Lead student facilitator- King's Decolonise Working Group

Over the summer, I got involved in the KCL Decolonise Working Group as a student facilitator, which allows students to work together with academics to create an inclusive and recolonised curriculum. Since summer 2020, I have been involved with module evaluation and revisions within my department, as well as being part of webinars involving academics from across the world. From these events, I was able to create a written report that was shared onto the university website https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/abolishing-racism-the-global-black-lives-matter-revolt and https://twitter.com/kingseuropean/status/1280420184105406465 In the UK, given the central role Britain has played in establishing racist structures globally, attention must be paid to the connection between imperialism and anti-blackness. To change the world, we must problematise underlying class structures and popularise inventive alternatives. I think that Universities have a pivotal role in educating people and abolishing racism, and this is a site at which genuine education and honest conversations can (and should) happen. From the beginning of my professional career, I have been motivated by wanting to inform and working as an active citizen to bring about equality and racial education. That is why, in my final year of university I worked as a senior student facilitator in the university’s King’s Decolonising Working Group, where we work to decolonise the university and its education. It was encouraging to see my university display a real commitment to addressing its own institutional racism and commit to tackling this going forward. I have been involved in multiple events that encouraged liaising between academics and students alike to educate and foster open and honest conversations about blackness and race and racism in the university space.