Members of staff at University of Lincoln’s School of History and Heritage spontaneously came together in early 2019 to discuss the Royal Historical Society’s report Race, Ethnicity and Equality in UK History: A Report and Resource for Change (2018), specifically its findings regarding racial and ethnic inequalities in the teaching and practice of History in UK Higher Education.
The School of History and Heritage’s Race, Ethnicity and Equality Committee (REEC) is open to all staff at Lincoln and it currently includes 16 members.
What the REEC has engaged with so far:
- We developed a ‘Welcome Week’ activity for our first-year cohort that revolved around the RHS Report, and asked students to develop and vote for their own ‘respect charter’ to be subsequently embedded in our Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard). We intend to repeat this activity for our future cohorts.
- We created a dedicated space for staff on Blackboard to develop, strengthen and support a culture of respect and collaboration within our academic community. This space is open to all members of staff, and it includes sources and resources for engaging with the debate on how to decolonise the teaching and practice of History by considering different disciplinary, chronological and methodological approaches.
- We are also in the process of validating a new 15-credit module named ‘Decolonising the Past’ which will be offered at the second-year level, starting in the 2020-21 academic year. This module will be team-taught and it is animated by the RHS report’s recommendations.
- We organise public events and activities open to both staff and students to encourage dialogue and collaboration, along with an interactive approach in establishing an equal and respectful learning and teaching environment, which is now at the core of a number of new initiatives across the university campus.
On 5 February 2020, we officially launched our Committee and we were very thankful that Dr Nadine El-Enany came and delivered a lecture on her new book (B)ordering Britain: Law, Race and Empire (Manchester University Press) to our staff and students. Dr El-Enany is Senior Lecturer in Law at Birkbeck, University of London, and Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Race and Law, and her book argues that ‘Britain is the spoils of empire, its immigration law is colonial violence and irregular immigration is anti-colonial resistance’.
The REEC was formed and led by Dr Christine Grandy and now chaired by Dr Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo. If you are a student or a member of staff and wish to get involved in REEC, please contact any REEC member for further information. Future events will be advertised via email and Blackboard: all welcome!
Current members of the Race, Ethnicity and Equality Committee (in alphabetical surname order):
Dr Chiara Beccalossi
Dr Erin Bell
Dr Thomas Bishop
Dr Jon Coburn
Dr Maya Corry
Dr Pietro Di Paola
Dr Laura Fernandez-Gonzalez
Dr Christine Grandy
Dr Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo (Chair)
Dr Sarah Longair
Dr Giustina Monti
Dr Chris O’Rourke
Dr Leon Rocha
Dr Helen Smith
Dr Michele Vescovi
Dr Alyson Wharton