Race and diversity

Microinsults, microinvalidations and other forms of covert racism are increasing in schools, a BME teachers’ conference organised by the NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, has heard.

Men and women from African-Caribbean communities in the UK have higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide risk and are more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia

British people make clear distinctions between immigrants based on their country of origin (Figure 4). Just 10% of a 2017 sample (surveyed online) said that no Australians should be allowed to come and live in Britain compared to 37% saying that no Nigerians should be allowed. In between are France (similar to Australia) Poland (more middling), and Romania and Pakistan (more similar to Nigeria). Such patterns have sometimes been described as an ‘ethnic hierarchy’ (Ford, 2011). At the preferred end of the scale are those who are white, English-speaking, Europeans and Christian countries while at the least preferred are non-whites, non-Europeans and Muslim countries.

Learning how adapt to a British university after studying at an Algerian one was a tricky transition for PhD student Riadh Ghemmour

An interview with Jess Crilly, Associate Director Content and Discovery at University of the Arts UAL has done extensive work on decolonising the Collections over the last couple of years.

Today CfEY is launching a new report with King's College London, examining the participation of Latinx students in UK higher education.

Craig Poku was the only black PhD student in his department. He reflects on how black British doctoral students can navigate the challenges they face

In October 2018, we published a report on Race, Ethnicity and Equality in UK History. This RHS report built on existing work by groups such as the Runnymede Trust, the Young Historians Project and Museum Detox, and surveyed the state of the discipline for BME staff and students in particular. It found that Undergraduate level History was overwhelmingly white in terms of students, that the numbers were even lower when it came to Postgraduate level History and that ‘History academic staff are less diverse than H&PS student cohorts, with 93.7% of History staff drawn from White backgrounds, and only 0.5% Black, 2.2% Asian and 1.6% Mixed’.

Asking BAME students to spend significant amounts of time helping universities decolonise the curriculum is far from the ideal solution, says Daniel Akinbosede inspiring Times Higher article.

In 2018, JSTOR received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the digitization of 680 out-of-print titles from El Colegio de México Press and the dissemination of those titles on an openly accessible basis. In a new white paper, we document the significance of this work,

Britain’s past weighs on our present: learning about it would mean a better debate about race and migration, says academic and author Maya Goodfellow

The West focuses only on slavery, but the history of Africa is so much more than a footnote to European imperialism  - great blog post.

The British Honours system and its link to empire is outdated and inappropriate, it must change.

Dr Zubaida Haque, Runnymede Trust Deputy Director, said:

“It’s astonishing to think that there has been a significant and growing black and ethnic minority population in this country (now one in six people) since the arrival of Empire Windrush in 1948 and yet we have never had a non-white Supreme Court judge, or a Civil Service Permanent Secretary or a CEO of FTSE-100 companies who is a woman of colour

Derek, Faiza and Omar discuss race, class and institutional prejudice, immigration, Empire, the role of civil society, hostile environment and hope.

Background Peer reviewed research is paramount to the advancement of science. Ideally, the peer review process is an unbiased, fair assessment of the scientific merit and credibility of a study; however, well-documented biases arise in all methods of peer review. Systemic biases have been shown to directly impact the outcomes of peer review, yet little is known about the downstream impacts of unprofessional reviewer comments that are shared with authors. Methods In an anonymous survey of international participants in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, we investigated the pervasiveness and author perceptions of long-term implications of receiving of unprofessional comments. Specifically, we assessed authors’ perceptions of scientific aptitude, productivity, and career trajectory after receiving an unprofessional peer review. Results We show that survey respondents across four intersecting categories of gender and race/ethnicity received unprofessional peer review comments equally. However, traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM fields were most likely to perceive negative impacts on scientific aptitude, productivity, and career advancement after receiving an unprofessional peer review. Discussion Studies show that a negative perception of aptitude leads to lowered self-confidence, short-term disruptions in success and productivity and delays in career advancement. Therefore, our results indicate that unprofessional reviews likely have and will continue to perpetuate the gap in STEM fields for traditionally underrepresented groups in the sciences.

Decolonising Library collections and practices: from understanding to impact papers on what libraries are doing.

There is a growing impetus, from university students and administrations, to decolonise the curriculum and develop diverse reading lists. 

Schucan Bird, K. & Pitman, L. High Educ (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00446-9

Asian international and black students reported greater odds of suicide attempt.

•Sexual minority students reported greater odds of across all three suicide outcomes.