‘It’s Too Easy to Say that Institutions are Decolonizing’: An Interview with Senate House Library’s Richard Espley and Leila Kassir

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (270) ◽  
pp. 264-271
Author(s):  
Sarah Pyke

Abstract In 2020, as public protest against anti-Black police brutality surged globally, institutional public statements in support of the Black Lives Matter movement proliferated. Universities, libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions rushed to deplore racist violence and express their commitment to anti-racist and decolonial practice. Rather than release a statement of their own, staff at Senate House Library – the central library for the University of London and the School of Advanced Study – chose instead to pursue and embed a fledgling piece of reparative archival work, the Collections Inclusion Review, alongside their continuing efforts to improve the inclusivity and accessibility of their collections, particularly of literatures in English. This interview is a transcribed and edited version of a conversation with the two Senate House Library staff members leading this work: Richard Espley, now Head of Collections (and formerly Head of Modern Collections), and Leila Kassir, Academic Librarian for British, Irish, USA, Latin American, Caribbean, and Commonwealth Literature. The discussion ranged across issues of provenance, archive description, library layout, and the future of English as a discipline, urging attention to and amelioration of the exclusionary aspects of library practice. While critiquing institutional approaches to the legacies of colonialism, past and present, both interviewees expressed reservations about widespread claims to have ‘achieved’ decolonization, stressing that such calls are contingent on surrounding structures and processes, and suggesting that such radical dismantling remains a long-term aspiration, rather than a quick-fix solution.

1985 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-58
Author(s):  
Edward Luther

The Tennessee Division of Geology has a close, long-term relationship with the educational establishment in Tennessee that has changed in nature over the years but remains strong. Gerard Troost, the first State Geologist, was a college professor, as was his successor, James M. Safford, and, more recently, L. C. Glenn. From 1909 to 1923 the affairs of the State Geological Survey were overseen by a Geological Commission that included, ex officio, the President of the University of Tennessee, the Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, and the Vice Chancellor of the University of the South; then, from 1923 to 1937, the Division of Geology was administratively part of the State Department of Education. Since becoming part of the Conservation Department in 1937 the Division has served an educational function by publishing both scholarly and popular works on the geology of the state; by answering inquiries on every subject from paleontology to water-witching; by advising news media on geology-related stories; by giving talks to school, museum, and other groups; and by close cooperation with university geology departments on research projects. The Division has had a strong role in graduate education, particularly at the Master's level, by conducting field excursions for students, financing theses through student mapping projects, by loans of field equipment, and serving as informal thesis advisors. Long-term assistance to geology departments has also included part-time employment of professors as consultants, publication of studies by professors and students, and part-time teaching by Division staff members. Most of these forms of educational assistance have suffered in recent years, due to budget cuts and loss of staff positions.


Author(s):  
Kenneth C. Moore

The University of Iowa Central Electron Microscopy Research Facility(CEMRF) was established in 1981 to support all faculty, staff and students needing this technology. Initially the CEMRF was operated with one TEM, one SEM, three staff members and supported about 30 projects a year. During the past twelve years, the facility has replaced all instrumentation pre-dating 1981, and now includes 2 TEM's, 2 SEM's, 2 EDS systems, cryo-transfer specimen holders for both TEM and SEM, 2 parafin microtomes, 4 ultamicrotomes including cryoultramicrotomy, a Laser Scanning Confocal microscope, a research grade light microscope, an Ion Mill, film and print processing equipment, a rapid cryo-freezer, freeze substitution apparatus, a freeze-fracture/etching system, vacuum evaporators, sputter coaters, a plasma asher, and is currently evaluating scanning probe microscopes for acquisition. The facility presently consists of 10 staff members and supports over 150 projects annually from 44 departments in 5 Colleges and 10 industrial laboratories. One of the unique strengths of the CEMRF is that both Biomedical and Physical scientists use the facility.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (15) ◽  
pp. 64-67
Author(s):  
George Barnes ◽  
Joseph Salemi

The organizational structure of long-term care (LTC) facilities often removes the rehab department from the interdisciplinary work culture, inhibiting the speech-language pathologist's (SLP's) communication with the facility administration and limiting the SLP's influence when implementing clinical programs. The SLP then is unable to change policy or monitor the actions of the care staff. When the SLP asks staff members to follow protocols not yet accepted by facility policy, staff may be unable to respond due to confusing or conflicting protocol. The SLP needs to involve members of the facility administration in the policy-making process in order to create successful clinical programs. The SLP must overcome communication barriers by understanding the needs of the administration to explain how staff compliance with clinical goals improves quality of care, regulatory compliance, and patient-family satisfaction, and has the potential to enhance revenue for the facility. By taking this approach, the SLP has a greater opportunity to increase safety, independence, and quality of life for patients who otherwise may not receive access to the appropriate services.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (17) ◽  
pp. 7-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy Gill ◽  
Sneha Bharadwaj ◽  
Nancy Quick ◽  
Sarah Wainscott ◽  
Paula Chance

