15 October 2020
Systemic racism permeates our global society, upholding oppressive structures that marginalise people directly or indirectly based on race. As centres of knowledge production, academic institutions have an important role to play in challenging such structures, and how people think about colonial legacies that lead to its endurance.
The FLCA believes we have a fundamental responsibility to decolonise the academy as a route towards creating an anti-racist society, dismantling harmful power relations, hierarchical relationships and entrenched inequalities among staff and students. It is thus imperative that universities interrogate and change the ways knowledge is produced; foster legitimate spaces for knowledge sharing and debate; and promote academic environments free of racial discrimination.
To achieve this vision, the FLCA will continue to collaborate and support colleagues in all LSE departments, notably Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, the Eden Centre and our staff networks. Our commitments build further upon the FLCA’s work since its inception in 2016, formalising our goals and setting measurable indicators to hold us accountable.
Our commitments:
- Listen and learn: From the many leaders, organisers, thinkers and participants yearning for a more just and equitable society
- Question and evaluate: The prevalence of institutionalised forms of racism within our institution and beyond, and our role in addressing it
- Reflect on: The courses we teach, the research we undertake, the partnerships we build, the books and papers we write and the conference presentations we make
- Critically interrogate: The power dynamics that privilege Western epistemologies, the silencing of voices and sites of knowledge production from the global South
- Foster: The elevation of conditions for those who have been oppressed and discriminated against, including LSE BAME faculty, staff and students.
What does this mean in practice?
- From the many leaders, organisers, thinkers and participants yearning for a more just and equitable society
- From our own students, colleagues and network committed to ongoing processes of decolonising the academy at LSE
Measurable indicators for 2020/21 academic year
- We commit to hosting a three-part event series in the 2020/21 academic year in collaboration with LSE partners working on decolonising the academy to progress these conversations at LSE and beyond
- We commit to starting a working group among Black, African and Caribbean MSc students and alumni specifically addressing issues of race and decolonisation
- We commit to providing £5,000 to LSESU and student groups to support initiatives that explicitly serve BAME undergraduate students at LSE, especially those that focus on Black and African students
- The prevalence of institutionalised forms of racism and its intersection with gender, socio-economic status, sexuality, nationality, religion and disability
- How our work and our behaviours affect our community and society overall
- How we interact with our students, our research collaborators, our field informants and our colleagues
Measurable indicators for 2020/21 academic year
- We commit to capturing and publishing data on the BAME representation of our researchers and staff to establish a baseline and encourage growth in the BAME recruitment at the FLCA and at LSE
- We commit to collecting and publishing data on FLCA Black and African student experiences in our PfAL programme around race and racism, supporting LSE to meet its 2030 strategy and its promise to ‘Develop LSE for everyone’
- The courses we teach, the research we undertake, the partnerships we build, the books and papers we write and the conference presentations we make
- The purpose and impact of our work, highlighting who it is for, who reaps the greatest benefits and who it excludes
Measurable indicators for 2020/21 academic year
- We commit to making our research more publicly accessible by supporting our researchers in making their publications open access
- We commit to publishing a decolonisation reading list that promotes Black and African epistemologies and knowledge systems
- We commit to commemorating the Black and African students, staff, researchers and alumni who have contributed to the LSE community, especially the work of Professor Thandika Mkandawire
- Systemic racism and White supremacy, the power dynamics that privilege epistemologies of the global North and the marginalisation of voices and knowledge production originating from the global South
Measurable indicators for 2020/21 academic year
- We commit to encouraging all FLCA researchers and staff to participate in HR workshops addressing issues of diversity, white privilege and white allyship
- We commit to supporting LSE staff networks in their work with BAME communities through joint events and initiatives, which will be reported in our annual report
- We commit to publishing a blog series that commemorates and elevates the voices of influential Black and/or African leaders, encouraging editorial engagement with LSE students and researchers focused on African issues
- Greater and more inclusive communication between students, faculty and university administration to build a stronger, more diverse and inclusive community
- A healthy environment that supports and protects LSE BAME faculty, staff, and students
Measurable indicators for 2020/21 academic year
- We commit to advocating for scholarships for MSc Black and African students to attend LSE programmes
- We commit to reworking policies across LSE that act as barriers for Black and African student applications, such as application costs and visa processes
We encourage all to hold us accountable as we strive for a better world and incorporate anti-racist principles into our everyday work.
Image credit: Andrew Smith, Globe (CC BY-SA 2.0)