We, like many others, are greatly dismayed by the news that Prof Deirdre Osborne, co-founder of the MA Black British literature course at Goldsmiths, is facing the threat of redundancy as reported in your article (Goldsmiths ‘determined’ to close Black British literature course, critics say, 3 July).
We have been here before. Two years ago, the course itself, along with its counterpart course in Black British history at Goldsmiths, was threatened with closure. Only the protest of academics, writers and students stayed the college’s hand. With the decision to threaten the career of Prof Osborne, Goldsmiths seems intent on removing the intellectual heart of the degree and undercutting its viability. In short: it seems to be quietly reversing its decision.
Prof Osborne is one of the leading lights of Black British literary study. Devoted to the subject, she has created space in the academy for hitherto neglected voices. Along with editing important anthologies on Black British writing, she has supported the careers of the leading lights in the field, including the Booker prize winner Bernardine Evaristo, the Whitbread First Novel award winner Fred D’Aguiar, the Ted Hughes award winner Jay Bernard, the Dylan Thomas prize winner Kayo Chingonyi, the Somerset Maugham award winner and former makar of Scottish poetry Jackie Kay, and the Olivier award winner debbie tucker green. Alongside that, she has worked hard to cultivate a new generation of academics dedicated to exploring the archive of Black British writing, not least through the MA.
To say an intellectual of her stature is not worthy of keeping her role at the college is to say that Black British literature is not and will not be taken seriously at Goldsmiths.
This decision connects to a worrying trend to sideline Black British voices in the academy. After what seemed to be meaningful progress in wake of the traumatic events of 2020, Black Britons are once again threatened with demotion in importance and esteem. Where Goldsmiths was once a beacon, it threatens to become yet another institution that takes the contribution of Black Britons as an addendum to curricula rather than worthy of real attention.
We raise our voices in resistance and call upon the college to reconsider its decision. Through the retention of Prof Osborne, Goldsmiths can signal its commitment to the vital subject of Black British literature and to the community that produces it.
Dr Malachi McIntosh University of Oxford, Jay Bernard Writer and artist, Margaret Busby Publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, Linton Kwesi Johnson Honorary fellow and alumnus, Goldsmiths, University of London, Kadija George Sesay Honorary fellow, Goldsmiths, University of London
