“The university reversed its decision in May, stating it would keep the course open after backlash from students and writers. Photograph: davidxgreen/Alamy”
July 3, 2024 Story by: Editor
On Monday, provisional redundancy notices were issued to 97 academic staff across 11 university departments, including Professor Deirdre Osborne, the Guardian understands.
The university initially reversed its decision in May, opting to maintain the program for two years following backlash from students and writers, including Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo.
Catherine Rottenberg, a member of the Goldsmiths University and College Union (GUCU) executive committee, remarked, “What’s clear to me is that the media pressure worked initially to get them to at least commit to not closing the programme completely, but what’s also clear is that they’re determined to close these programmes.”
A spokesperson for Goldsmiths stated the university remained “fully committed” to delivering courses after the recent review, including the Black British literature MA and queer history MA.
“Universities across the UK are having to make difficult decisions to navigate unprecedented financial challenges. This is a painful time for us all as we take steps to make our finances sustainable. We consulted staff and unions over our plans but unfortunately this did not result in viable ways forward which would have avoided or reduced the number of redundancies,” the spokesperson said.
Prominent writers and students have criticized the recent decision, raising concerns over how the program will continue without its co-founder and the future of Black British literature in academia more broadly.
Publisher and editor Margaret Busby expressed her shock, saying she was “gobsmacked” after learning the university was making Osborne redundant, months after stating the course would be maintained.
“The MA Black British Literature should not be treated as a second-class citizen,” said Busby, Britain’s first Black female publisher. “Why suddenly remove Prof Deirdre Osborne, who is already in place with those capabilities, if there is real long-term commitment to keeping and developing the course? As Toni Morrison said to me in 1988: ‘It’s not patronage, not affirmative action we’re talking about here, we’re talking about the life of a country’s literature.'”
Poet Patience Agbabi expressed her disbelief, saying the university was “shooting themselves in the foot.”
“These people have such a wealth of knowledge, such a depth and breadth of knowledge. It seems a very strange thing for a university to get rid of senior lecturers who are at the top of their game,” Agbabi said.
Writer Mendez voiced sadness over the program being under threat and urged the university to find new ways to attract students.
“Black British work is represented tokenistically at best on high school and A-level curricula. It is hugely important for all of us to feel empowered to study our history, our thinking and our literary art,” they said.
Actor, author, and chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, Paterson Joseph, questioned the decision: “Why would you cut a course that is the only Black British literature course in the world? The emotional thing that hits me is why is it so forgettable and negligible, this literature? Why is it not important to Goldsmiths or to other universities to study this work?”
Denise Rawls, a student entering her second year in the program this autumn, said she did not see how the course could “continue with any substance” without Osborne, who co-founded the world-first program with Professor Joan Anim-Addo in 2015.
“Removing our professor, the woman who has literally written the books on Black British literature and is trusted by us all, is eliminating this unique course in all but name and saying Black British storytelling and academic study is unnecessary,” Rawls stated. The Guardian