A speech-language pathology master's program that grew out of a partnership between the University of Zambia and a U.S.-based charitable organization, Connective Link Among Special needs Programs (CLASP) International, has just been completed in Zambia. The review of this program is outlined according to the suggested principles for community-based partnerships, a framework which may help evaluate cultural relevance and sustainability in long-term volunteer efforts (Israel, Schulz, Parker, & Becker, 1998).


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-225
Author(s):  
Patricia Novillo-Corvalán

This article positions Pablo Neruda's poetry collection Residence on Earth I (written between 1925–1931 and published in 1933) as a ‘text in transit’ that allows us to trace the development of transnational modernist networks through the text's protracted physical journey from British colonial Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to Madrid, and from José Ortega y Gasset's Revista de Occidente (The Western Review) to T. S. Eliot's The Criterion. By mapping the text's diasporic movement, I seek to reinterpret its complex composition process as part of an anti-imperialist commitment that proposes a form of aesthetic solidarity with artistic modernism in Ceylon, on the one hand, and as a vehicle through which to interrogate the reception and categorisation of Latin American writers and their cultural institutions in a British periodical such as The Criterion, on the other. I conclude with an examination of Neruda's idiosyncratic Spanish translation of Joyce's Chamber Music, which was published in the Buenos Aires little magazine Poesía in 1933, positing that this translation exercise takes to further lengths his decolonising views by giving new momentum to the long-standing question of Hiberno-Latin American relations.


Diabetes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 94-LB
Author(s):  
SERGIO VENCIO ◽  
JUAN MANOSALVA ◽  
CHANTAL MATHIEU ◽  
PIETER PROOT ◽  
PAIVI M. PALDANIUS

Mousaion ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thatayaone Segaetsho ◽  
Julie Moloi

In the past few decades, digital technology has found a place in the acquisition, arrangement, description, preservation, and dissemination of information. However, heritage institutions are perturbed by the challenges of digital preservation strategies particularly for education. Despite continuous investment in digital preservation, there are limited skilled professionals to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and competencies required to drive digital preservation in Botswana. Therefore, this paper investigated the knowledge, skills and competencies related to digital preservation in the teaching curricula of the Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) at the University of Botswana. Data collection was done through intensive structured interviews with specific educators who teach courses on digital preservation in the archives and records management stream. The study revealed that despite the fact that the educators in preservation courses are aware of current trends in digital preservation, most of them have not obtained formal degree certification specific to digital preservation. The findings further revealed that minimal digital preservation competencies are observed in the teaching curricula. A significant number of challenges observed illustrated mainly a lack of resources and limited skills in terms of practical demonstrations by educators. The curricula mostly lacked clarity on long-term and short-term digital preservation. The study recommends that DLIS and other institutions should conduct surveys or curriculum auditing on digital preservation in order to improve the teaching content. A significant number of shortcomings regarding digital preservation that could motivate further studies are also discussed under the conclusion and recommendations section of this study.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1254-1265
Author(s):  
Vitaly G. Ananiev ◽  

The article is devoted to the work Alexander S. Nikolaev (1877 – 1934) in the Petrograd Institute of Out-of-School Education in late 1910s – early 1920s. His teaching activities at the Institute and the place of archival issues in the program of its museum department have been studied on the basis of archival documents. The Institute initially focused on training of instructors and employees of cultural institutions, school teachers for adults and universities professors. The Institute had a museum section (department – faculty), on the basis of which several exemplary workshops for creating of manuals and their mastering were to be organized. That is the context in which A. S. Nikolaev’s projects of archival museum creation should be studied. One of such projects worked out by Nikolaev at that time has gone unnoticed until its publication in the Appendix. The connection of this project with the development level of museum affairs of the period is shown. Nikolaev's aspiration to show evolution of archiving and to follow fond formation stage by stage and his use of photographic and graphic materials are also noted. Moreover, it is the first assessment of the work of the Institute as one of the centers for teaching archiving in late 1910s – early 1920s.Training at the museum department of the Institute included a number of courses in both archiving and preservation of documentary monuments. This was due not only to the traditional proximity of archiving and museum work, but also to the circumstances of the first post-revolutionary years. Many museums (located in palaces and mansions of nobility) acquired valuable archival collections. They looked for an opportunity to use these in their scientific activities and exhibitions. The latter was due to the emphasis put on history of daily life and introduction of sociological method in museum work.


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