Student bursaries for decolonising work

Whose voice are you hearing round black image with white words and ear shaped question mark
Image Created by Ccrow @worldofccrow

As part of the University of Lincoln commitment to engage and involve students in work to decolonise the university, students are invited to apply for bursaries to conduct projects supervised by members of University staff for up to 1 month during the period 12 June – 14 July. Up to 15 bursaries are available: to support student maintenance (£200 per month / pro rata for shorter periods) and project expenses

The Decolonising@Lincoln (D@L) project draws attention to how the colonial past negatively influences our present, operating unjustly to exclude certain peoples, knowledges and ways of working. It seeks to recover silenced voices and excluded forms of knowledge and practice, and to reintroduce them into our teaching, learning, research, and administrative practices. Bursaries can be used to support any activities that align with this agenda, and which will produce outputs that can raise awareness, and inspire decolonised ways of thinking and working within and potentially beyond the university. 

Students may wish to focus on identifying and/or critically challenging coloniality in their subject areas or experiences of teaching and learning practices; or to identify ways of diversifying, decolonising or internationalising the university curriculum, for example by including the voices and works of formerly colonised people, and/or ideas and practices that are not from the Euro-Western tradition. Exploratory research projects in preparation of dissertation research projects are welcome, as are experimental research approaches and conceptual studies and thought pieces. Projects may be conducted by individual students or in collaboration with others. 

We are particularly keen to encourage projects that: 

  • Support the Reimagining Lincolnshire project by uncovering hidden and neglected stories from Lincolnshire, about individuals whose contributions to the county, country and internationally have largely been forgotten 
  • Challenge the Euro-American domination of knowledge production by revealing hidden/ marginalised knowledge that is missing from subject disciplines and practices
  • Involve students working in groups to gather data from staff and students about their knowledge and understanding of coloniality and decoloniality. 
  • Develop understandings of whatstudents are asking and looking for in a decolonised curriculum
  • Reveal where coloniality is present in University spaces and offer ways of challenging this 
  • Helping to Decolonise the Library by identifying gaps and imbalances in existing holdings, and/or developing a decolonising library guide for your subject area (see here for an example) 
  • Consider how to decolonise university systems and processes e.g. training and recruitment 

Suitable outputs include written reports, creative outputs, online resources, public exhibitions, blogs, zines, library reading list / event / installation, social media content/TikTok videos.

Each project must adhere to university ethical procedures, and should be supervised by a member of staff, who will advise on ethics and provide up to 3 hours of support over the duration of the project. 

Students who are looking for supervisors or a student collaborator from another discipline or school should, in the first instance, contact the member of staff who acts as Decolonising champion for their school.

Contacts for Reimagining Lincolnshire are Victoria Araj VAraj@lincoln.ac.uk and Heather Hughes HHughes@lincoln.ac.uk

Contacts for Decolonising the Library are Oonagh MonaghanOMonaghan@lincoln.ac.uk and Hope Williard HWilliard@lincoln.ac.uk

Proposals should be submitted on the application form provided to decolonising@lincoln.ac.uk . The deadline for submission of applications is 26 May.

The applicationform is here:
student summer D@L project proposal form 2023 final.docx

You will be informed by 2 June whether your project has been selected for support. The selection process will focus on: viability of the project, clarity of the output, affinity to the theme. 

Black History Month 2022

For Black History Month 2022, the Library has two great activities for you to join in with!  Everyone is invited to join in with these events.  

Connected Heritage & Reimagining Lincolnshire: Black History Month Wikithon (in collaboration with the Library) 

 

Reimagining Lincolnshire: Black History Month Wikithon logo used above was designed by Oonagh Monaghan and features art created by ‘Ccrow Illustration’ (Kes Whyte), University of Lincoln graduate, 2022 and photos from Reimagining Lincolnshire’s collection.

 

You are invited to learn Wikipedia basics and make some edits to highlight some of the stories and people with connections to Lincolnshire uncovered by the research team at Reimagining Lincolnshire. This event is a part of Wikimedia UK Connected Heritage project, which is funded by DCMS and The National Lottery through The Heritage Fund’s Digital Skills for Heritage initiative.  

Editathons aim to address the underrepresentation of people from the Global South, women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ people in Wikipedia entries and among contributors. 

The event will take place on Thursday 20th October 1pm-4.30pm online via Zoom and there will also be email communication before the event for all those registered to make sure attendees are prepared. 

Book on Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/connected-heritage-reimagining-lincolnshire-black-history-month-wikithon-tickets-387430754817 

 

 Book Giveaway!

