Woke row as university orders lecturers to ‘problematise’ being white and heterosexual

Lecturers at the University of Liverpool have been plunged into a row over perceived wokeness after being told to start “problematising” whiteness and heterosexuality during seminars.

Guidance issue this week urges staff to “diversify” and “decolonise” the history curriculum in a move one academic described as indicative of “aggressive and illiberal political ideology”.

An internal report entitled History Curriculum Diversity Audit urges lecturers to “think creatively” about ways of tackling questions related to race and gender

By way of an example, it asks: “Can a module that teaches exclusively about race relations do more to problematise and de-centre whiteness?”

The so-called “diversity audit” highlights a lack “queer history” in teachings on gender, as well as pointing to a lack of seminars “problematising heteronormativity”.

Nor it is seen as sufficient to include more scholars from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and non-binary backgrounds on their reading lists - lecturers are encouraged to discuss diversity on every module taught.

They are also told to make seminars “safe spaces” because topics such as race and gender can be “challenging” for students.

One University of Liverpool lecturer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Sunday Telegraph: “It’s all ideologically driven, namely Empire is bad.

“Historians should have the freedom to teach what they believe is true rather than having an agreed ideology that you’re not supposed to question.

“Also, I’m not quite sure how we are supposed to problematise whiteness.”

Dr Edward Skidelsky, a philosophy academic at Exeter University who is co-founder of the Committee for Academic Freedom, said: “It’s not the business of universities or university departments to tell lecturers to ‘problematise heteronormativity’ or to ‘de-centre whiteness’, whatever that means.

Meanwhile Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, director of the Don’t Divide Us pressure group, warned: “Non-activists who want an easy life need to realise decolonising has nothing to do with addressing discrimination or unequal access, nor is it about expanding knowledge.

“It has morphed into an aggressive and illiberal political ideology that promotes divisive, epistemologically weak concepts like ‘whiteness’ and seeks to impose its narrow, highly speculative interpretation at the expense of genuine academic study that depends on exploring different viewpoints.”

The question of decolonising curriculums has been the subject of hot debate in recent months.

Dr Zahid Pranjol, of the University of Sussex recently argued that requiring students to sit traditional exams was racist and exposed “colonial biases”.

The University of Cambridge last month advertised for a PhD student to investigate its plant and animal collection, including tigers to dodos, to root out imperial connections.

A University of Liverpool spokesman said, “We are absolutely committed to an inclusive experience for all our students. Reviewing our curricula to ensure content is reflective of cultural, historical and societal contexts is an important part of this commitment.

“Following recent fruitful and positive conversations within our history department about decolonising the curriculum, a 2020 audit was circulated to colleagues to prompt further thought and discussion.

“A final decolonisation framework, once developed and agreed, will be a useful and important guide for staff in the development of their modules and, as always, colleagues will retain full academic freedom in how this is best applied.”