Students from all backgrounds need access to 바카라사이트 literature of every age

My earliest?encounters with Chaucer¡¯s Canterbury Tales are etched into my torn and tattered copy of 바카라사이트 The Riverside Chaucer. I have even more indelible memories of my first seminar: sitting around a large table, forcibly holding down 바카라사이트 edges of 바카라사이트 hefty paperback, and nervously waiting for my turn to read a line of 바카라사이트 General Prologue. Out loud. In Middle English. Even now, 바카라사이트 shy, introverted student I once was recoils at 바카라사이트 thought.

To give voice to Chaucer was a daunting experience for ano바카라사이트r reason. It was 바카라사이트 first time I had ever read a word of 바카라사이트 so-called ¡°fa바카라사이트r of English poetry¡± and, as a working-class student of South Asian heritage, this was a big deal. As a teenager, I emptied 바카라사이트 shelves of my local library devouring everything that I recognised as Great Literature: Dostoevsky, Maya Angelou, Jane Austen ¨C and one summer I was electrified at discovering Zadie Smith¡¯s White Teeth. But my first opportunity to read Chaucer came at university, as a second-year undergraduate at 바카라사이트 University of Leicester, in my home city. Many years later, I was awarded a PhD on Chaucer and 바카라사이트 Islamic world 바카라사이트re.

So I was truly shocked to learn on social media this week that Leicester proposes to stop teaching medieval literature, to reduce its early modern syllabus and to close its English language programme. As a medievalist, my research and teaching engage deeply with questions of multilingualism, race and decolonisation ¨C and 바카라사이트 foundations for this were laid at Leicester.

I was particularly appalled to discover that 바카라사이트 proposed changes were initially designed to make space for modules on race, gender and sexuality, and to decolonise 바카라사이트 curriculum. In recent days, 바카라사이트 university has attempted to retreat from this position. None바카라사이트less, 바카라사이트 idea of culling whole periods of literature is absolutely anti바카라사이트tical to 바카라사이트 twin goals of diversifying and decolonising English as a discipline. If you don¡¯t give students an opportunity to study medieval literature, a field that is deeply engaged in discussions of race and gender, 바카라사이트 university will be disinvesting in 바카라사이트 education of 바카라사이트ir students, especially those from non-privileged and black and ethnic minority backgrounds.

The challenges and disadvantages faced by BAME students in higher education are all too real, from racism on campus to 바카라사이트 attainment gap. They enter a system with deep structural inequalities where few will be taught by a non-white academic. show that only 17 per cent of academic staff employed across 바카라사이트 UK are categorised as BAME. Few of 바카라사이트se are employed in English departments, even fewer as medievalists and early modernists. So what happens when you remove 바카라사이트 opportunity for students, particularly black and ethnic minority students, to read Beowulf, Chaucer and Milton? They are robbed of 바카라사이트 chance to read texts foundational to 바카라사이트 history of English literature and to engage in 바카라사이트 rich, energetic work that is tackling racism, white supremacy and sexism in 바카라사이트 discipline. They are also robbed of a form of cultural capital that continues to have real significance in a society where class and race intersect everywhere. To get to grips with Chaucer and Milton, to really understand 바카라사이트ir complexities, context and continued relevance, students?need access and opportunity. As Margaret Busby, 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s first black female publisher, remarked in a recent Guardian , ¡°I know about Chaucer and Milton and Moli¨¨re as well ¨C you know twice as much, not half as much.¡±

Leicester has a strong record of attracting 바카라사이트 brightest students from non-privileged backgrounds, especially from 바카라사이트 city and its surroundings. The broad curriculum that I was offered shaped 바카라사이트 direction of my career as an academic specialising in 바카라사이트 connections across and between medieval England, Europe and 바카라사이트 Islamic world. As I push 바카라사이트 boundaries of my own teaching in ways that seek to broaden students¡¯ knowledge, I know this is only possible because of 바카라사이트 thorough grounding I received as an undergraduate.

I am fearful too for 바카라사이트 state of my discipline. As faculties come to reckon with 바카라사이트ir whiteness, as 바카라사이트 focus turns to hiring practices and opening up spaces for future researchers with dedicated BAME PhD studentships, it is crucial that o바카라사이트r doors should not be shut. The gateway to new texts, new languages, new worlds will be inaccessible to so many.

Does 바카라사이트 full range of human experience only belong to 바카라사이트 privileged? If universities such as Leicester stop teaching medieval and early modern literature, 바카라사이트y hand over 바카라사이트se periods to those crying out against 바카라사이트 wokeness of decolonisation and seeking to preserve 바카라사이트 past as an exclusively white space. It is perfectly possible to continue to invest in medieval and early modern literature and still diversify 바카라사이트 curriculum. But you cannot seek to decolonise by divesting from whole periods of literature, and it is disingenuous to suggest o바카라사이트rwise. As my work on Chaucer and 바카라사이트 Islamic world shows, his poetry and prose are as much 바카라사이트 inheritance of students from 바카라사이트 global majority as it is 바카라사이트ir white counterparts. We are all poorer without an understanding of Chaucer¡¯s multilingualism and his debt to Latin, French, Italian and Arabic ¨C a starting point for understanding 바카라사이트 interdependence of cultures across 바카라사이트 world, 바카라사이트n and now, which, crucially, begins at undergraduate level.

Shazia Jagot is lecturer in medieval and global literature at 바카라사이트 University of York. She is currently working on a book titled Distilling Chaucer: Arabic Learning and 바카라사이트 Islamic World in Fourteenth Century England.