Funding diversity

The course is structured around critical contestation of myths and stereotypes about African politics. It takes a broadly postcolonial/decolonial perspective, and incorporates frequent discussions of race, gender, inequality, positionality and power relations. One topic is decolonising African studies. Considerable attention is given to discussing issues of positionality, authority, and alternative epistemologies. The course has a diverse and African-centred reading list and guest speakers are included to ensure there are African voices in the course.

Carl Death, Politics

This is a course which looks at a different diverse economy each week covering the household, community economies, sharing economies and many more.

A guest speaker delivered a session on inequalities within the creative economy. Graeme Park, is a practitioner in the creative industries and has over 30 years’ experience working as a music professional, alongside also lecturing on the creative economy at Wrexham-Glyndwr University. He spoke to students about issues of access and participation within the creative economy, both from the perspective of members of the public but also those wishing to work in the creative economy. The session covered issues such as how race, gender, age, disability, and class all affect access and participation within the creative economy.

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/legendary-hacienda-dj-graeme-park-discusses-the-impact-of-covid-on-cultural-and-creative-industries-with-students/

Helen Holmes, Sociology

The students on this course benefitted from the delivery of a lecture by Dr Mónica Moreno Figueroa, University of Cambridge, who is practised at dealing with issues of diversity, equality and inclusion in university contexts including experience of being a University Race & Inclusion Champion.

The presence of Dr Moreno enhanced student's ability to reflect on racial diversity and inequality, the effects of racism specifically problems of internalised racism and how this relates to efforts to combat racism and ameliorate racial and ethnic exclusion.

Peter Wade, Social Anthropology

Although both of these courses cover issues of race, gender, sexuality and class, they did not have any discussion of disability. Under the Diversity in the Curriculum scheme, I paid one of my PhD students who has an interest in this area to build reading lists appropriate for each of the courses. As a result, with relatively little effort, I was able to include a new topic in each of the courses. She also sourced some images and created a basic structure for the year 1 lecture. Using this resource enabled me to fill a gap in my own knowledge and create new topics for my teaching. This was really successful - on both courses, disability has proved to be a popular essay topic and there have been some very interesting in-class discussions, enabling students to discuss questions of both mental and physical disability which are clearly of concern to them. My own understanding and teaching have also improved and as a result, I’ve been able to integrate questions of disability throughout the courses (rather than only considering them in a particular week).

Bridget Byrne, Sociology

Thanks to the diversity in the curriculum scheme I had the opportunity to ask a TA to identify material (papers, data and case studies) that would introduce our students to some interesting gender issues in business.

Specifically, the material considered:

1. Gender discrimination could exist in both public and private domains and lead to women underrepresentation in top management positions.
2. Differences (background, motivations, barriers) between women and men entrepreneurs.
3. Quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore the importance of having women on executive boards.
4. We shared the OECD data on the share of women employed as managers, and female share of seats on boards in publicly listed companies in OECD countries.

Mario Pezzino, Economics

In order to address inequality in the Justice System, this course will include a panel of experts to discuss the issues around rap and drill music and bad character evidence. Discussion will take place to discuss the impact on certain groups and how racism in the judiciary, and lack of training, also impacts on this work.

Claire McGourlay, Law

Experts and scholars are invited to engage with the students to enable them to get a first-hand perspective on conflict and peace in case studies which are mostly from the global south. The activities will aim to integrate the perspectives of scholars (or experts) into students' analysis. Particular attention will be paid to how international interventions were carried out in these case studies, which are largely seen as a new type of colonisation of these parts of the world. This was done under the guise of liberal peace, which largely ignored the local context and used blueprints based on principles of western liberal democracies. In the past, it appeared to be challenging for students to address the core of these issues. This activity should facilitate their understanding in that regard and should hopefully influence their future learning on decolonisation.

Jasmin Ramovic, Politics

Four previous Dissertation Research Design MA students have been funded to record a short video about how designing an MA research project was useful in their activities after completion of the MA programme.

