Outputs and recommendations
Student-led workshops
For details about the context and focus of each of the workshops, please see the full programme (pages 12-13).
At the heart of the forum were the student-facilitated workshops. The student teams from Cycle 4 of the APP PAR Project designed these workshops by drawing on previous research projects from Cycles 2 and 3. They selected these topics as the most immediately relevant for creating more racially inclusive educational experiences at Cambridge.
Each group ultimately identified three recommendations of highest priority / achievability.
Agreed recommendations from Workshop 1: Transition in and through Cambridge include the need for:
- University services to share responsibility for coordinating and adequately funding anti-racism workshops / equality initiatives to be delivered in a meaningful way, for staff and Black students (i.e. EDI, CCTL, BAH and ARDC), to take the onus off students to experience/point out structural inequalities and to better equip them to recognise and deal with racism rather than internalise or explain it
- Recruitment (and payment) Black student advocates and staff partners to enhance transition projects (e.g. review, evaluate and update induction packs and social media pre-entry with CAO and College teams)
- Evaluation of the transition experience to and through the University, with attention to how Black students are supported through degree life-cycle (e.g. identification of pinch-points, where coordinated support and networking would be welcome and helpful)
Agreed recommendations from Workshop 2: Decolonisation of teaching and learning include the need for:
- Support for coordination and communication of past work around decolonisation of the curriculum to preserve institutional memory
- Establishment of a decolonisation working group/hub to collaborate, update and share decolonisation resources that are tailored for different disciplines/faculties (e.g. connected to the Legacies of Slavery work)
- Development of a coordinated approach for staff/student collaboration to review representation in the curriculum (e.g. Black advocates recruited per School)
Agreed recommendations from Workshop 3: Intersections of race and mental health include the need for:
- Recognition and support for allocation of safe spaces outside of the normal academic spaces for Black students to escape the pressures of ‘Black excellence’
- Colleges to intentionally and regularly signpost where students can find “their people” in other parts of the university (racial group/interests/hobbies etc)
- Payment, compensation and support for students that recognises their own expertise as well as the time / emotional labour of representation work, for example: an award or qualification that they can carry forward after graduating, and follow-up support to manage their own wellbeing
Roundtable discussion
For full details about the contributors to the roundtable, please see the full programme (pages 14-15).
Students from each of the workshops above reported their three recommendations to Prof. Jason Arday, forming the backdrop in which to facilitate the conversation with Mary Simuyandi, Head of Student Wellbeing at St Catherine's College, and Myesha Jemison, a postgraduate student with undergraduate supervision responsibilities.
Question to Myesha Jemison: As a postgraduate at Cambridge who is currently supervising undergraduates, what do you [think] would be helpful for new teaching staff to anticipate racially inclusive teaching and learning?
Educating one’s self: When I first arrived to Cambridge and started my first-year curriculum, I was a bit underwhelmed. I’d read the scholars on the syllabus (one wrote a reference for me for Cambridge), and there were few scholars I could identify with. So, I decided to create my own bibliography of Black woman scholars and read that instead. This experienced shaped how I approached my own research (the scholars I intentionally included) and also made me realise that Faculties had a responsibility to do the same. This sort of curricular representation is the bare minimum for anti-racist within teaching and learning, and can serve as low-hanging fruit for new teaching staff to make an impact. I often have students ask for this bibliography and other resources on science, tech, and racism that they can read to make their own strides toward racially inclusive learning.
Prioritising student-first learning: When assigning essays for supervisions, I aim to make the questions as clear and concise as possible. In doing so, I also encourage students to have agency over what direction they take their essay in, and one way to achieve this in my field is by not limiting students to certain geographies or time periods (unless the paper specifies). This can be helpful because students can focus on regions that have personal significance for them or they can take this opportunity to learn about content that might not be part of their ‘core’ curriculum. Also, seeking feedback from students on what interests they have outside of this ‘core’ curriculum can
Leveraging your department’s resources (people, seminar rooms, funds, etc.): With departmental support (meeting space, Zoom account, etc.), I co-lead a reading group on Indigenous Scientific Methodologies. Ultimately, as a new teaching staff, you can feel pressure to fit into Cambridge as it currently exists. Instead, I challenge you to hold to your values and push the institution (via your department, institute, etc.) to live up to your standards of what anti-racist teaching and learning should be.
Question to Mary Simuyandi: As the Head of Student Wellbeing in a Cambridge College, what are your thoughts about what role College's can play in supporting Black students' wellbeing?
When we talk about wellbeing, we are talking about people thriving, so we need to think about the role Colleges can play in helping our Black students to thrive. Using a holistic wellbeing approach in Colleges helps think about every part of College life and how it works towards supporting students wellbeing and thriving.
Colleges are well placed to embed, embody and facilitate the factors which protect wellbeing and support our Black students to thrive. Belonging is one of these protective factors and Colleges are one of the pathways to belonging built into the student experience at Cambridge. It can feel difficult to belong to a student community of 25,000 other students, but to have a sense of belonging to a College community should be easier. It’s important for Colleges to consider what is their role in creating environments for Black students so they feel like they truly belong whilst at Cambridge.
Areas to consider are institutional responsibility (how do we foster an environment which is interested and thoughtful about how Black students experience belonging, and view the barriers to this as our institutional problem to tackle), understanding the intersectionality within the Black student community and not viewing our Black students as a monolith with the same experience, intentionally creating a College community which is psychologically safe for Black students, where their views are valued, respected and are safe to be shared, and creating spaces where Black joy can exist.