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Cambridge University agrees to Decolonise the Curriculum

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Original post by Doonesbury
No they won't.

Dr Priyamvada Gopal, a teaching fellow of Churchill college and member of the forum, with a specialist interest in postcolonial literature and theory, said no white writers would be affected by the proposed changes.
Broadening the syllabus means putting different writers and texts in conversation with each other, not ‘downgrading’ or even eliminating a single writer. It’s a request, as I understand it, for more representation of ethnic minority and postcolonial writers but for the purposes of thinking about these works alongside the existing texts.”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/oct/25/cambridge-academics-seek-to-decolonise-english-syllabus


And yet either the telegraph or BBC quoted a faculty member saying the proposals would not see the course being extended, so something has to go, even if it is just a downgrade
Give them an inch and they take a mile, they have now moved on to history, philosophy, and history of art.

With history of art there is plenty of Oriental art to study, but I expect they don't care about that, I expect it's about Africa which certainly has art, but it's influence on modern art, whether that be of a more traditional style or modern "art" is widely limited if existent.

Philosophy I imagine is a similar picture, plenty in the near and far East, but the great African civilisations died out too long ago to have any major influence and probably most philosophical argument produced in Africa was also produced elsewhere with that "elsewhere" being used as the building blocks.

History is the fun one, given they probably don't care about Oriental history surely decolonised history becomes history of colonialism :biggrin:

https://trib.al/kYTWwln
i hope that these SJWs will carefully scrutinise the literature syllabi of Zimbabwe's universities to ensure that they do not penalise white authors, and those in Gaza, Judaea & Samaria to make sure that Israel's wonderful Jewish writers are not overlooked.
Original post by FriendlyPenguin
I'm surprised the number was so low. Maybe they just didn't advertise the petition enough? I'd have expected something with keywords like "decolonise" proposed by the Women's Officer to have much broader support over the university.


A black person no less.

What is it with black female students going for non-"jobs"?
Original post by Underscore__
Signed by over 100 at a university of nearly 20,000 good to see students respect democratic processes


Because all 20000 students at Cambridge are all doing this course.
It is one of those articles designed to elicit ire among the easily offended and generate advertising revenue.

The Telegraph has had to issue a correction, not that it is going to stop the faux-outrage.

Screenshot_20171026-103940.jpg
What does that even mean? It's a white country; obviously there'd be more white authors.
Original post by the bear
i hope that these SJWs will carefully scrutinise the literature syllabi of Zimbabwe's universities to ensure that they do not penalise white authors, and those in Gaza, Judaea & Samaria to make sure that Israel's wonderful Jewish writers are not overlooked.


Zimbabwe and Gaza have universities? I would have thought these to be places that don't have the resources for universities, certainly not for people to go to them, and where the elite get shipped off to Britain and America to be educated.
People at Cambridge moaning about their degree?

:nopity:
Original post by Jammy Duel
Zimbabwe and Gaza have universities? I would have thought these to be places that don't have the resources for universities, certainly not for people to go to them, and where the elite get shipped off to Britain and America to be educated.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Zimbabwe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_and_colleges_in_the_Palestinian_Territories
Original post by 04MR17
People at Cambridge moaning about their degree?

:nopity:


:spank:

they are arts students ffs
Original post by _Hafsa
And what's makes you assume there are no credible black authors who are also from the 16th century with the same literacy abilities or even far back that deserve a place on the curriculum. This is the issue.


Are you serious? I challenge you to name just one black writer of the sixteenth century who was even writing literature in English (this is an English course), never mind one who was doing so at a level worthy of study at Cambridge.

A literate black person writing in Africa during the sixteenth century is far more likely to have written in a language of conquest rather than one of colonialism - Arabic. Even writings in Swahili are heavily influenced by Islam. What social justice can be found in that?

The irony of this storm in a teacup is that the demand for 'decolonising the curriculum' will have the opposite effect to what the SJWs want. The black authors that will be studied would have been writing in a different language entirely if it had not been for colonialisation, and this merely emphasises the colonialisation of their native lands.
Original post by the bear
they will have a harder task de-colonising the Natural Sciences Tripos...
Original post by mojojojo101
Because all 20000 students at Cambridge are all doing this course.


Even so, the English faculty will be made up of far more than 200 people. If they don't like the content of the course they should have picked a different one. It's like getting into a relationship with a person and then pressuring them to start dressing the way you like
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by the bear
they will have a harder task de-colonising the Natural Sciences Tripos...


https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10005

https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9544
Original post by mojojojo101
Because all 20000 students at Cambridge are all doing this course.


I somehow doubt all those 100 we're English students, I imagine they were mostly black humanities students but not English

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