Welcome to Decolonising Modern Languages and Cultures blog series, part of the ongoing initiative at the School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University, to examine what it means to decolonise our curriculum.
This blog will feature contributions and reflections from staff and students of Newcastle University as well as external contributors. It aims to initiate and build a collective of conversations that converges decolonising-related efforts in the School and beyond (in Newcastle University, in the discipline of Modern Languages, as well as in the Humanities and Social Sciences), in order to provide students and staff with a learning/teaching resource related to decolonising the curriculum.
April 2021: The blog has been featured as a case study of effective practice at Newcastle’s Learning and Teaching Development Service.
Blog moderators
Michael Tsang is Lecturer in Japanese Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Previously he was Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University, working on a project on 20th-century book circulation between the West and East Asia (China/Japan). His research interests lie in world and postcolonial literatures with an Asian focus. He can be contacted at m.tsang@bbk.ac.uk.
Catherine Gilbert is a Newcastle University Academic Track (NUAcT) Fellow in the School of Modern Languages. Her current research focuses on genocide commemoration in the Rwandan diaspora. She is the author of From Surviving to Living: Voice, Trauma and Witness in Rwandan Women’s Writing (2018), which received the Memory Studies Association Outstanding First Book Award in 2019. She can be contacted at catherine.gilbert@newcastle.ac.uk.
Giuliana Borea is a Lecturer in Latin American Studies and the Decolonising Champion of the School of Modern Languages at Newcastle University. Her research focuses on art, politics and place-making. Her work includes cultural policymaking, museum management and curation with a clear commitment to public engagement. She is the author of Configuring the New Lima Art Scene: An Anthropological Analysis of Contemporary Art in Latin America (Routledge, 2021). She can be contacted at giuliana.borea@newcastle.ac.uk.
Header images
Three header images appear at random:
Anti-racism protest in London
18 March 2017
Photo taken by Michael Tsang
Graffiti in Hong Kong with message
‘Break the System; Free Yourself’
by @Pop & Zebra on Unsplash
Che Guevara graffiti in Colombia with quote
‘With all the strength but without losing the tenderness’
Photo taken by Alba Griffin