Selection of donated books for giveaway

The Library will showcase book and film recommendations from staff and students at the University 

Add your nomination for a book or film recommendation to our reading list https://rl.talis.com/3/lincoln/lists/2234271F-CD9E-EDF5-C1D8-5525FD0A907A.html  by emailing us or tagging us on social media. Include the hashtag #UoLBHM22 and include your reason for nomination. 

Win one of the amazing books donated by Blackwell’s bookshop in the Library. 

Email library@lincoln.ac.uk or tag us on Twitter @LibraryUoL or Instagram @uollibrary 

 

Get thinking about what books or films have had an impact on you or ideas for books to buy 

  • Is there a book you would like to read but never have? 
  • Is there a new book available that you would like us to purchase so you can read it? 
  • Are there particular texts, authors, films etc that have had a profound influence on you? 
  • Is there a film that you think everyone should see? 
  • Have you felt low or disempowered and been helped by a particular text? 
  • Are there texts that have motivated you to do more or challenge the status quo? 
  • Some texts might be challenging or triggering – let us know if we need to include a warning 
  • Tell us the reason for your choice of book or other resource. 

New Library dedicated Decolonisation and EDI area for display and promotion

The Library Subject Librarians Hope Williard and Oonagh Monaghan have been active in researching decolonising initiatives at other Higher Education libraries. Attendance at conferences and liaison with librarians across the sector has enabled us to produce our own University of Lincoln decolonising guide for academic staff and students. The next step is to make the work we are already doing more visible. The aim is to embed decoloniality into the physical space of the library. The prospective projects have been grouped into the following four areas: 

  • Revealing coloniality of existing collections 
  • Challenging coloniality 
  • Researching decoloniality 
  • Embracing and extending decoloniality

 

In addition to new resources, sinage and use of the winning design in the recent competition, a permanent space in the Library has been allocated and we are now at the stage where we have the plans in place and materials ordered or arrived and we hope that the space will develop over the first term of 2022.

Illustrated image of ear as question mark with words 'Whose voice are you hearing?'
Winning design by Cherry Wright (Ccrow Illustration) Instagram @worldofccrow 

We want to reveal coloniality with the aim to share with our students, staff, and library community the ways that our practices of organising, displaying, and sharing information are shaped by colonial worldviews and outlooks. 

We want to challenge coloniality by drawing on existing resources and highlighting new developments in the library, this strand aims to spotlight information and resources which challenge the colonial worldviews, allowing those who interact with it to broaden their knowledge and perspectives. 
We want to research coloniality and collaborate, support, and promote research within the university relating to decolonisation. A particular focus of this area is the emerging project on zines, and efforts to actively engage with the university’s student as producer initiatives and internal funding schemes. 
In the final strand we want to embrace and extend decoloniality and propose initiatives which would allow library staff and the wider university community to extend their knowledge of decoloniality and apply this knowledge in the workplace and beyond. 
scale plan of decolonising area on ground floor of Library
Part of this work is about developing awareness in the physical space of the Library and developing a dedicated Decolonisation and EDI area for display and promotion.  Oonagh Monaghan has collaborated with two Interior Architecture academics, Raymund Konigk and Zakkiya Khan on the design of the area to showcase:
    • resources in the Library that show the diverse range of voices already in the collection. 

    • Reveal and raise awareness of historical and colonial injustices which are embedded in the Library systems 

    • Provide a space for materials that highlight issues of social justice and underrepresented voices. 

    • showcase the new zines collection

Any questions, please email omonaghan@lincoln.ac.uk

Library collaboration with the Reimagining Lincolnshire Project

(The Reimagining Lincolnshire Project who have a blog Reimagining Lincolnshire – Discovering and sharing untold stories has been engaging with local people and organisations to uncover and celebrate the marginalised and forgotten stories of our city’s past with the hope that we can imagine an inclusive future.  Public space can become a bridge between past and present, a site where differences are celebrated by breaking down barriers and starting conversations.  It also sits alongside the decolonising agenda at the University of Lincoln which aims to challenge the language we use and the ways in which we teach and learn.  The project aims to tell the marginalised stories in new and creative radical ways, challenging existing hierarchies and oppressions that are the result of colonial legacy.

In collaboration with Librarians Hope Williard and Oonagh Monaghan, there are two projects for 2022/23.

For Black History Month, the team have partnered with Wikimedia UK to run an online Wikimedia Heritage Project ‘Wikithon’.

Secondly, Librarian, Oonagh Monaghan has teamed up with Dr Victoria Araj and College of Arts Technician, Jantze Holmes on a ‘Reimagining Zine Project’.

 

Continue reading “Library collaboration with the Reimagining Lincolnshire Project”