Decolonising the School of Law
A dedicated Decolonising the School of Law Forum was set up at the start of Session 2023-2024 with the intention of bringing together staff and students to lead reflection and action in the School around anti-racism. We are committed to understanding better ‘who we are’ and ‘what we do’ in our School so that we can welcome, include and engage with a diverse student and staff body, and deliver a legal education that is inclusive and reflects the rich diversity of law, legal thinking and pedagogy. This work is slow work; if this is to be more than window dressing, at the heart of it lies culture change.
This work is set within a wider University context. One action in the Understanding Racism, Transforming University Cultures Action Plan published by the University in 2021 was to ‘build a strand on decolonising the curriculum into the next L&T strategy’ – it being recognised that there was ‘the need to develop a curriculum which is globally reflective, to ensure all students can engage fully in the learning experience.’ One of the internal drivers identified in the University’s 2021-25 L&T strategy talks to the need to ensure learning and teaching is inclusive and that policies and practices support student wellbeing and inclusion.
Mission statement
The pervasiveness of Western sources of knowledge as our ‘common knowledge’, has created stubborn and enduring structural inequalities and racial injustice in our higher education establishments. In the context of our School of Law, we believe in the need to identify the harmful legacies of our colonial history, and challenge the systems, relationships and structures that sustain them. We recognise the law’s dual role as both a contributor to inequality through the maintenance of unequal power relations and as part of the solution to achieving a more equal, inclusive and diverse society.
In the School of Law, we are committed to a sustained and collaborative examination of our teaching materials, pedagogies, community and practices to ensure:
- Our curriculum and teaching in the School - across all programmes – better acknowledge a diversity of cultures, philosophies and knowledge systems; concerned not only by what is taught and how it is critiqued, but also by how it is taught and experienced.
- all present and future staff and students can flourish in an environment, which is inclusive, safe, and (more) diverse; underpinned by a culture of dignity and respect.
We will through this endeavour stimulate the re-discovery of supressed forms of knowledge, identify and challenge the ways in which the School and University structurally reproduces colonial hierarchies and promote sustained culture change.
We are dedicated to this work, which will be active, intentional, non-hierarchical, enabling and collaborative (between staff and students; and between those with lived experience and allies). We will generate and compile resources to support change. We will create space for dialogue and for listening. We accept the need to be open to un-learning and re-learning and we acknowledge the discomfort this will involve.
Staff-Student Forum
Every academic session we will share an invitation to staff and students to become members of the Decolonising the School of Law Forum. Students, please look out for this email invitation in week 1of semester. The Forum will meet up to 5 times a year and we will collectively agree on our key priorities of learning, sharing and action for the session. Names of students and staff members for Session 2025-2026 will be shared here in due course.
If you are interested in the work of the forum or would like to find out more about joining this space, please contact Maria Fletcher (maria.fletcher@glasgow.ac.uk) or Catriona Cannon (catriona.cannon@glasgow.ac.uk).
Hear from student members
'I’ve been part of the DTSL Forum in first and second year. As someone with an interest in social justice, I feel that I have learned a great deal about the law as a site of inequality through listening to other members’ opinions and lived experiences. I’ve also found the group’s sharing of resources particularly helpful in my own understanding of decolonisation and the law. Beyond my own learning, I’ve found that our staff/student mix makes it an especially valuable site for change, as it enables a diverse range of perspectives to be considered and represented. I think the Forum would benefit from a greater student voice going forward, and I would really encourage anyone who wishes to be represented or just wants to learn more to get involved!'
(Lucy Bowie, Scots Law LLB student)
'Bringing together members of the staff and student bodies, the Forum creates an invaluable discussion space. Over the past two years, members shared their lived experiences but also wishes, confusions and points of inquiry. With its broad range of activities, reaching from museum tours to art projects, the Forum opens important new perspectives on the creation of legal knowledge.'
(Joséphine Sangare, PhD student)
'Being a member of the forum was a formative part of the development of my approach, not only to my legal studies, but to how I view the world around me. Getting the opportunity to learn so much from such a diverse group of staff and students, unified by a shared goal to improve the Law school for its members has been a highlight of my LLB studies. Understanding the ways in which the law can be used to aid or hinder change is fundamental to successful legal practise, and I feel that my time as a forum member has opened my eyes to the importance of giving weight to perspectives than have been traditionally ignored.'
(Amelia Lockhart-Hourigan, Common Law (Faster Route) student)
Find out more from Amelia in our 'Hear more from our student member' video.
Events and co-created resources
Resources
Members have created a (non-legal, non-academic) book list of books we have loved and recommend. We have purchased many of these for our law library – The Law Workshop. They’re situated in the coffee social space; please enjoy!
In session 2024-2025 some of our student members prepared this informative blog piece on Language: Law and Language Literacy: The Power of Words — University of Glasgow Law Student Blog
Events
Kelvingrove Art Gallery walking tour
In March 2025 Staff and students from the Decolonising the School of Law Forum took part in a fascinating walking tour of Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery led by Dr Rosie Spooner (School of Humanities) which explored how Glasgow’s museum collections have been shaped by its involvement in chattel slavery, colonization and imperialism.
Decolonising Legal Concepts
On 12 March 2025 we welcomed Prof Shaimaa Abdelkarim and Sumaiyah Kholwadia, University of Birmingham who gave a theoretically-situated breakdown of their compulsory first year LLB module 'Decolonising Legal Concepts'.
Curating Discomfort Exhibition
Forum members attended on a ‘field trip’ to The Hunterian in February 2024 to learn from the University’s Ms Zandra Yeoman, Curator of Unfinished Conversations, on a project entitled ‘Curating Discomfort’ which is designed to aid understanding of the role of museums in reinforcing ideologies of white supremacy.
Winter Board Game Night
Dr Rebecca Sutton and PGT student Wabia Nganatha Karugu hosted a staff-student Winter Board Game Night in February 2024. With hot chocolate and cake, this game night engaged staff and students from the law school in playing "Brave New World'' - a human rights board game designed by scholars at Nottingham Trent University. The game immerses players in an unequal world in which goblins of various characteristics have different chances to achieve happiness. We used game play to generate an informal chat about fostering equality within the School of Law.