Research Host: Dr Sarah Ilott

The purpose of this internship is to work with the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead for English to develop strategies for Decolonising the Curriculum. The importance of such initiatives are identified in the NUS and UUK’s 2019 ‘Closing the Gap’ report, which exposes the relationship between attainment gaps for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students and curricula that fails to recognise and reflect the diverse experiences of the student body in UK Universities.

Your first task will be to research the principles of ‘Decolonising the Curriculum’ with a focus on English Studies. You will produce an annotated bibliography to summarise and reflect upon your research. Next you will put together a proposal that identifies an area and methodology for evaluating elements of one of the English Programmes. This might relate to reading lists, unit design or delivery, or Moodle areas (for example). Once this proposal has been signed off you will spend some time collecting the required data, writing up the results, and evaluating your findings. You will conclude the internship by putting together a report that presents an evaluation of your data and makes recommendations for decolonising the English curricula at Manchester Met on this basis. You can be as creative as you like with the final report, delivering it as a presentation, written report, podcast, vlog or otherwise as you wish!

This activity will require you to take the ‘Key Research Skills’ and ‘Introduction to Researching Race and Racism’ self-study packs as pre-requisites. Applicants should be enrolled on an English Programme at BA or MA level. Applications from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are particularly encouraged.