It is anticipated that our current and future MA students would develop a better understanding that designing a research project is a useful transferrable skill that they could apply in their studies, business and career aspirations after graduating from the MA programme.

Elena Barabantseva, Politics

A diverse and representative curriculum delivered by people from different backgrounds is essential for inclusivity in Higher Education. This course discusses how drugs policing discriminates against people of colour and how policy reform is a matter of racial justice.

An expert from a community impacted by the criminalisation of drugs discusses the problems of drug policing and alternatives. Prohibitionist drug policies criminalise people who take drugs and disproportionately impacts black and minority ethnic groups; they are more likely to be stopped and searched, arrested, charged, and imprisoned compared to their white counterparts, even though they are less likely to take drugs.

It is important this topic is covered in the curriculum and not glossed over. It is also important for authenticity that students hear about this topic from someone who represents the communities most affected.

Lisa Williams, Criminology

A diverse and representative curriculum delivered by people from different backgrounds is essential for inclusivity in Higher Education. This course discusses how drugs policing discriminates against people of colour and how policy reform is a matter of racial justice.

An expert from a community impacted by the criminalisation of drugs discusses the problems of drug policing and alternatives. Prohibitionist drug policies criminalise people who take drugs and disproportionately impacts black and minority ethnic groups; they are more likely to be stopped and searched, arrested, charged, and imprisoned compared to their white counterparts, even though they are less likely to take drugs.

It is important this topic is covered in the curriculum and not glossed over. It is also important for authenticity that students hear about this topic from someone who represents the communities most affected.

Lisa Williams, Criminology

This course focuses on economic history and the history of the economic discipline in Western Economics, especially Great Britain & the US. The content is being developed to better cover colonialism, slavery, and economic development, specifically by researching in more depth the relevant literature, and adding relevant material to reading lists, and thinking about how these readings can be better integrated into the lectures and tutorials.

The aim is to teach a course in economic history that covers the various topics from a more diverse and (where appropriate) heterodox set of perspectives. We hope that by covering colonialism, slavery and development we foster and nurture an environment where students feel more comfortable in discussing these issues within the field of economics and considering the role they play in understanding economic phenomena.

Ed Manderson, Meng Wu, Anna-Maria Kohnke and Olayinka Oyekola, Economics

I sought funding to source materials on two new topics: (i) education, special educational needs and disability and (ii) the education of refugees and asylum seekers. Issues of diversity and inclusion and the educational needs of BAME students cut across both of these new topics, augmenting material on race and education that was already covered in the course. These were also topics identified by students as being of potential interest to them on the course. Due to buyouts, I personally have not used this new material, but the staff members who have taken on the course in my stead referred to the materials last year and will be building them into the course when it is taught again in semester 2 of the current academic year. I have also been able to pass some of the resources on individual students who have contacted me about dissertation topics, for example.

Sue Heath, Sociology

Two students from the Employment Law module will learn about the co-production of knowledge and assist in the development of a Manifesto for Older Women and Work as part of the Uncertain Futures project. The students will take part in the design and development days at Manchester Art Gallery where the project is installed and work with the artist (online) and with the Advisory Group Members (women leaders from across Manchester) to co-design and co-produce a written manifesto which will outline the aims and aspirations of older women for a more certain future.

Many of the issues addressed are key issues which will form part of the employment module e.g. equality law, discrimination, zero-hour contracting, pensions etc. Students will not only learn important research methods but also will be able to build academic knowledge. Classmates will have the opportunity to see the work and discuss it in Manchester Art Gallery.

The work focuses on inequalities with respect to age, race, disability, gender and migration. The students will work with diverse women leaders from across Manchester on co-producing a Manifesto of rights for older women in work. This contributes to the decolonisation, as well as the social responsibility agenda. It will diversify the curriculum through raising inequalities, challenging these and working in a co-produced way to develop diverse knowledge.

