This book provides a forensic and collective examination of pre-existing understandings of structural inequalities in Higher Education Institutions. Going beyond the current understandings of causal factors that promote inequality, the editors and contributors illuminate the dynamic interplay between historical events and discourse and more sophisticate and racialized acts of violence. In doing so, the book crystallises myriad contemporary manifestations of structural racism in higher education. Amidst an upsurge in racialized violence, civil unrest, and barriers to attainment, progression and success for students and staff of colour, doing equity and diversity for success in higher education has become both politically urgent and morally imperative. This book calls for a redistribution of power across intersectional and racial lines as a means of decentering whiteness and redressing structural inequalities in the academy. It is essential reading for scholars of sociology and education, as well as those interested in equality and social justice.
1. Introduction: The Owl of Minerva Has Flown: Can Equity and Diversity
be Done for Success in Higher Education Now?.- Part I. A Review of the Past
and a Look into the Future.- 2. The Myth of Academic Underperformance and
Notions of Truth 52 Years After the Passing of the Race Relations Act 1968:
In Conversation with Dame Jocelyn Barrow.- 3. A Diverse Society Needs Diverse
Solutions.- 4. What We Dont, but Should Know.- 5. Decolonisation or
Empowerment in Higher Education?.- 6 Travelling Between Historical Memory and
the Current Predicament of Educational Reforms in Higher Education: A
Transnational Perspective.- 7. Fencing the Race: Responding to the Past to
Help Shape the Future. Part II. Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity or
Decolonisation: The Big Conundrum.- 8. Decolonising Academic Spaces: Moving
Beyond Diversity to Promote Racial Equity in Postsecondary Education.-
9. Towards the Unmaking of Canons: Decolonising the Study of Literature.-
10. Merit, Success and the Epistemic Logics of Whiteness in Racialised
Education Systems.- 11. Decolonising the Academy: A Look at Student-Led
Interventions in the UK.- 12. On the Fallacy of Decolonisation in Our Higher
Education Institutions (HEIs).- 13. Diversify or Decolonise? What You Can Do
Right Now and How to Get Started.- Part III. Big Data: Am I a Name or
Number?.- 14. The Unknown Student, and Other Short Stories: An Ethical and
Methodological Exploration of Students as Data.- 15. Turning Big Data into
Informed Action.- 16. Using Data-Driven Approaches to Address Systematic
Awarding Gaps.- Part IV. Identity and Belonging for Outliers, Space Invaders
and Others Within the Brick Walls.- 17. Recruitment, Retention and
Progression: Navigating the Flashpoints of Gender, Race and Religious
Discrimination in Higher Education.- 18. Reflections on Redressing Racial
Inequalities, When Teaching Race in the Sociology of Sport and Physical
Education.- 19. Fighting Back While Black: The Relationship Between
Racialised Resistance and Well-Being.- 20. In Whose Interest Is Training the
Dog? Black Academics Reflection on Academic Development for Access and
Success in a Historically White University in South Africa.-
21. Understanding Critical Whiteness Studies: Harmful or Helpful in the
Struggle for Racial Equity in the Academy?.- 22. Who Feels It Knows It!
Alterity, Identity and Epistemological Privilege: Challenging White
Privilege from a Black Perspective Within the Academy.- 23. Many Rivers to
Cross: The Challenges and Barriers Facing Aspiring Black, Asian and Minority
Ethnic (BAME) Leaders in the Academy.- 24. Understanding and Interrupting
Systemic Racism: A Race Equality Receipt as a Mechanism to Promote
Transformational Conversations and Stimulate Actions to Redress Race
Inequality.- 25. Sowing the Seeds: Embracing and Re-imaging a More Racially
Inclusive Academy.
Dave S. P. Thomas is Doctoral Researcher and Diversity Practitioner at University of Kent, UK. He is also an Occupational Therapist and Public Health Specialist, Consultant to AdvanceHE in diversity and inclusion and a member of the United Kingdom Health and Care Professions Council EDI Forum.
Jason Arday is an Associate Professor in Sociology at Durham University, UK, a Visiting Research Fellow at The Ohio State University, USA and an Adjunct Professor at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. He is a Trustee of the Runnymede Trust and the British Sociological Association.
