www.pragmatismtoday.eu/index.php?id=2011summer1 ). View all notes

I traced the development of American pragmatism especially in the work of Cavell and Rorty (and also Dewey) to show how race is all but peripheral and charted the beginning of Cornel West's challenge to white philosophy crystallizing in the late 1980s beginning with his book The Evasion of American Philosophy (West, ). Interestingly, as I remark in the paper, 'West himself names Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Dewey as those philosophers who set us free from the confines of a spurious universalism based on a European projection of its own self-image'.

The recognition of the whiteness of philosophy and its effects is a complex matter. In education, it is important to recognize with critical scholars like Michael Apple, Henry Giroux, and Peter McLaren, and sociologists like Gillborn, Barry Troyna, and Fazal Rizvi, to name only a few, that curriculum is an official selection that structures knowledge in ways that privilege a particular construction of knowledge and the history of knowledge. It is no longer surprising that some of the most eminent philosophers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-Nietzsche, Heidegger, Wittgenstein-were strongly racist, at least at some points of their lives.

The lack of recognition of cultural context, of contexualism in general, in curriculum theory was perpetrated in philosophy of education by the Hirst and Peters forms of knowledge thesis that focused on propositional knowledge and admitted no historical understanding of evolving forms of knowledge let alone their cultural variation (White, ).

Park ( (2014). (2014). Eurocentrism and the critique of 'Universal World History': The Eastern origins of Western civilization. 2014 2014 Geopolitics, History, and International Relations, 1, 63-77. ). Africa, Asia, and the history of philosophy: Racism in the formation of the philosophical canon, 1780-1830 (SUNY series philosophy and race). : SUNY Press. ) gives an account of the development of philosophy as an academic discipline in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. During this period, European philosophy influenced by Kant formulated the history of philosophy as a March of progress from the Greeks to Kant. It was an account that demolished existing accounts beginning in Egypt or Western Asia thus establishing an exclusionary canon of philosophy. Hegel's account of world history was strongly racist and imbued European philosophy with a prejudicial history we are still trying to escape from. These two philosophers contributed so much to a contemporary understanding of modernity as fundamentally Western (Peters,

A critical question for me is whether the Western tradition has the intellectual resources within to transform itself and come to terms with the historical effects and traces of racism that are invested in our institutions and in our knowledge traditions. I think it has-as a teacher I have to believe this-but we are only at the very beginning of this process of transformation and the UCL collective has initiated a student-led movement that has the potential to provoke and demand curriculum change.

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You have to be careful, very careful, introducing the truth to the Black man who has never previously heard the truth about himself, his own kind, and the white man ... The Black brother is so brainwashed that he may even be repelled when he first hears the truth.

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[Webpage] The Anti-racism Toolkit - from the University of Leeds Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies

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[Webpage] The Anti-racism Toolkit - from the University of Leeds Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies

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This toolkit has been constructed as part of a HEFCE funded Innovations project looking at the question of Institutional Racism in Higher Education, using the University of Leeds as its case study, and comes in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (1999) and the subsequent passing of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

Despite the difficulties and problems that many commentators have with the Macpherson Report's definition of 'Institutional Racism', it highlighted the need for organisations and institutions to consider their policies and practices and assess the extent to which Black and minority ethnic staff and service users are treated fairly and equitably.

This project has tried to assess the 'big picture' of University activity, where previous studies have been partial and selective, with particular attention to the linkages and interactive effects across and between the following areas:

teaching and learning;

student recruitment, support and transition to employment;

research;

employment;

contracting and purchasing;

external affairs.

Each of these areas has been subject to a series of questions and considerations, for example:

What should, in fact, be the indicators of an 'appropriate and professional service' inclusive of minority ethnic communities?

What 'processes, attitudes and behaviours' may amount to racial and ethnic discrimination and disadvantage?

How do we address these 'processes, attitudes and behaviours'?