Elaine Dewhurst, Law

Reviewed reading lists diversify the curricula in terms of race, family life and relationships to provide an overview into how race and racialisation impacts family life and relationships, current debates and reading in these areas.

Petra Nordqvist and Helen Holmes, Sociology

The course examines the management of, and desistance journeys experienced by various groups of offenders including female offenders.  Two guest speakers were invited to contribute to sessions on topics which would strengthen the diversity of the course curriculum thereby enriching and enhancing the student learning experience.

Dr Caroline Miles, Criminology

Students always respond really well to hearing about the issues and theories they read about first hand from people who have lived experience. Guest speakers truly bring theory to life and provide an enriched student experience around issues of diversity in the management of offenders and the process of desistance from crime. It also provides students with an appreciation of the concept of intersectionality and that people in the criminal justice system have many aspects of personhood that can influence their journeys out of crime.

Emily Turner and Caroline Miles, Criminology

A detailed review has been carried out of the reading lists in the course guide.  High quality academic sources include authors and cases from the Global South as well as authors representing the protected characteristics outlined in the Equality Act.

Luke Bhatia and James Pattison, Politics

Dr Andrew Slack, a very experienced TA on the course, helped support me with a thoroughgoing redesign and updating of the course. Specifically with regards to decolonising the curriculum we:

• Changed the way in which International history (1945-present) was presented making more transparent and central the logic and experiences of the Third World (as an alternative to the 1st and 2nd worlds of the Cold War).
• Incorporated a tutorial seminar with a case study that applies postcolonial thought to the Rwanda genocide and its history
• Diversified the reading list for every lecture topic, with particular attention to scholars outside the UK and USA.
• Incorporated one compulsory reading from a scholar outside the US and UK academy for almost every week.
• Incorporated a tutorial seminar with a case study that looks at the role of gender in global politics.
• The reading list on POLI10601 already included a large percentage of women scholars. This continues and we seek to include more women from outside the US and UK

International Relations as an academic discipline is dominated by scholars from the US and UK. POLI10601 has always included postcolonial theory and the history of the production of the 'Third World' but the changes make these more central and transparent to students. Moreover, the reading lists and compulsory readings are significantly more diverse thanks to the exceptional support Dr Slack provided.

Veronique Pin-Fat, Politics

The content of both lectures and reading list has been strengthened to present work by authors from groups traditionally underrepresented in political theory and political philosophy (eg. female and BAME authors).  A new element on the topic of ‘canonisation’ has been introduced.  Students will reflect on how political theory is both a powerful instrument for criticising prevailing structures of power and privilege, and a discipline that itself is shaped by, and reflects, such structures.

Clara Sandelind & Juri Viehoff, Politics

Students are tasks with writing blogs in small groups, on a topic of their choice, which serves as case studies that illustrate the application of microeconomic concepts to real-world scenarios. The diversity of student choices expands the scope of examples and contexts explored in the module, providing students with a broader understanding of how microeconomics impacts different communities and contexts. Peer to peer learning and sharing of viewpoints enables the coursework to foster the co-production of knowledge, ensuring that multiple voices and perspectives are valued and incorporated into the module.

Sofia Izquierdo Sanchez, Economics

The reading list was diversified to include empirical and theoretical works that reflect a global account of new developments in the sociology of gender and sexuality.

Jessica Mancuso and Paul Simpson, Sociology

This course unit provides healthcare professionals and lawyers with the opportunity to unpick many established assumptions around ethics and law and to develop their skills in providing justified and defended arguments in this field that they can use in their own professional practice and pass onto others. Developed reading lists ensure content is representative of individuals of all backgrounds including minority groups.

Rebecca Bennett, Law

A podcast is being produced to make cutting-edge under-represented research (ie feminist, post-colonial and decolonial) accessible to the general public. Interviewees will be philosophers who will discuss their research within the context of their own lived experiences. This will not only make underrepresented philosophy more accessible to students but it will also provide a platform for philosophers who have underrepresented and marginalised ideas to discuss and promote their research.

