We are committed to recognising and challenging the systematic racism that pervades our disciplines. Please see below a series of anti-racist commitments and actions-in-progress, which are not exhaustive. They are representative of what we are personally committing to, doing, and/or are policies at our various local institutions to realise anti-racist futures. 

 

NB. For matters of clarity, this resource has no institutional affiliation. 

NB. Terms employed echo those recommended by the Revolution or Nothing Network. These may evolve through our commitment to listening. 

 

Listening

Commitment: to being ready to listen. Action: acknowledging that our previous educations have not prepared us for anti-racist practices and as members of the discipline being ready for change. 

 

Commitment: to giving time and space for black and global majority colleagues to speak in meetings without interruption. Action: Either as chairs or members of committees, be forthright in ensuring the equality of time to voice questions or responses. 

 

Commitment: to challenge languages in institutions that perpetuate hierarchies and acknowledge the problems of ‘widening participation’ are often conflated with the ‘attainment gap’ which doesn’t recognise systemic inequalities and the violences of institutional structures that are founded on exclusions and perpetuate privilege. Action: As admissions tutors or committee members for local duties, to de-centre the narratives of attainment and success through the rejections of BAME, ‘diversity’ and conscious bias training as the routes to Black and Global Majority thriving. 

 

Research and publishing

Commitment: As peer reviewers for journals and books, it is legitimate for us to ask authors to state that exclusively euro-centric positions are presented as limited in their scope and application. 

 

Commitment to disrupting institutional barriers: to recognise and work to challenge the hostility of institutions for Black and Global Majority students and staff by listening to experiences, committing to make things better and organising to actually implement changes that will benefit Black and Global Majority students and staff. 

 

Commitment to creating a shared language of understanding and naming how racism and white supremacy works in our fields. Commitment to educating each other by sharing resources, having reading groups and learning.

 

Over representation of ideas, peoples, and philosophies

Commitment: extracurricular student engagement / action: programme workshops, mentor student societies and require them to have an administrative role for Black and Global Majority students on their boards. 

 

Commitment: Fund Black and Global Majority PhD students and hire Black and Global Majority staff members 

 

Commitment: to the ongoing, repeated and never ‘finished’ work involved in dismantling white supremacy and how it is reflected in institutions/ funding streams/ hiring practices/ student recruitment and retainment as well as the overall project of decolonising the curriculum. 

 

Commitment to not disappointing Black and Global Majority students who may expect a space to be welcoming and turns out to be the opposite.  Commitment to not rendering students invisible by making them hyper-visible.

 

Making space

Commitment to further local and national level platforming of anti-racist / anti-colinalist practices. Action: In our roles as conference organisers, we will seek our and identify forums for engaging an ongoing platform for anti-racist practices in the discplines of theatre, dance and performance. 

 

Commitment: Importance of speaking about race and racism / action: creation of online ‘safe spaces’ discussion groups / challenge: ‘safe spaces’ is a problematic term (safe for whom?), and we are discussing new ways of naming this activity. 

 

Commitment: anti-racist and decolonising research / action: annual funding for speaker series, targeted aims for research centres, CDAs with professional partners, funding workshops

 

Commitment to fighting against defensiveness and resistance to change. Commitment to naming patterns of behaviour and troubling assumptions.
 

Recruitment

Commitment: recruitment and widening participation / action: workshops and webinars with under-represented schools, delivering relevant lectures, seminars and workshops on open days

 

Commitment to reviewing admissions processes (particularly the post-offer experience/transition).

 

Teaching practice

Commitment: fighting the attainment gap for Black and Global Majority students / action: curriculum peer reviews, personal tutoring system, discussion forums for white colleagues to take responsibility for decolonising and anti-racist work

 

Commitment: curriculum design / validate learning outcomes in all required modules/courses that address racism and anti-racism 

 

Commitment in pedagogies: actively pursue wider understanding of the discipline areas and work towards in-class techniques that encourage critical engagement with emotional labour and allyship, but do not expect Black and Global Majority students to have to ‘represent’ their background(s).    

 

Commitment to modelling anti-racism in the classroom, in the studios, in rehearsals.  This means a  commitment to environments where micro-assaults, micro-insults and micro-invalidations are not tolerated. 

 

Commitment to reviewing and establishing  values and collective principles of work among students and staff to ensure that anti-racism work is ongoing and embedded in everyday interactions.

 

Commitment to reviewing the language used in unit descriptors, in assessment guidance and criteria, in grade descriptors. Peer review existing kinds of assessment with a commitment to undoing dominant kinds of knowledge and forms of expression that can marginalize and exclude.

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Dismantling hostile environments

Commitment to working with existing, Black and Global Majority-led organisations in resisting and dismantling racist and Islamphobic border and policing regimes in our institutions.

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