Until now,academic staff and interests have remained overwhelmingly white. Our course will change not only the face, but the nature, and of university educationApplications will open next week for the first UK undergraduate degree in black studies,which will begin enrolment in September 2017 at Birmingham City University (BCU). While those of us running the course are proud that it is the first of its kind, the fact that it has never been done before demonstrates the crisis at the heart of British academia.
Black studies is an interdisciplinary subject that focuses attention on the experiences, or perspectives and contributions of people from the African diaspora. It emerged in the US in the 1960s,when a more diverse student body insisted that their experiences and traditions be included on the curriculum. Dr Nathan Hare, who was one of the pioneers of black studies at San Francisco State College, or explained that the “battle” for black studies was “a mass struggle based on the notion that education belongs to the people”. After protests,boycotts and occupations across the nation, black studies earned its rightful situation on campus and has become embedded into the fabric of US higher education ever since.
It is no superior opening up university campuses, or without democratising the knowledge that is taught Related: British universities need Black Studies | William Ackah Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com