Race Equality Action Group (REAG)

Summary and action points

In October 2020, the Faculty of History established a Race Equality Action Group (REAG) that built on and consolidated past initiatives to address racism. The fundamental objective of the REAG was to embed sustained anti-racist practices and structures within the History Faculty, to make a significant contribution to improving understanding of the histories of raced experience in Britain and globally, and to foster the careers of Black, Asian and minority ethnic students and scholars. The project was led by a committee including expert External Advisors and drawing on existing Faculty, Staff and Student expertise. The Steering Committee was co-convened by Christina de Bellaigue (as Vice-Chair of the Faculty Board) & Faridah Zaman; the other postholders on the Committee were Fanny Bessard, Stephen Gunn, Alexander Morrison, Richard Reid and Steve Tuck. The ECR representative was Mike Joseph.  The postgraduate representatives were Zobia Haq, Caine Tayo Lewin-Turner and Eunice Yu. The undergraduate representatives were Xaira Adebayo, Nadia Awad, Ciara Garcha and Gracie Oddie-James.  We were very fortunate to have benefited from advice and guidance from five external advisory members: Naomi Kellman (Rare Recruitment & Target Oxbridge), Dr Sadiah Qureshi (University of Birmingham, RHS Race report), Dr Kristy Warren (University of Leicester), Dr Jonathan Saha (University of Durham, RHS Race report), Professor Barbara Savage (Penn State University). The plan focused on five key areas, in liaison with other relevant bodies.

  1. Data collection and listening
  2. Recruitment and staff experience
  3. Admissions and student experience
  4. Events and community history
  5. Curriculum

The project began by collecting both quantitative and qualitative information about the impact and understanding of race in the History Faculty, both with respect to the experience of staff and students, and with respect to how ideas of race and raced experience are taught and studied. Alongside this, the REAG developed concrete proposals to swiftly address some of the concerns and issues raised, and organised teaching, research and community-focused events in response to those concerns. The group also began to identify longer-term projects. The data collected by the REAG and our proposals for ongoing development now inform the ongoing work of the Faculty’s standing Race Equality Working Group. This document summarises the REAG ‘s activities around specific themes, our key findings, and proposals for ongoing work arising from them.


Data Collection and Listening

  • Two Listening Forums for undergraduates and postgraduates which collected comments and suggestions that were fed into projects on curriculum and student experience.
  • Design and distribution of two student surveys (one postgraduate and one graduate) in Hilary Term 2021. Although rates of return were low (9% of those invited responded; 52 post graduates of whom 29% identified as BAME, and 96 undergraduates, of 36% identified as BAME), the qualitative data provided in free text answers was illuminating, and with cautious attention to statistical significance, all the data collected pointed to some points for further investigation, notably:
  • both postgraduates and undergraduates found that informal face to face interactions were by far the most likely to generate perceptions of differential treatment, with racist jokes, derogatory comments, exclusion, and anti-semitism, all reported
  • students reported high rates of dissatisfaction for the timing of events and deadlines, with free text answers mentioning Friday seminars as problematic and that Jewish and Muslim holidays were ignored.
  • Review of SDMA data on admissions and achievement, which suggested that although BME undergraduate applicants do not suffer from negative success rates, the numbers of BME applicants in History is low relative to other faculties. At graduate level, we found that a low number of BME applicants are offered places (25.9% of offers are made to BME candidates - who represent 35.4% of applicants, whereas 69.2% of offers are made to white candidates - who represent 60.8% of applicants). In terms of outcomes, we found that there was a persistent achievement gap for UK domiciled BME students between 2010-2019. At graduate level, there was a consistent gap in Distinctions between white and BME PGT students, and a gap in submission rates between white and BME PGR students (though this should be understood in the context of small numbers of BME graduates).
  • Collaboration with the DUS and the Athena-SWAN coordinator in commissioning a report on student recruitment, progression, curriculum, and outcomes in relation to race, religion, ethnicity, SES, and gender.
  • Future action: develop mechanisms for regularly capturing and reviewing key data on recruitment, progression, and outcomes in relation to race, religion and ethnicity (with information on race systematically disaggregated between UK domiciled and overseas).
  • Future action: ensure that Faculty-level admissions, curriculum, and assessment reviews systematically engage with race, religion, and ethnicity as factors affecting recruitment and outcomes, and that the Faculty takes action to support BME candidates and students appropriately
  • Future action: encourage systematic and regular review of the timing of events
  • Future action: ensure that mechanisms for reporting harassment allow for reporting of informal interactions

