LUU protestor disrupts ‘Why is my curriculum white?’ talk

She had to be dragged out by security

8 years ago

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The Union’s “Why is my curriculum white?” talk was thrown into disarray when a protestor was forcefully ejected.

The talk was held on Monday with speakers including the NUS Black Students’ Officer Malia Bouattia, Sociologist and academic Richard Tavernier, PhD student Remi Joseph-Salisbury and Say Burgin from the School of History.

Halfway through the event, former PhD student Sanaz Raji interrupted the talk to protest about her dismissal, making several allegations about the University’s conduct. Sanaz claimed, among other things, that she should have been invited to speak on the panel.

Security at the high-profile event

Despite the interruption, the event was a success. Education Officer Melissa ‘Melz’ Owusu talked about how she’d felt that during her studies the ignorance of work from non-white writers was an issue which academics had turned a blind eye to.

Even before she became Education Officer, Melissa has fought tirelessly to make changes to the curriculum. Last year in her role as School rep for the School of Politics and International Studies she forced change in a first year Political Philosophy module to include female and ethnic minority writers.

Melissa plans to petition the Union with testimonials from students, with the aim of achieving larger diversity in the Leeds Uni curriculum and staff alike.

After the interruption, Melissa addressed her sympathy with Sanaz’s cause but reminding her the event was meant to tackle the issue of the curriculum – an issue, she felt, did not overlap with Sanaz’s aims.

Melissa, even after the disruption Sanaz caused, addressed the case, suggesting people who were intrigued by what Sanaz had to say should look at her Facebook page, ‘Justice for Sanaz’.

Sanaz Raji protests and is ejected

The protest was the talk of the evening, and the reaction of the room to was mixed – people protested the use of bouncers to remove Sanaz from the room, although it was clear they did not necessarily agree with her methods.

Video footage of the incident shows Sanaz being escorted out of the venues by security.

Interruption over, the panel expressed how change can be achieved through cooperation between the Union, students and the University. Melissa claimed she wanted “Leeds University to be number one in the world for a diverse curriculum”, and her efforts so far have demonstrated this is her key goal for her time as education officer.

On the event, Melissa said: “I can’t believe we got over 500 people (by choice) in a room engaging in a discussion about their curriculum. It was incredible.

“Also it hopefully opened a lot of minds to a key aspect of the education system that is far too often overlooked. Hopefully the university will take a diverse curriculum seriously when I present the findings.”

Despite the interruption, the event was a huge success for both Melissa and the student body and a great event to mark the end of Black History Month.