Issue 914 | MT Week 6
Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union: Making Sense of LSE Since 1949
LSE fails to put the ‘History’ in Black History Month Scan to read and listen to The Beaver. Online.
pear to only emphasise themes such as the transatlantic slave trade and Black history in relation to Western imperialism. Consequently, precolonial, regional, and postcolonial African histories remain virtually unexplored.
OPINION The paradox of Black excellence
A first-year history student sums up the above argument: “[The department] covers[s] everything from early modern European states to world war history... But how about learning more of the multicultural history Africa has to share outside of colonialism?”
the tip, will retain certain elements of Other students have pointed out the its predecessor but will ultimately foBlack history narratives offered by cus on transnational networks. This is modules such as HY333 and HY246 * Continued on page 2 are largely insufficient as they ap-
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FEATURES What makes a conservative? right wing politics at LSE
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Such developments beg the question: According to the LSE Department of Where is the Black history at LSE? International History website, only 3 out of 29 permanent faculty mem- According to a faculty member at the bers mention Africa in their research Department of International History, interests, with one of the three being as part of an anonymous interview, on sabbatical leave for this academic the School is “long overdue for apyear. None of the current teaching fel- pointments on the history of Africa”. lows or visiting staff in the department The high student demand for Black state Africa as a research interest. and African history is evidenced by choices of dissertation topics and By contrast, other British universities the popularity of the limited numare taking proactive steps to incorpo- ber of Black history modules, but the rate Black history into their curricu- supply remains far from sufficient. lums. Earlier this year, the University of Cambridge appointed Dr Michael Out of the 36 undergraduate modJoseph as its first lecturer in Black ules offered by the Department, only British history. Dr Joseph specialises two explicitly address Black history: Enslavement, Comin the history of the British and French HY333 merce, and Political FormaCaribbean and will expand the university’s teaching of “Caribbean history, tions in West Africa, c. 1550-1836 HY246 The Global Caribbean: Colonial-
ism, Race and Revolutions 1780s-1980s It is notable that both of the above modules compress more than 200 years of Black history into single courses. By contrast, many of the other European history modules offered by the Whilst these modules may not directly department revolve around histori- address Black history, they do emphacal periods of between 5 and 50 years. sise African and Asian narratives. Another first-year history student pointed A third-year student taking HY333 this out that, despite the “noticeable lack of year said that, while it is “refreshing” to explicitly non-European modules”, modfinally be able to do a module focused ules such as HY113 have been particuon Black history, it is a “shame” that larly useful in providing a counterweight she had to wait until her final year to to the Eurocentrism in the department. delve into it. She argues the need for The student further explained that ala more diverse range of history mod- though HY113 covers the same period ules to avoid mischaracterising Black as HY116 (“International Politics since and African history as a “monolith”: 1914: Peace and War”), it employs an “extra-European perspective” with an em“Even calling it ‘African history’ is kind phasis on African and Asian narratives, of problematic, in my opinion, since Af- thereby offering a multidimensional rica is huge and its history is so exten- representation of the twentieth century. sive. Whilst I appreciate the opportunity to be able to [study African history], However, The Beaver has received a tip more needs to be done to ensure that Af- about the history department being in rican history gets the same representa- talks of potentially replacing the HY113 tion and dedication as other courses.” module. The new module, according to
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espite attempts over recent years to address Eurocentrism in LSE’s curriculum, the School’s undergraduate offerings on Black and African history remain limited.
black British history, and the history of the black diaspora more broadly”. Professor Alex Walsham, Chair of the Faculty of History at Cambridge, said in an article, “His appointment advances our commitment to renewing and broadening our curriculum and to widening participation in our undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.”
It is important to note that the department does offer other modules that don’t explicitly revolve around Black history but which still address aspects of it. These include: HY113 From Empire to Independence: The Extra-European World in the Twentieth Century HY240 From Empire to Commonwealth: war, race and imperialism in British History, 1780 to the present day
INSIDE TODAY +
Aarti Malhotra News Editor Illustrated by Lea Pelleteret
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The solution, according to the student, lies in “decolonising” the curriculum, which is about “being more accurate, inclusive and interculturally responsive” and hence addressing both sides of the story.