Anne-Marie McCallion, Philosophy

This course has always included discussion of issues such as gender and race covering post colonialism and feminism as specific theories.
In order to react to changes in the field of Security Studies, this course structure reflects the diversity of the world around us, new security issues that we face and the role of security in structuring this world. New central issues are included in the module such as sexuality, health security and political violence, enabling students to reflect on their importance and to participate in dynamic engagement with theories underpinning the issues in question.

Laura McLeod, Jess Gifkins, Aoileann Nimhurchu, Politics

A guest speaker delivers a lecture and workshop on the topic of emotional knowledge to diversify the teaching content. The topic will be ‘Truth and Knowledge’ exploring different types of ‘knowledge’ and in particular ‘artistic knowledges’ from a postcolonial perspective. The topic is linked to the first assignment the students have in this module where they are required to engage (in groups) with either a poem, a song or a novel and discuss how this conveys emotional knowledge (defined as artistic and embodied knowledge) about race, racism and/or whiteness.

The guest lecturer will be an artist who has so much experience and expertise in the question of how artistic mediums (such as poetry, music or novels) convey emotional knowledge.

Aoileann Ni Mhurchu, Politics

The course aims to provide a systematic and critical knowledge of the key empirical and theoretical discussions about prisons and their application to current issues in penal policy. The course proposes a comparative, trans-systemic and multidisciplinary approach and includes a lecture dedicated to learning how to do research in/on prison. The unit proposes an exciting, topical, and still rather unique area of study, which attracts both national and international students.  The curriculum content has been enhanced by a guest speaker who shared their lived experience and testimonies of what prison is like.  The reading list has also been diversified.

Marion Vannier, Criminology

The course incorporates a lecture series covering the main public policy theories in the field backed by empirical research. Scholarship in this field has been predominantly based on the experiences of policy and government in advanced liberal democracies. Updates considerably diversify the curriculum to cover policymaking in a wider range of policies and less developed countries (including non-western countries and by indigenous people) thus diversifying the teaching to reflect the multi-national and multi-cultural origins of our undergraduate students.

Nick Turnbull, Politics

The course welcomes a guest speaker’s specific knowledge and lived experience pertaining to Antisemitism. In a previous academic year, a second guest speaker shared specific knowledge and lived experience of anti-Black racism in Eastern Europe. The inclusion of these sessions, which include questions and answers, help to diversify the curriculum of this module and introduce students to thinkers with lived experience of these specific issues. This will demonstrate to students the complex and expansive nature of racism, moving beyond a narrow UK focus, and focusing on often less discussed modes of racism.

Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Sociology

Guest speakers from No More Exclusions, and the No Police in Schools campaign have delivered lectures followed by Q&A. This demonstrates to students the live nature of the issues we are learning about and allows an opportunity to think about how (sometimes abstract) theory applies to the real world, whilst providing a diversified curriculum and pedagogical experience.

Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Sociology

The module design gives students a robust understanding of a regional culture group. A key takeaway of this unit is that Native North America is a vast region with many diverse cultures. The students learn that Native American people are very heterogenous and each tribe has its own world views, history, and responses to contemporary issues. By engaging with a Native American guest presenter, the students had a unique opportunity to gain critical insights into the region and what it means to be a Native American in the 21st century.

Sonja Dobroski, Social Anthropology

An Ecuadorian anthropologist will deliver a guest lecture and question and answer session on ‘Amazonian people’s responses to oil drilling on their lands’. The guest works closely with Waorani women who negotiate companies’ access to resources and how the community benefits from them.

Students benefit from first hand insight into the limitations of “development” and the concept of “natural resources”, from an Indigenous perspective. Students are introduced to the idea of “nature” as an animate field and are asked to think about how this may square with resource extraction and commoditization. We will problematize that opposition.

Students will watch the film Yasuni Man (2017), which was shot just in the village next door to where the guest anthropologist carries out research and they will hear about the first-hand experiences of working with Indigenous Waorani communities affected by oil drilling.

