OpenLearn launches hub to offer fresh perspectives on race, racism and ethnicity

The Open University’s free learning site, OpenLearn has today launched a new hub page to offer fresh perspectives on race, racism and ethnicity. The Race and Ethnicity Hub will host existing and new content, including articles, videos, audio recordings and courses, which draw on expertise from across the OU’s core faculty areas.

Race and Ethnicity Hub logo

With support from the OU’s academic community and Black and Minority Ethnic Network, the hub will be constantly evolving and growing with new content being added regularly. It’s hoped that it will be a ‘living’ page, which will offer insight, thought-leadership and up-to-date reactions to current affairs and the wider world.

Some of the new content that has launched today, includes:

Afterword to Representing Religions: Race, Rationality, Colonialism and Anthropology: Dr Paul-François Tremlett, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, explains how Western representations of the Cargo Cults was in the contexts of colonialism, capitalism and racism in this video.

The historical and ongoing persecution of Europe’s gypsies: It’s estimated that 25% of the Roma pre-war European population perished as a result of Nazi persecution. This article explores the anti-Roma prejudice that still goes on today, and what can be done to tackle it.

Hero and Villain: Robert Clive of the East India Company: Robert Clive, a general of the East India Company, was despised by his contemporaries – so why was a statue of him erected outside the foreign office by the Edwardians years later? Dr Suki Haider, Associate Lecturer from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, discusses further.

Decolonising the Idea of Culture in Management Studies: Charles Barthold explores the connections between the management curriculum and coloniality.

Sas Amoah, Co-Chair of the Black and Minority Ethnic Network and Digital Media Producer at OpenLearn, said:

“The new OpenLearn Race and Ethnicity hub will use our academic expertise and high-quality teaching to challenge assumptions and show different perspectives, as we provide a necessary and important source of knowledge. These resources will help people to understand both historic and contemporary ideas of race and how these ideas can be used to better inform our decisions and interactions.”

 

Jane Roberts, Head of OpenLearn, commented:

“We are delighted that OpenLearn will be the home of The Open University’s new Race and Ethnicity Hub. The success and interest in the recent Black History Month content hosted on OpenLearn, and the feedback we received, shows there is a real desire from students, learners, and academic colleagues for this wide-ranging content.

“We are certain this will prove a hugely popular and rewarding new addition to the site – one that gives a platform to new thinking and challenges preconceived ideas of race and ethnicity, and that can be built on and evolve for many years to come.”

Find out more

About OpenLearn’s Race and Ethnicity Hub

Content coming soon:

• Badged Open Course (BOC) on youth justice in the UK will be live by the end of the month
• An article on the LGBT experience of being part of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community
• An article on decolonising the curriculum through the history of mathematics

Special thanks to all who have contributed to the hub, including Rehana Awan, Georgia Axtell-Powell, Hannah Parish, Ayesha Peeran, the OpenLearn team, Coronavirus Research Fund, OU’s Black and Minority Ethnic Network and PVC-Students.