Hannah Cusworth: <\/strong>A couple of years ago there was a debate among history teachers \u2013 myself included \u2013 about the merits of Black History Month. Had it outlived its purpose? Did it make your school less likely to integrate black history in the main curriculum? Shouldn\u2019t we just be teaching black history all year round?<\/p>\n For a while, I was of the opinion that we should get rid of a special month and teach it all year round. But then I had a discussion with some of my students one July, in which they asked me what we were doing for Black History Month. I said: \u201cWe do black history all the time!\u201d But they wanted something beyond that regular teaching: something more celebratory to mark individuals who had achieved great things.<\/p>\n You can debate the rights and wrongs of that opinion, of course, but it did change my perception, because the students seemed to see it a bit differently. Clearly there is still a need to do something much more focused.<\/p>\n Pamela Roberts:<\/strong> I\u2019m in favour of it for a few reasons. It\u2019s surprising how often I still meet people who say they have no idea that October is Black History Month. So it\u2019s a good catalyst to start the conversation.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve also noticed that the conversation has shifted recently to include a greater explanation of what the month is for and what comprises black history. There\u2019s been a move away from enslavement history to more celebratory narratives, looking at individual achievements and contributions. I hear the arguments that a month is tokenistic, or that it means the work done by black historians and other professionals isn\u2019t acknowledged as much as it should be \u2013 and that debate needs to be had. But I think it\u2019s a good way of getting those issues out into the mainstream.<\/p>\n Hakim Adi: B<\/strong>lack History Month is, to some extent, the recognition of a problem \u2013 that generally speaking, for the rest of the year, this history is hidden, ghettoised and neglected. That\u2019s how I look at it: as a sign we still have a problem we haven\u2019t dealt with. That encourages us to consider our attitude to Black History Month, and how to utilise it alongside the other 11 months.<\/p>\n I spend every day focusing on the issue of how to make sure this history is integral to the history of the UK and the world. How can we make sure that people recognise the role of black people? How do we actually look at this history, not just in terms of celebrating individuals? What are we trying to teach people about history, and what lessons are we drawing from it? These are important questions to consider every October, and in every month of every year.<\/p>\n HA:<\/strong> A problem in education generally is that very few people of African and Caribbean heritage actually engage with history.<\/p>\n The percentage of school history teachers of African and Caribbean heritage is very small, for instance. And then, among black undergraduates, history is among the least popular subjects. So why people are being turned off history at university and even before university is a problem that needs to be addressed.<\/p>\n Another problem is that black British history, and the history of the African diaspora, is generally very poorly taught at university level. One or two new people have been employed to teach it in the years since 2020, but there are still very few courses on the subject \u2013 and some of the courses that did exist have been closed down. And, of course, we have very few academic historians of African and Caribbean heritage. There are literally only a handful.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We then come to the particular issue that we\u2019ve had at the University of Chichester recently. We established a course there in 2018 specifically to address these problems: to encourage black students to come back into education, to study the history and to begin research into the subject. We ran that course for five years, during which we produced seven PhD students. And at the time I\u2019m talking to you [in mid-August], the course is being threatened with termination, as is my post as course teacher. We have 16 black postgraduate students, which is at the moment the biggest such cohort in the UK.<\/p>\n So we have a situation in which the first person in this country of African heritage to become a professor of the history of Africa is being threatened with redundancy. To me, that suggests that the sector as a whole should be concerned about this kind of history, and needs to take action to defend it. Our history is important, and those who study it and teach it are important.<\/p>\n HC:<\/strong> Just that I fully echo what he\u2019s saying. It\u2019s worth noting the extent to which people who were employed in black history positions at universities are now leaving, either because of cuts or because of really unpleasant work environments. Some of those people have felt unsupported and isolated.<\/p>\n It\u2019s quite a bleak picture, and in my opinion a lot of the momentum from 2020 has now gone. There just wasn\u2019t time for it \u2028to bed in, and from my experience of being a recent student in higher education, the knowledge of black history, its literature \u2028and methods, is really poor. That can make it quite hard as a black student, because those things are well-established in other countries, especially in the US, but in Britain there just aren\u2019t enough people in place to support this kind of research.<\/p>\n PR:<\/strong> After the horrific murder of George Floyd [in Minnesota in May 2020] there was a rush by corporations and parts of academia and education to \u2013 dare I say \u2013 jump on the bandwagon and do something. But they put very little thought or creativity into it, and there was also a lack of resources and infrastructure to ensure that it was done in a way that would allow for it to become fully established. It was all very piecemeal and more about appearances than anything else.<\/p>\n Against this backdrop, I also want to return to the point of how we make this history accessible to the wider public, and to fully acknowledge the value and relevance of people doing that kind of work. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s being done nearly adequately enough.<\/p>\n There also has to be a recognition that this subject needs to be properly resourced and properly funded.<\/p>\n My background is in the arts sector, where things were always talked about in terms of an \u2018initiative\u2019 or a \u2018scheme\u2019 rather than being properly embedded. So you\u2019d begin work as if it was the start of a new cycle, rather than building on work that had already been done. And then the funding would run out, and in two or three years you\u2019d see the whole thing being repeated by another organisation. In the time I\u2019ve been around, I haven\u2019t seen any structures being built upon that would allow us to progress.<\/p>\n HA:<\/strong> For me, the issue that isn\u2019t being addressed stems from the nature of our society and its endemic racism. It could be argued that society in general does not think that any repair needs to be done for the crimes of the past, and that this history is not important.<\/p>\n The statement you mentioned from the University of Chichester is an example of that: everything is seen in terms of money and funding, which is why no commitment is made to education of a transformative kind. That approach, of seeing things merely in terms of pounds and pence, is in my view essentially racist \u2013 or if we want to be a bit more polite, Eurocentric. Whether we\u2019re looking at schools or universities or heritage institutions, that\u2019s the underlying issue.<\/p>\n Generally speaking, we\u2019re not exploring the ways in which history can help us address the legacies of the past. In my experience, although we need to call on institutions to help with that \u2013 and, indeed, we should demand it of them \u2013 it\u2019s us as individuals who actually need to get it done.<\/p>\n![\"Black](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/10\/2KBPXXB-cmyk-6bb803d.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Colston")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>How would you assess the state of black history in UK universities?<\/h3>\n
I should add that a University of Chichester spokesperson stressed that this was \u2028a wider issue of funding across several postgraduate courses. Do either of you have any other thoughts on this issue?<\/h3>\n
![\"Representatives](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/10\/GettyImages-1227882000-cmyk-523d132.png?quality=90&resize=618%2C413\" "\\"All")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>Are heritage organisations also experiencing this kind of situation?<\/h3>\n