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Changing the narrative: championing inclusive collection development: BME Studies

A guide produced as part of the "Changing the narrative: championing diversity in collection development" project, running January 2020 to December 2021, led by Helen Worrell.

Introduction

BME Studies is an inter-disciplinary academic field concerned with the study of Black and Minority Ethnic communities and experience across the world. 

Note: 'BME' was chosen in line with the terminology used by the University of Oxford's Equality and Diversity Unit: https://edu.admin.ox.ac.uk/networks.  For a critical reading of the term 'BAME' please see this article "The only acceptable part of BAME is the and...." from Dr Foluke Adebisi at the University of Bristol.

Anti-Racism resources

“In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.”  Angela Davis

A reading list of Black Lives Matter and anti-racist online resources is available here. List created in liaison with the Bodleian Libraries, College Libraries and JCR Welfare reps.  Access to the resources is provided for free by the University via SOLO.  For those looking for recommendations for actions to take to counter institutional racism, please see the recommendation's from the University's BME staff network here. 

Further recommendations from stakeholders / campaigning groups are available here:
open letter: oxford university must tackle systemic racism from Common Ground Oxford
Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor on structural anti-Blackness at Oxford University from Oxford SU

A selection of further departmental specific recommendations written by students / campaigning groups are available here:
Open Letter: #BlackLivesMatter Demands to the Oxford Faculty of Classics
Student response to Music Faculty statement on anti-racism
Letter to Department of Politics and International Relations
Letter to the Philosophy Faculty
Race and Decolonisation in the Faculty of English open letter
Dismantling Systemic Racism at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII): An Open Letter

An extended resource guide for broadening understanding of anti-racism is available here, these guides cover podcasts, tv shows films and more:

Anti-racism resources from writer Alyssa Klein and activist and filmmaker Sarah Sophie Flicker.

Anti-Racist resource guide (US focused) from Victoria Alexander 

Justice in June provides daily reading recommendations to equip people to become better allies.  The readings are divided up by how much time you have each day.

Anti-racist organisational development: training and resources - Resources for organisations wanting to under go an anti-racist self assessment and work towards being an anti-racist organisation

New online resources

African American Periodicals (1825-1995)

This resource includes over 170 periodicals written for and by African Americans, from 1820-1995. Articles include advertisements, images, poetry and literature, and it can be cross-searched with our other Readex databases (such as African American Newspapers). 
 

Black Abolitionist Papers (1830 - 1865) 

This collection covers a unique set of primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865.
 
A cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, reference books. It combines essential resources for research and teaching in Black Studies, including The Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, Index to Black Periodicals Full Text, Black Literature Index, and the Chicago Defender historical newspaper from 1912-1975.
 
Black thought and culture
Black Thought and Culture -a collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history. In addition to the most familiar works, Black Thought and Culture presents a great deal of previously inaccessible material, including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trial transcripts.

Jet Magazine Archive
Jet Magazine Archive covers the civil rights movement, politics, education, and other social topics with an African American focus. It includes over 3,000 issues providing a broad view of news, culture, and entertainment from its first issue in 1951 through to 2014. Users can search across the articles using full-text search, or select specific issues, years or themes. Each article is indexed with relevant keywords. Researchers can also view images and advertisements within each issue. Current coverage covers in the 1980s decade, with additional issues being released over the next coming months.

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