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Decolonising MLAC

The School of Modern Language and Cultures stands – in principle – for openness, diversity and multiculturalism. Many of us are actively engaged in teaching and research that scrutinises questions of cultural difference, legacies of European and non-European colonialism, global and transnational exchanges, and gender, sexuality, disability, and race studies. We are nonetheless part of a traditional institution, which has its own histories of inequality, prejudice and bias. We know that, starting with race, multiple forms of inequality and injustice continue as part of our present.

Our starting point for decolonisation follows Escobar’s understanding of the term as ‘an ethical and political practice of alterity that involves a deep concern for social justice, the radical equality of all beings, and nonhierarchy. It’s about the difference that all marginalized and subaltern groups have to live with day in and day out, and that only privileged groups can afford to overlook’ (Designs for the Pluriverse xvi). With this in mind, Decolonising MLAC’s attention to antiracism is necessarily accompanied by a commitment to combating all forms of marginalisation in the workplace and classroom. Sexism, misogyny and homophobia; ableism; class inequality: all these and more amplify and extend one another. The decolonial struggle for radical equality must thus be fought on multiple fronts. Based on these premises, ‘Decolonising MLAC’ sets as its goal a commitment to decolonising the School in all its aspects, including research and education.

The pages in this section of the website include a set of reading and viewing recommendations, compiled from suggestions across the School, and offering a transnational perspective on Race & Resistance. Another comprises the efforts of the original student-led grassroots Decolonising MLAC Research Group. Finally, you will find here links to important parallel initiatives throughout the wider Durham community:

Decolonisation Hub

Legacies of enslavement and colonialism at Durham University – The Durham Student

Library and Collections - Durham University