What mechanisms and criteria may constitute direct and indirect racial discrimination (taking into consideration, of course, the question of how racial discrimination interrelates with other areas of disadvantage such as gender, age, class , religion, sexuality, and disability)?

Download the toolkit

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This toolkit has been constructed as part of a HEFCE funded Innovations project looking at the question of Institutional Racism in Higher Education, using the University of Leeds as its case study, and comes in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (1999) and the subsequent passing of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

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[Webpage with links] Reading Lists on Decolonisation

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[Webpage with links] Reading Lists on Decolonisation

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Lists from Global Social Theory Website

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There is a lot of talk about 'decolonising the university' at the moment. One part of this is thinking about the ways in which we teach, how we design our modules and courses, and who is on our reading lists.

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[Blog post] Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race - Reni Eddo-Lodge

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[Blog post] Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race - Reni Eddo-Lodge

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- the original blog post which sparked the book.

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I'm no longer engaging with white people on the topic of race. Not all white people, just the vast majority who refuse to accept the legitimacy of structural racism and its symptoms. I can no longer engage with the gulf of an emotional disconnect that white people display when a person of colour articulates our experiences. You can see their eyes shut down and harden. It's like treacle is poured into their ears, blocking up their ear canals like they can no longer hear us.

This emotional disconnect is the conclusion of living a life oblivious to the fact that their skin colour is norm and all others deviate from it. At best, white people have been taught not to mention that people of colour are 'different' in case it offends us. They truly believe that the experiences of their life as a result of their skin colour can and should be universalised. I just can't engage with the bewilderment and the defensiveness as they try to grapple with the fact that not everyone experiences the world in the way that they do. They've never had to think about what it means, in power terms, to be white- so any time they're vaguely reminded of this fact; they interpret it as an affront. The journey towards understanding structural racism still requires people of colour to prioritise white feelings. Their eyes glaze over in boredom or widen in indignation. Their mouths start twitching as they get defensive. Their throats open up as they try to interrupt, itching to talk over you but not really listen, because they need to let you know that you've got it wrong.

Even if they can hear you, they're not really listening. It's like something happens to the words as they leave my mouth and reach their ears. The words hit a barrier of denial and they don't get any further.

That's the emotional disconnect. It's not really surprising, because they've never known what it means to embrace a person of colour as a true equal, with thoughts and feeling that are as valid as their own. Watching The Color of Fear by Lee Mun Wah, I saw people of colour break down in tears as they struggled to convince a defiant white man that his words were enforcing and perpetuating a white racist standard on them. All the while he stared obliviously, completely confused by this pain, at best trivialising it, at worst ridiculing it.

I've written before about this white denial being the ubiquitous politics of race that operates on its inherent invisibility. So I can't talk to white people about race anymore because of the consequential denials, awkward cartwheels and mental acrobatics that they display when this is brought to their attention. Who really wants to be alerted to a structural system that benefits them at the expense of others?

I can no longer have this conversation, because we're often coming at it from completely different planes. I can't have a conversation with them about the details of a problem if they don't even recognise that the problem exists. Worse still is the white person who might be willing to entertain the possibility of said racism, but still thinks we enter this conversation as equals. We don't.

Not to mention that entering into conversation with defiant white people is a frankly dangerous task for me. As the heckles rise and the defiance grows, I have to tread incredibly carefully, because if I express frustration, anger, or exasperation at their refusal to understand, they will tap into their pre-subscribed racist tropes about angry black people who are a threat to them and their safety. It's very likely that they'll then paint me as a bully or an abuser. It's also likely that their white friends will rally round them, rewrite history and make the lies the truth. Trying to engage with them and navigate their racism is not worth that.

Amidst every conversation about Nice White People feeling silenced by conversations about race, there is a sort of ironic and glaring lack of understanding or empathy for those of us who have been visibly marked out as different for our entire lives, and live the consequences. It's truly a lifetime of self-censorship that people of colour have to live. The options are: speak your truth and face the reprisal, or bite your tongue and get ahead in life. It must be a strange life, always having permission to speak and feeling indignant when you're finally asked to listen. It stems from white people's never questioned entitlement, I suppose.

