Ildi Tillmann, at The Equiano Project, brings a fresh perspective on the question of historical erasure and asks what is lost when race becomes ‘a means to power’: In his recent documentary, What Killed Michael Brown, the author and narrator, Shelby Steele, makes various observations about American history, of which two particularly caught my attention. “We […]
Between Native And Foreign Lands: Learning To Live On The Boundary
Dr Alain J.E. Wolf, lecturer at the University of East Anglia, offers a personal reflection on the loss and belonging that can accompany the experience of emigration and suggests that there are responsibilities on both sides – immigrant and host nation: As a lecturer in languages and cross-cultural communication at a U.K University, and a […]
A Frenchman in Rural England
In his reflections on life as a French academic working in a British university, and living in a rural English village, Alain Wolfe finds more openness and tolerance in his village than his workplace. A refreshing counter-narrative to much received opinion that that sees academics as the enlightened ones and others as bastions of intolerance: […]
Oxbridge Statues, Rituals And Community
In a personal submission to Oxford University’s Oriel Commission’s call for responses on the removal of Cecil Rhodes statue, Oxbridge graduate Alka Sehgal Cuthbert wrote the following: I realise that the decision to look into removing the statue of Cecil Rhodes from Oriel College arises from a genuine desire to make ethnic minority students feel […]
Statues And Ghosts
In this personal and poignant essay, Marie Kawthar Daouda writes evocatively why, having come from a land without statues, she loves Oxford University: I come from a country with no statues. It is not that it never had statues. It must have had, not that long ago, statues of French officials; of which only one […]