Establishing and holding on to anti-racist space in the University of Manchester

Two people standing at Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre desk in Central Library

The RACE Centre Reception Desk based in Manchester Central Library

You can read this new post from our Collections Engagement Officer Maya Sharma on the Decolonise UoM blog.

Here’s a brief extract:

Centering Black, Brown and global majority history, perspective and knowledge

Black, Brown and ethnic minority people’s lives, knowledge, histories and experiences, are often marginalised, ignored or de-valued. They are often absent from academic study, or at best, subjects of scrutiny and research: Othered and seldom allowed to speak for themselves. 

We push back against this. Our archives document the lives and histories of Black, Brown and ethnic minority people, in many cases in their own words and researched and collected by themselves. We often work with community organisations to support the development of their own heritage projects, allowing them to define what aspects of their histories are explored and documented. Our library collection, whilst including traditional academic titles, also includes books, magazines, reports and so on created by the communities we work with and their organisations.   

Whilst this is important in itself, we work hard to put these collections to work – to use them to centre Black, Brown, global majority perspectives within the University (and beyond).

To read more, go to https://decoloniseuom.blogspot.com/2021/03/establishing-and-holding-on-to.html