I cannot continue to emotionally exhaust myself trying to get this message across, whilst also toeing a very precarious line that tries not to implicate any one white person in their role of perpetuating structural racism, lest they character assassinate me.

So I'm no longer talking to white people about race. I don't have a huge amount of power to change the way the world works, but I can set boundaries. I can halt the entitlement they feel towards me and I'll start that by stopping the conversation. The balance is too far swung in their favour. Their intent is often not to listen or learn, but to exert their power, to prove me wrong, to emotionally drain me, and to rebalance the status quo. I'm not talking to white people about race unless I absolutely have to. If there's something like a media or conference appearance that means that someone might hear what I'm saying and feel less alone, then I'll participate. But I'm no longer dealing with people who don't want to hear it, wish to ridicule it and frankly, don't deserve it.

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Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race

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I'm no longer engaging with white people on the topic of race. Not all white people, just the vast majority who refuse to accept the legitimacy of structural racism and its symptoms. I can no longer engage with the gulf of an emotional disconnect that white people display when a person of colour articulates our experiences.

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Episode 9: ‘As a white person, what can i do to help race relations?’ - could relate to active allying work?

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This domain has expired. If you owned this domain, contact your domain registration service provider for further assistance. If you need help identifying your provider, visit https://www.tucowsdomains.com/

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aboutracepodcast.com is your first and best source for all of the information you’re looking for. From general topics to more of what you would expect to find here, aboutracepodcast.com has it all. We hope you find what you are searching for!

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Among many other subjects (some NSFW !) race is frequently discussed honestly and refereshingly!

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#TheReceiptsPodcast is a fun, honest podcast fronted by three girls who are willing to talk about anything and everything. From relationships to situationships to everyday life experiences, you can expect unadulterated girl talk with no filter. Hosts: Ghana's Finest Twitter: @Ghanasfinestx Instagram: @Ghanas_Finest Tolly Twitter: @Tolly_T Instagram: @Tolly_T Milena Sanchez Twitter: @Milenasanchezx Instagram: @milenasanchezx Get in touch and share your receipts with us, keepthereceipts@gmail.com.

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TheReceiptsPodcast is a fun, honest podcast fronted by three girls who are willing to talk about anything and everything. From relationships to situationships to everyday life experiences, you can expect unadulterated girl talk with no filter. Hosts: Ghana's Finest Twitter: @Ghanasfinestx Instagram: @Ghanas_Finest Tolly Twitter: @Tolly_T Instagram: @Tolly_T Milena Sanchez Twitter: @Milenasanchezx Instagram: @milenasanchezx Get in touch and share your receipts with us, keepthereceipts@gmail.com.

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[Article] Understanding Mental Health: What Are the Issues for Black and Ethnic Minority Students at University? - Jason Arday

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[Article] Understanding Mental Health: What Are the Issues for Black and Ethnic Minority Students at University? - Jason Arday

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Journal Homepage
Journal Title: Social Sciences

ISSN: 2076-0760 (Print)

Publisher: MDPI AG

LCC Subject Category: Social Sciences

Country of publisher: Switzerland

Language of fulltext: English

Full-text formats available: PDF, HTML

AUTHORS
Jason Arday (School of Education, University of Roehampton, London SW15 5PU, UK)

