Decolonising the curriculum: Epigram interview with Dr Foluke Adebisi

Press release issued: 31 October 2018

The Law School’s Dr Foluke Adebisi was recently interviewed by Epigram, the University of Bristol’s independent student newspaper. She spoke about the importance of Black History Month, the new Law and Race unit developed together with Dr Yvette Russell and student input, and how to be a good ally to the BAME community.

As part of the Student Union’s Black History Month events, Dr Foluke Adebisi gave a workshop entitled ‘Panafricanism, Afrofuturism and Decolonisation,’ which explored how to question and critically analyse the structures currently in place around us, and how such structures affect those who have been historically oppressed.

In an interview with Cameron Scheijde, co-Editor-in-Chief of Epigram, Foluke reflected on the influence of Black History Month: “There is a long tradition of leaving certain things out of the history books, and I think it’s important because it gives us the avenue to have these conversations that we don’t usually have.”

“A lot of what we do in University is about ideology and schools of thought. If you think about the racial and social formations of the world, and the theories that underpin them, the way in which the world is formed leaves certain theories out of it. […] If the University is a public good, where the point is to improve the world and make the world a better place, we cannot do that where certain histories, ways of knowing or epistemologies are left out.”

Foluke discussed the challenges of decolonising curriculums and the role students can play in working towards this. In the 2018/2019 academic year, Dr Yvette Russell and Foluke will be teaching a new unit called Law and Race:

“What those kind of units do is they shine a light on the structure and they help us to think about ways in which we can make the world not as unequal as it is. If the role of a University is to improve the world, then we need to question the structures that have made the world unequal.”

When asked about how white students can be good allies to the BME community, Foluke’s advice was to read widely and listen: “the problem is you shouldn’t ask people who are constantly having a certain lived experience of discrimination to be the teacher. There’s lots of good books out there."

"In the talk I defined allyship in the negative - I said 'if you advocate for something less than what you would expect for yourself then that is not allyship.' We have to keep reflecting on what we are doing, be critical of the structures that we have come to rely on. I think the first step is to read as much as possible, but also to learn and change.”

Read the full interview on the Epigram website.

To find out more about the new Law and Race unit read Foluke’s Law School blog post: ‘Why we are teaching Law and Race at the University of Bristol’

Further information

Dr Foluke Adebisi joined the Law School in September 2013 and is leading on the recruitment of students from Nigeria. She teaches Contract Law and Foundations of Business, and is particularly committed to exploring diversity in the content process and structure of education, especially legal education. In the 2018/2019 academic year Foluke will be teaching the newly introduced Law and Race unit, developed with Dr Yvette Russell and student input.

Foluke was featured on the Bristol BME Powerlist 2018, a list of Bristol’s 100 most influential and inspiring black and minority ethnic people, published to mark the beginning of Black History Month and to showcase BME excellence in areas including academia, politics, business, activisim and the arts.

As founder and director of Forever Africa Conference and Events (FACE), Foluke brought together University staff and students to hold a launch event held earlier this year, which explored the long- and short- term goals needed to strengthen Pan-African staff and student links within the University, the local community and national and regional research and education initiatives. Foluke is currently organising FACE 2019.

Find out more about FACE by visiting the Director of FACE Dr Foluke Adebisi's website.