Chloe Nhaum-Claudel, Social Anthropology

The course will be including a guest lecturer who is leading academic working and publishing in the field of decolonisation. A masterclass will also be delivered by the same guest in the form of workshops to develop a participatory, inclusive and bottom-up approach to diversity the curriculum. Both these activities will be to question the core assumptions of legal analysis and through this process, develop strategies for broadening the traditional approach to law to include, non-traditional and more marginalised perspectives.

Amber Darr, Law

New module

Postcolonial, indigenous, and critical race theorists’ critiques and approaches to epistemology, methodology and research ethics are fully built into the design of this module. Readings and discussions of bioethics challenge and position the Eurocentric cannon, to both situate ideas of universal moral theorising in their historical-cultural context and to broaden conceptions of what is seen as bioethics, encouraging engagement with non-western ethical traditions and new thought in bioethics.

Lucy Frith, Law

In terms of researchers, organised crime has often been male-dominated. Along with other social sciences, there has been a tendency in criminology to focus on the global north. Developed reading lists and case studies incorporate examples from women and perspectives of researchers from the global South to ensure that there is representation from female researchers in the field including the PhD community.

Rosemary Broad, Criminology

A key international expert will deliver a lecture focused on the ‘Ndrangheta’ (one of the most prominent Italian mafia-type association active nationally and globally). This will be of added value for students’ learning experience and the diversification of their curriculum in allowing an in-depth understanding of mafia transplantation.

In particular, there will be the opportunity for students to gain further insights (i.e., knowledge and understanding) into the following aspects: 1. How mafia-type associations migrate and settle outside their country of origin in a process of adaptation and infiltration; 2. How mafia operates globally (i.e., structure, organisation and modus operandi); 3. How mafia manages transnational criminal markets (such as, in this specific case, drug trafficking); 4. The role of corruption in facilitating organised crime activities; 5. Money laundering and its impact on the legal economy.

Fiamma Terenghi, Criminology

To diversify students’ learning, and to promote greater awareness, knowledge and understanding of issues and events relating to race, ethnicity and/or migration, a set of ‘Dissertation packages’ will be available containing items (digitally, where permissible) from the special collections held at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre. The collections would be those that are of criminological interest and will relate to issues pertaining to race, ethnicity and/or migration. Resources will focus specifically on the Manchester area, providing students with a better understanding of local past events.

These packages allow students wishing to undertake small-scale qualitative analysis/research to access this material, which could be the basis for dissertation projects.

Claire Fox, Criminology

Lecture delivery by a person with a lived experience of mental illness will diversify the range of voices that students hear from on the course. The guest, from an ethnic minority background, will help contribute to debates about the treatment of ethnic minority people in mental health services which is a major theme of this course.

Dharmi Kapadia, Sociology

A substantial component of the course addresses the sociology of sustainable consumption – this is a sub-discipline of Sociology well-known to be lacking in diversity in its core writings, despite the orientation of much of the sustainable development literature to the Global South. Feminist and post-colonial perspectives, as well as voices from the Global South more generally addressing issues of sustainable consumption, were largely absent from the course reading list. The Diversity in the Curriculum funding (2016-17) was used to pay one of the course tutors, then PhD student, Samantha Outhwaite for 6 hours work to conduct bibliographic searches to find relevant and suitable literature from feminist and post-colonial perspectives and from scholars from minority ethnic groups. Sam produced a list of relevant literature as well as a providing me with a sense of where there were bodies of work and where there were gaps in the literature. 10 new readings were added to the 2017-18 course reading. Sam's work also provided the basis with which to engage with my colleague Sherilyn MacGregor (SCI/Politics), who further updated me on feminist perspectives and in 20118 agreed to guest lecture a new topic on Gender and Sustainable Consumption. Assessed essays for the course are based on weekly topics - the gender topic proved popular as an essay topic and notably, 6 of the 14 Firsts awarded for the assessed essay that year addressed the gender question. Having initiated the process through the funding I am continuing to diversify the course readings this year with new post-colonial and Global South perspectives.

