New everyday practices of free speech on campus: Beyond racialised and religious stereotypes

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SummaryBuilding on robust research findings about discrimination against Muslims on campus, this Follow on Fund will help universities to tackle religious, racial and gender discrimination by showing them how to encourage and facilitate difficult discussions, instead of avoiding them. Follow-on funds can address matters that could not be dealt with in the main research project and here we wish to draw attention to: a) racism that goes beyond the Muslim communities on campus, and b) potential opportunities to reduce racism through open yet civil discussions. The findings from AHRC/ESRC 2015-18: Representing Islam on campus AH/M00841X/1 demonstrate that Muslim staff and students are often denied a voice by discriminatory practices and negative stereotypes triggered by skin colour, clothing or other perceived differences. This is a form of silencing or testimonial injustice: Muslim staff believe they are not considered to have opinions worth hearing, discussing or sharing. As such, they self-censor to avoid conflict. Our findings resonate with recent research on National Health Service (NHS) staff of colour, who also report finding themselves ignored or not heard when raising concerns during the COVID-19 crisis. In the AHRC project, we noted similar matters but were unable to explore these as they went beyond the focus of Islam on campus: now it is urgent that they are shared and explored in discussion. So firstly, this Follow on Fund will disseminate our research findings and show the ways in which the student voice is silenced. We will engage key players actively in discussing these findings about Islam using a group discussion approach called Community of Inquiry. This approach facilitates honesty and deliberation in the face of controversial evidence. Providing solid evidence is only part of changing someone's views: engaging actively in discussion about such evidence is also necessary. By such means racism on campus can be recognised and addressed. Secondly, the key finding to which we could not do justice during the project involves addressing broad spectrum racism directed towards those considered different. We were told of covert and overt racism towards Black students and staff, and the negative stereotyping of Jewish students. As the current focus upon inequalities in the NHS resonates with our findings, we will also work with medical students to disseminate our work more widely, on university campuses that also provide medical training. The core team provides expertise in Judaism, Black lives and Islam to support universities. The Community of Inquiry group discussion approach facilitates trust, openness and civility - while always working towards group solutions. We will deliver significant economic, social, cultural and policy impacts by developing this into a training package for students and staff. The unspoken, discriminatory tendencies amongst students and staff can be reduced and replaced with critical dialogues and anti-discriminatory practices.