Racism in Higher Education

Project

My research on institutional racism in British universities (See: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030142834 ) critically investigates the processes and practices that continue to marginalise and exclude academics of colour. I conducted 20 in-depth interviews with female and male academics, from different racial, ethnic, religious and international backgrounds, based at Russell Group and Post-92 universities across the country. They ranged from early career, mid-career, and advanced career academics, working either as lecturers or researchers, on permanent, part-time or fixed-term contracts.

All of my respondents expressed feelings of isolation against a landscape structured by whiteness, which they reported contributed experiences of otherness, marginality, and white discomfort around difference. Racism in universities was felt to be more subtle and covert in nature, meaning that the daily realities of racial discrimination were obscured and difficult to pin-down, as white staff members are unable to conceive of themselves as perpetrators of racism.

Day to day microaggressions included white staff members mistaking my respondents with the only other academic of colour in the department; mispronouncing their names; excluding them from particular opportunities; subjecting them to scrutiny and surveillance; and failure to invest in their development. Furthermore, the lack of other minorities within the institution made those few present feel highly exposed, leading to alienation and vulnerability. In terms of career advancement, my respondents all felt that they had been unsupported in applications for promotion, in addition to this, they all spoke of a lack of mentoring, as well as their achievements being constantly undervalued.

My research argues that racism in universities can longer be simply ignored, treated as an individual phenomenon, or merely framed as a series of isolated experiences. Instead, it has to be understood as that which sits within wider, structural, discriminatory contexts, underpinned by the logics of whiteness. Race equality needs to be practiced, not just preached. There needs to be a clear and obvious commitment to dismantling systems of racism that currently shape the academy. Only then can the vision of an anti-racist university be actualized. In times of growing insecurities and xenophobia, universities should be focused on challenging racism, rather than reinforcing it.In the classroom setting, respondents shared experiences of frequently being challenged by their white students, who assumed they lacked authority and credibility. There was a clear student backlash against subjects being taught related to racism, colonialism and Islamophobia, whereby white guilt and resentment were manifested through hostility towards academics of colour. For my respondents such reactions were symptomatic of the lack of engagement around decolonizing the curriculum, which they felt should be a priority in universities as a way to ensure the cultivation of inclusive, critical spaces through the teaching of diverse knowledge.