Decolonising the School of Law
A dedicated Decolonising the School of Law Forum was set up at the start of Session 23-24 with the intention of bringing together staff and students to lead reflection and action in the School around anti-racism. We are committed to understanding better ‘who we are’ and ‘what we do’ in our School so that we can welcome, include and engage with a diverse student and staff body, and deliver a legal education that is inclusive and reflects the rich diversity of law, legal thinking and pedagogy. This work is slow work; if this is to be more than window dressing, at the heart of it lies culture change.
This work is set within a wider University context. One action in the Understanding Racism, Transforming University Cultures Action Plan published by the University in 2021 was to ‘build a strand on decolonising the curriculum into the next L&T strategy’ – it being recognised that there was ‘the need to develop a curriculum which is globally reflective, to ensure all students can engage fully in the learning experience.’ One of the internal drivers identified in the University’s 2021-25 L&T strategy talks to the need to ensure learning and teaching is inclusive and that policies and practices support student wellbeing and inclusion.
Forum members
Staff: Maria Fletcher, Catriona Cannon, David Boag, Cameron Wong-McDermott, Rebecca Williams, Rebecca Sutton, Joyman Lee, Gigi Jokubauskaite, Andrea Varga, Sarah Dean
Student members: Amelia Lockhart-Hourigan, Arianna Ahrens, Lucy Bowie, Ameerah Adetoro, Sam Viju, Zoe Millar, Wabia Nganatha Karugu, Aliyah Muhammed, Joséphine Sangaré, Theresa Sebastian
If you are interested in the work of the forum or would like to find out more about joining this space, please contact Maria Fletcher (maria.fletcher@glasgow.ac.uk) or Catriona Cannon (catriona.cannon@glasgow.ac.uk).
Events
Forum members attended on a ‘field trip’ to The Hunterian in February 2024 to learn from the University’s Ms Zandra Yeoman, Curator of Unfinished Conversations, on a project entitled ‘Curating Discomfort’ which is designed to aid understanding of the role of museums in reinforcing ideologies of white supremacy.
Dr Rebecca Sutton and PGT student Wabia Nganatha Karugu hosted a staff-student Winter Board Game Night in February 2024. With hot chocolate and cake, this game night engaged staff and students from the law school in playing "Brave New World'' - a human rights board game designed by scholars at Nottingham Trent University. The game immerses players in an unequal world in which goblins of various characteristics have different chances to achieve happiness. We used game play to generate an informal chat about fostering equality within the School of Law.