Slides for Decolonising DMU: Building the Anti-Racist University online, at a University of East Anglia event, hosted by UEA's Decolonising Interns' group. For more details, see: http://decolonising-dmu-building-the-anti-racist-university

2. Decolonising DMU: Building the Anti-Racist
University
'That Other History' Symposium, UEA
Lucy Ansley and Richard Hall
@DecolonisingDMU

3. Decolonising DMU: Some context
Beyond the sector BAME Awarding Gap: whole institution
• Freedom to Achieve 2017-2019
• Decolonising DMU launch November 2019
• 5 strands: student; staff; institution; Library;
research/evaluation.
Racial Disparities amplified
• COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter
• Conversations about White Privilege/Fragility
• Real action and change: the anti-racist University

4. • 4 commitments:
• equality of education and research;
• progression, talent and representation;
• governance and accountability; and
• understanding culture and behaviour.
• A potential focus on mapping to Access and
Plan, Race Equality Charter, and the awarding gap
Decolonising DMU: Some context

5. What Decolonising means to
the DMU Community

6. Data Collection
• Staff Stakeholder Survey (Spring 2021) – 214 participants
• Student Stakeholder Survey (Spring 2021) – 85
participants
• DDMU Team Journals (ongoing) – 19 entries
• Staff interviews – 14 participants
• Engagement in surveys significantly impacted by Covid.
• Ethical review obtained.

7. Key Findings
Decolonisation is:
• A challenge to where we are now
• The moral, ethical thing to do
• Rethinking the university
• Transformational thinking
• Catering for all
• Reducing racial disparity
• Increasing racial literacy for all
• Addressing the attainment gap

8. Key Findings
Decolonisation is:
• Impossible within neo-colonial structures
• Impossible within our extant, wider society
• Cosmetic
• Divisive terminology
• Problematic for some Black/of colour students and staff
(tokenistic, not trusted)
• Problematic for some white students/staff (stuck in the past,
white working class)

9. Key Findings
Anti-racism Decolonising
Daily approach Long term strategy
Personal Institutional
Local Global
Challenging Unlearning
Behaviour change Culture change
The goal The process
Policy and structure
change
Curriculum change

10. A working position
DDMU at the intersection of plural, material histories
• Defining decolonising: dignity of difference
• Diversify the syllabus, canon, curriculum, infrastructure
and staff
• Decentre knowledge and knowledge production away
from the global North
• Devalue hierarchies and revalue relationality
• Diminish some voices and opinions that have
predominated, and magnify those that have been unheard
The Working position is available here.

12. Some resources
T: @DecolonisingDMU
E: decolonisingdmu@dmu.ac.uk
DDMU Resources/Publications
DDMU Podcast