Recruitment and Staff Experience

  • Advised recruitment panels with respect to equality and diversity in respect to the Further Particulars for new posts
  • Proposed enhanced training around racism, bringing together incoming postholders, ECRs, and office and office-holders in the Faculty to ensure engagement with these issues at all levels of the Faculty and to strengthen connections between Faculty members
  • Future action: work with Faculty Board Chair and HR to incorporate this enhanced training into induction days at the beginning of the academic year

Admissions and Student Experience

  • Supported the appointment of a Harassment Officer with particular focus on issues of concern to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students and Faculty members
  • Fed matters raised in the Undergraduate Listening Forum and a Postgraduate Listening Forum in Hilary Term 2021 into development of document of Faculty Guidance for Tutors & Convenors which was shared with Postholders at a special Faculty Meeting in June 2021
  • Future Action: Check that the Faculty Guidance for Tutors and Convenors is visible on the Staff Intranet, is incorporated into induction sessions, and is regularly shared by the DUS and DGS.
  • Future Action: seek to contribute to Divisional work on Graduate Admissions, in particular with respect the use of contextual data for assessments, and with respect to the Financial Declaration, which may be a particular deterrent for students from minoritised backgrounds
  • Future Action: follow up on the actions recommended in response to the student surveys and listening events, and consider reviewing the remit of the REWG to ensure that religion-based discrimination forms part of its remit

Events and Community History

  • Organised a Black History Month Roundtable event on Legacies of Slavery at Oxford, with free Uncomfortable Oxford tour offered to students
  • Organised a series of reading group discussions in collaboration with the Transnational and Global History Seminar on ‘Race, Research and the University’ and on ‘Race, Teaching and the University’
  • Organised a Race Equality Action Group Coffee Morning – an informal occasion for Black, Asian and minority ethnic students, administrative and academic staff, particularly to meet in a social and supportive environment
  • Future Action: work with the Faculty Community History Fellow to develop new public engagement projects
  • Future Action: explore the appetite for further informal supportive social events

Curriculum

The hope is that taking action across all of these areas will help to foster a culture in the History Faculty that is more attentive to the impact of racist discrimination at all levels in the past and the present, which actively seeks to reduce the impact of systemic racism on students and colleagues today, and which will respond promptly to address and put an end to any form of racist conduct by staff or students.

The REAG drew on and reinforced the important work already undertaken in a number of areas by students and staff, particularly in the wake of the Rhodes Must Fall Campaign since 2016, and in response to the Royal Historical Society’s 2018 report on Race, Ethnicity and Equality in UK History.

  • Information collected at the Listening Fora, and in the student survey, as well as at the initial Listening Exercise held before the establishment of the REAG in June 2020, highlighted an appetite for curriculum development and more teaching on the history of Race. In 2021, we organised three short lectures on Histories of Race (in the medieval, early modern and modern world) aimed at undergraduates, with accompanying Q&A sessions in Hilary Term
  • Establishment of a new Approaches to History strand on Histories of Race: drawing on feedback from the lectures arranged in 2021, the REAG was integral in pushing for and supporting the development of a new first year strand on Histories of Race embedded in the Approaches to History course, and to revision of the strand on the history of Women, Gender and Sexuality, such that it would incorporate material on race and raced experience
  • A successful Teaching Workshop on the new Histories of Race strand was held in MT2021
  • Publication of a resource list for students and Faculty seeking resources on Histories of Race on the Faculty Website
  • Histories of Race & Empire at the Thesis Fair – organised a stand at the thesis resource fair, featuring presentations from current graduates and undergraduates, and Q&A with potential supervisors
  • Future Action: continue to support curriculum development in the fields

The hope is that taking action across all of these areas will help to foster a culture in the History Faculty that is more attentive to the impact of racist discrimination at all levels in the past and the present, which actively seeks to reduce the impact of systemic racism on students and colleagues today, and which will respond promptly to address and put an end to any form of racist conduct by staff or students.

The REAG drew on and reinforced the important work already undertaken in a number of areas by students and staff, particularly in the wake of the Rhodes Must Fall Campaign since 2016, and in response to the Royal Historical Society’s 2018 report on Race, Ethnicity and Equality in UK History. A summary of the initiatives across several areas can be found here.