Decolonisation and the Library: Get involved!
Get Involved!
Students have been involved in the library's decolonisation work in various capacities for a number of years. This very guide is the product of an extensive period of co-creation activity, and has been developed from both formal and informal student collaboration and reviewed and developed in a series of focus groups.
Interested in getting involved with decolonisation initiatives at the library? There are many ways to do this. You can:
- Suggest a book for purchase. Click the image to the right to find the book suggestion form to expand our collections for your subject.
- Contact your Research and Academic Support Librarian for help accessing decolonial resources for your subject area.
- Join us as a Library Student Partner. Find out more here.
- Get Involved with the planning or delivery of exhibitions to promote our diverse collections.
List of University-wide student decolonisation initiatives
If you are interested in getting involved with decolonisation work in your department, school, or faculty, or elsewhere in the university, see the list of student-led decolonisation initiatives across the broader university below:
PAIS Decolonising the Curriculum Working Group and Colonial Hangover magazine.
The Global South Initiative
Muslim Student Guide to WMS
Warwick Ethnic Minorities in Physics Network
Warwick Student Union Decolonise Project - become a Decolonise Advocate, and participate in the annual Liberation Conference at the SU.
Warwick Anti-Racism Society
Please note that this list is not exhaustive. If your department's initiative is not listed here, please send the details to library@warwick.ac.uk and we will be happy to include it.
The under-representation of Black academics, particularly at senior levels, is a pressing issue both in UK higher education and at Warwick. To help tackle this, the university has established the Warwick PATHWAY Programme - a positive action programme which supports aspiring Black researchers to progress their careers.
The programme provides funding at different research career stages - from undergraduate to postdoctoral researcher - alongside opportunities to participate in networking and career information events.
The Warwick PATHWAY programme presents a clear vision of a research career trajectory and creates a community of aspiring Black researchers at Warwick across all faculties.
Exhibitions
The library has previously collaborated with a number of students and student groups to co-create, co-curate, and co-organise exhibitions to promote our diverse holdings, decolonial materials, and special collections (including the Ethnicity and Migration Collection). These have included displays by the Global South Initiative, displays for Black History Month, a special collection display on the Sivanandan Collection, and a display called Looking Back at Black History in Britain, comprising materials from the Ethnicity and Migration Collection and the MRC's Minority Art collection.
Black History Month 2025
In celebration of Black History Month 2025, Library staff and students co-created a book display responding to the theme of 'Standing Firm in Power and Pride'. The display showcased books from the Ethnicity and Migration Collection, including both the Sivanandan Collection of the Institute of Race Relations and the collection of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, and showcased books based on a variety of themes, including histories of resistance, black culture and black arts, and black feminism. For the first time, the display was accompanied by an open table which allowed library users to handle, browse, and borrow books from the display.
The books contained within the display have been collected in a reading list - if you missed it, you can browse the books here:
Contact
- University of Warwick Library
Gibbet Hill Road
Coventry
CV4 7AL - Telephone: +44 (0)24 76 522026
- Email: library at warwick dot ac dot uk
- More contact details