Abstract | Full Text

Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities continue to experience inequalities within the United Kingdom (UK) mental health system despite major government policy initiatives. Access to higher education for many ethnic minorities remains problematic. Within higher education, BME students consistently face barriers in terms of accessing culturally appropriate services including a lack of cultural understanding, communication issues, and where and how to seek help. This paper attempts to address the problems facing ethnic minorities with regard to accessing mental health services at university. Importantly, this paper highlights that barriers to accessing mental health support for ethnic minorities directly impact upon attainment outcomes and psychological well-being. This study utilizes the narratives of 32 BME university students to examine the impact of negotiating racial inequality and discrimination at university and the impact upon mental health. Aspects examined considered the impact of belonging, isolation, and marginalization on mental health and how this consequently affects university participation for BME students. Utilizing a thematic analysis paradigm, the key findings presented point towards differential healthcare outcomes for ethnic minority university students experiencing mental illness. The empirical findings in this paper suggest that currently ethnic minority service users experience overt discrimination and a lack of access to culturally appropriate services that are cognizant of the racialized plights faced by BME individuals. These findings inform an overarching dialogue, which suggests that mental health service providers need to work more collegially with people from BME communities prior to service design and delivery. Furthermore, the findings suggest that, upon presenting mental health issues, information should be made available in appropriate languages for ethnic minorities to support understanding about their illnesses and how they can seek professional intervention and help. Conclusions and recommendations provided advocate greater diversification of mental health support systems for ethnic minority students within universities. Conclusions drawn will also consider how existing systems can function to dismantle racial inequality within the mental health profession.

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Journal Homepage Journal Title: Social Sciences ISSN: 2076-0760 (Print) Publisher: MDPI AG LCC Subject Category: Social Sciences Country of publisher: Switzerland Language of fulltext: English Full-text formats available: PDF, HTML AUTHORS Jason Arday (School of Education, University of Roehampton, London SW15 5PU, UK) Abstract | Full Text Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities continue to experience inequalities within the United Kingdom (UK) mental health system despite major government policy initiatives.

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[Book] Dismantling Race in Higher Education : Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy - Jason Arday and Heidi Safia Mirza

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[Book] Dismantling Race in Higher Education : Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy - Jason Arday and Heidi Safia Mirza

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[Article] Dismantling power and privilege through reflexivity: negotiating normative Whiteness, the Eurocentric curriculum and racial micro-aggressions within the Academy - Jason Arday

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[Article] Dismantling power and privilege through reflexivity: negotiating normative Whiteness, the Eurocentric curriculum and racial micro-aggressions within the Academy - Jason Arday

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The challenging of normative Whiteness is paramount in dismantling the cycle of inequality that permeates society. The persistent and operant nature of Whiteness within the Academy is enduring and depicts faculty of colour as deficient or incapable. The articulation of racialised experiences has become an instrument of empowerment for faculty of colour in an attempt to reclaim power and disrupt the operant tools of Whiteness. This paper employs a Critical Race Theory (CRT) a storytelling method, which operates as a counter-narrative in attempting to conceptualise my own professional experiences of negotiating normative Whiteness, diversifying Eurocentric curricula and conceptualising the racial mirco-aggression. The narratives proffered demonstrate the subtle but powerful ways in racism unfolds within in the Academy and the nuanced, everyday forms of racism that persist against a backdrop of Whiteness. Deconstructing oppressive, racialised structures is central to the belief that morally we collectively have a responsibility to dismantle inequity in all its suboardinated forms to ensure that we reside in a more egalitarian society.

Additional information

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Dismantling power and privilege through reflexivity: negotiating normative Whiteness, the Eurocentric curriculum and racial micro-aggressions within the Academy

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The challenging of normative Whiteness is paramount in dismantling the cycle of inequality that permeates society. The persistent and operant nature of Whiteness within the Academy is enduring and depicts faculty of colour as deficient or incapable.

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[Article] Understanding race and educational leadership in higher education: Exploring the Black and ethnic minority (BME) experience - Jason Arday

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[Article] Understanding race and educational leadership in higher education: Exploring the Black and ethnic minority (BME) experience - Jason Arday

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Understanding race and educational leadership in higher education: Exploring the Black and ethnic minority (BME) experience - Jason Arday, 2018

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The dearth of representation regarding Black and Ethnic Minorities (BME) in senior educational leadership roles within higher education (HE) has become a salient issue as egalitarian notions associated with equality and diversity continue to be contradicted by university institutions, despite increased calls for greater diversification.

