This event will be led Rachel Odufuwa, an Associate Lecturer in Gender Studies and a PhD student at Lancaster University whose research is concerned with "amplify[ing] Black women’s voices concerning Higher Education decolonising agendas and enabl[ing] us to speak our truths about current decolonising agendas" and Dr Richard Budd, who is a Lecturer in Higher Education at Lancaster University and "actively involved in moves to decolonise higher education, Lancaster University, and [his] own practice".

John Barbrook, Faculty Librarian for Health and Medicine and Science and Technology, and Paul Newnham, Faculty Librarian for Arts an Social Sciences, will provide an update on continuing efforts to decolonise the Library's collections and the ways they can be used. 

In this discussion session we will explore what decolonising might mean from the perspective of students. In principle we will be suggesting that higher education could – in fact should – be quite different in order for all students to feel more welcome on campus and classrooms in order to thrive. We will cover a number of different aspects such as student and staff recruitment, the curriculum, and teaching. In discussing these different aspects, we will be using an inclusive pedagogue—the ‘talking circle’ method to begin a process of liberating or freeing our minds from the logic of coloniality, which insists on there being relationships of power and hierarchy. In the context of the classroom, these power dynamics have existed historically between the teacher and the students, and it is these power dynamics which the ‘talking circle’ method seeks to dismantle so that both teachers and students come to see each other as ‘knowledgeable equals’.

Lunch and light refreshments will be provided on the day. Please indicate any special dietary requirements when you book a place.