Dan Welch, Sociology

The course explores vision and the senses. The course has a long-standing commitment to including a diversity of visual and sensory experiences in the course literature, and in lectures and tutorials.

Three short films are in production around the different ways people navigate Manchester, including the challenges that are presented, and the different possibilities and constraints that are inherent in people's experiences. The focus will be on the experiences of blind (and the relation between the person and their guide dog), deaf and paraplegia.

The activity will provide a direct connection between students and the experiences of people with different sensorial life worlds. By bringing to life people's experiences through film, a better understanding concerning diversity, inclusivity and disability will emerge that cannot necessarily be conveyed in textual sources.

Andrew Irving, Anthropology

The seminars integrate a writing workshop component whereby students learn to write better and provide productive feedback to each other. Student’s written pieces feed into seminar discussion (informing assessment), based on key readings providing different understandings / interrogations of the concept of ‘psychopath’ and ‘psychopathy’. The reading list is crucial and continues to be updated to include lesser-known scholarship outside of the mainstream (ie. white, male and Anglo-centric).

Laura Bui, Criminology

The course facilitates students to gain a sophisticated grasp of approaches in the sub-field of digital anthropology to consider the relationships between populations and digital technologies from a culturally comparative perspective. A specialist in Indigenous Religions, frictions of Indigenous and colonial knowledge processes, and Indigenous methodologies will be delivering a guest lecture. Their experience represents ideal discussion for ways to diversify the curriculum of the new course, incorporating expertise in Indigenous knowledges, complimenting specialisms, brought to the course by the lecturer, in ethnographies based in countries in the Global South (Nepal, Trinidad), and strategises effective course delivery utilising eLearning.

Jolynna Sinanan, Social Anthropology

I got some research done on women scholars who have contributed to international trade scholarship and on feminist scholarship on international trade. I have incorporated some of the results into the curriculum. I also recently started a research project on gender and trade and will include an exercise around that in this year's curriculum. So the funding has been very useful, it has influenced my teaching a little right away, then it influenced my research, and via that, it has now influenced my teaching a lot.

Silke Trommer, Politics

The course involves a critical interrogation of the Politics of Development, which incorporates frequent discussions of race, gender, inequality, positionality, and power relations. The course has a diverse reading list and ensures there is a prominent discussion of race and development, and decolonising development studies. A guest speaker will help deliver a panel discussion on decolonising development studies as part of the final lecture.

Carl Death and Silke Trommer, Politics

The Politics of Policy Making module has an international cohort of students, many of which would like to undertake policy making roles in their home countries after graduating.  The reading list and policy examples used are diverse in that they include Western centric and the Global North & South.  This is particularly pertinent as students are required to include a case study in both their essay and exam.

Luke Bhatia and Tim Oliver, Politics

The module draws on traditional theories in explaining the United Nations system. Whilst the module touched on gender there was scope to deepen and expand the theoretical approaches, particularly towards Global South and postcolonial critiques of the United Nations system.  Critical theories are now embedded into the module and make these critiques accessible for all students taking the module.

Dr Jess Gifkins, Politics

This course introduces some of the central issues and concepts involved in thinking critically about the nature and functioning of penal systems. The course explores main theoretical perspectives and applies them to contemporary problems in the field.

To critically discuss the sociological explanations for the use and expansion of punishment(s), it was crucial to engage with critical race theory and to diversify and decolonise the course’s reading list and content. The course identifies, and highlights work from scholars from diverse backgrounds (based on ethnicity, gender, age and disability) and guest speakers also present from diverse ethnical backgrounds with experience of prison, and being on licence in the community.

Marion Vannier, Emily Turner and Fiamma Terenghi, Criminology

In order to cover contemporary developments in society and to continue to further diversify the course unit content, Victims, Crime and Justice includes new content on Black Lives Matter, the #Metoo movement, and violence against global majority populations, primarily in the form of hate crime and honour-based violence.

Claire Fox, Criminology