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Tweets by cilipbame

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Tweets by YearwoodJackman

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[Document] Employment Statutory Code of Practice - Equality & Human Rights Commission

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[Document] Employment Statutory Code of Practice - Equality & Human Rights Commission

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pp159-169 on Positive Action

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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 of a wider student campaign to 'decolonise the university ', which includes discussions around the curriculum and teaching, support and outcomes for BME students, terms and conditions for campus workers and other aspects of university life.

Why would anyone want to 'decolonise the curriculum', and what does this mean for academic study? Like the word 'democracy', 'decolonisation' can mean different things. Below, I offer three interpretations of what it means to 'decolonise the curriculum' and how they can make our universities better places.

First, 'decolonising the curriculum' asks us to look at our shared assumptions about how the world is. It is accepted in many disciplines that in the past, assumptions regarding racial and civilizational hierarchy informed a lot of thinking about how the world worked, what was worth studying in it and how it should be studied. Such assumptions also informed and justified the expansion of colonial rule in Asia, Africa and the Middle East until the mid-twentieth century.

Whilst many of these assumptions have been challenged with the dismantling of colonial rule, many persist in public discourse as well as academic study. For example, whilst many may not call societies 'backward' explicitly today, many theories and practices of development depend on this very assumption. Is this justified? What else does this assume? One interpretation of 'decolonising the curriculum' means interrogating such assumptions, models and frameworks for these specific biases. We have been doing this for a long time in different fields, but understanding it as 'decolonising the curriculum' connects it to this wider sphere of activity.

Second, 'decolonising the curriculum' asks the crucial questions about the relationship between the location and identity of the writer, what they write and how they write about it. Would we find it acceptable if the writings and teachings on the situation of women and gender relations were done almost exclusively by men? How would this influence the kinds of perspectives presented? Similarly, is it acceptable if writings and teachings about international regions or global affairs are done almost exclusively by writers from or based within the West? How does this influence our understanding? If we think that there is some kind of a relationship between position and perspective on an issue, and we want to broaden our understanding through engaging with more perspectives, we need to diversify the sources we engage in our scholarship. Again, this is something that has been underway for some time within SOAS and beyond it - our teaching on World Philosophies and World Englishes are good examples of these trends. Combined with the previous point, there is a powerful case for why a diversified curriculum enables more knowledge and more intellectual rigour.

Third, '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. This includes defining and dealing with racism as it is woven into different aspects of university life. When BME students report a sense of alienation from particular topics of study or dynamics in the classroom, we have a duty to address this through dialogue amongst teachers and students.

Although at SOAS our BME attainment rates are significantly better than the UK average, racialized attainment gaps anywhere are not an acceptable part of higher education. Dealing with such gaps does not entail compromising academic standards, abandoning academic freedom or avoiding controversial topics, as much of the coverage would have you believe. Nor does it involve taking everything that is said at face value. Rather, it involves cultivating an environment in which all of us can have an honest, respectful and rigorous discussion about what is happening, how it can be set right and what that entails. In doing so, we need to apply precisely the kind of skills that we seek to cultivate in universities - intellectual clarity, evidence, courage, openness to new ideas - and a commitment to an education system that works for all.

'Decolonising the curriculum' can mean many things and is not something that happens overnight; it requires a sustained and serious commitment within the institution and across the sector. We might also remind ourselves that contestations over the politics of knowledge are as old as universities themselves, and in this sense the present student campaign is itself a manifestation of that fusty old academic tradition - to challenge received wisdom, to ask questions about society and to generate the insight needed to change the world.

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Decolonising the curriculum: what's all the fuss about?

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Why would anyone want to 'decolonise the curriculum', and what does this mean for academic study? Like the word 'democracy', 'decolonisation' can mean different things. Here I offer three interpretations of what it means to 'decolonise the curriculum' and how they can make our universities better places.