My PhD research analysed the postcolonial impact of the British publishing industry upon the Global South, with a focus on India, due to some business practices. I teach on the MA Publishing programme, and I am one of two POC in our overall department of Journalism & Publishing (while I am the only POC on the Publishing course). Coincidentally (or is it?), both of us are interested in decolonising our subjects for our students to enable them to engage with more perspectives and widen their horizons. It is helpful that my colleague also did the PgCert last year, so we are able to have these discussions foregrounded in the Inclusive Practices Unit.
My manager appreciates the expertise I bring and wished for me to apply it in a one-off session with some of our MA students – the ones who volunteered for an extra-curricular project, Decolonising the Library Collection. My manager was awarded some funding for it and brought me on board. While I have spoken to the MA students more generally about my research in one lecture, this was the first time I engaged them in foundational theories of colonialism, imperialism, hegemony, postcolonialism, neocolonialism, and decolonising, applying them to the literature and publishing spheres.
In my Intervention Plan, I will assess the execution of this one-off session using my own experience of delivering the lecture, the feedback from my manager, and the feedback from the students in a short anonymous survey I conducted. I will then examine whether it would be useful to include such a session in a more permanent and sustainable manner within the main teaching so that the entire class can benefit from it as opposed to the one-third that volunteered for this extra-curricular project. I will also discuss whether it is more helpful to have one lecture fully dedicated to postcolonialism and decolonising, or if it is more impactful if we address them during all of our teaching.
References (used in the session)
Ashcroft, B et al (1989) The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literatures. London: Routledge.
Altbach, P G and Teferra, D (1998) Publishing and Development: A Book of Readings. Massachusetts: Bellagio Publishing Network.
Batty, D (2020) ‘Only a fifth of UK universities say they are “decolonising’ curriculum”, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/11/only-fifth-of-uk-universities-have-said-they-will-decolonise-curriculum.
Moncrieffe, M et al (2024) The BERA Guide to Decolonising the Curriculum: Equity and Inclusion in Educational Research and Practice. Available at: https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/the-bera-guide-to-decolonising-the-curriculum (Accessed 21 July 2025).
Brouillette, S (2007) Postcolonial Writers in the Global Literary Marketplace. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Casanova, P (2004) The World Republic of Letters. Translated by M B DeBevoise. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Chakava, H (1996) Publishing in Africa: One Man’s Perspective. Massachusetts: Bellagio Publishing Network.
Gandhi, L (1998) Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Huggan, G (2001) The Postcolonial Exotic: Marketing the Margins. London: Routledge.
Muldoon, J (2019) ‘Academics: it’s time to get behind decolonising the curriculum’, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/20/academics-its-time-to-get-behind-decolonising-the-curriculum (Accessed 21 July 2025).
National Education Union (nd) ‘Decolonising Education’. Available at: https://neu.org.uk/advice/equality/race-equality/decolonising-education (Accessed 21 July 2025).
UAL Decolonising Arts Institute (nd) Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/ual-decolonising-arts-institute (Accessed 21 July 2025).
UCL (2014) ‘Why is my curriculum white?’ [Online]. YouTube. 11 November. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dscx4h2l-Pk (Accessed 21 July 2025).
Hi Sonali
I hope that you are well. Thank you for sharing your intervention design ideas. I like the fact that your intervention grows from lived experience and scholarly work, and considers systemic issues such as what (and who) gets to count in publishing education from a decolonising perspective, which relates to LO4. What stands out immediately is the potential to be more than a one-off and become a more transformative and sustainable intervention. You also critically engage with the question of what is considered ‘core’ and what is ‘extra-curricular’ and whether this should be more strategically embedded in the curriculum. Perhaps, this might be the next step i.e. reframing decolonising and intersectionality not as content, but as a lens through which all teaching could be interrogated. In terms of links between decolonisation and intersectionality, they both challenge dominant power structures. Decolonisation also addresses issues with knowledge systems, demanding recognition and validation of non-Western knowledges (e.g. oral traditions, local, spiritual), which seems to align with epistemic justice and intersectionality’s validation of embodied knowledge, and situated experience. There may be an argument that intersectionality supports decolonial work by showing how oppression is differentiated by identity, so it helps avoid homogenising the colonised.
While you reference feedback from students and your manager, I was wondering if you’d considered mechanisms to include more of the student voice (views, experiences, feelings empowered, challenged, affirmed, uncomfortable, motivated?), so that the session does not just ‘transmit knowledge’ but creates a space for students to rethink their own place within systems of publishing and authorship, what could be called an ‘engaged pedagogical space’ (hooks, 1994), amplifying the resonance of the intervention with LO2. This could include a pre-task/follow up task or a way for the students to respond to the lecture (e.g. Slido, Padlet, Miro).
There’s also something important about how you’ve situated yourself: as one of only two POC in the department, and someone whose research directly addresses colonial legacies in publishing. That’s both a strength and -possibly- a pressure point. It might be worth reflecting more openly on how your own positionality shaped the session, and possibly, how it was received, what it enabled, (LO3). Sara Ahmed’s work on diversity as institutional labour might be helpful here as well as Shiffer (2020) and Bayeck (2022). Aziz’s (1997) critique of inclusion siloed inclusive discourses that don’t consider race may be useful too.
I’ve included the learning outcomes too to provide a focus for the reflective report when you come to it.
Regards, Victor
Below, just a reminder of the learning outcomes.
LO1: Critically evaluate institutional, national and global perspectives of equality and diversity in relation to your academic practice context. [Enquiry]
LO2: Manifest your understanding of practices of inequity, their impact, and the implications for your professional context. [Knowledge]
LO3: Articulate the development of your positionality and identity through the lens of inclusive practices. [Communication]
LO4: Enact a sustainable transformation that applies intersectional social justice within your practice. [Realisation]