CSLS Values
Staff and students at the Centre value this opportunity to reassert our commitment to confronting racism, sexism and all forms of unfair discrimination through education, research, discussion, and the way in which we respond to and manage complaints and concerns. Interrogating the interface between the rhetoric of formal rights and the lived reality of legal process is at the heart of everything we do. Issues around race, sexism and law are currently being explored in a number of projects at the CSLS and constantly inform our daily practice.
In addition to just stating our values staff and students at the Centre acknowledge that we can and should do more. In the spirit of taking time to listen to, and amplify, the voices of a diverse community in the last year we have:
- committed to inviting a broad range of speakers to present in our seminar series;
- successfully sought funding from the British Academy to collaborate with colleagues in Africa in the hosting of a methodology seminar series focusing on researching from the global south;
- engaged in a regular review of our curriculum to ensure that students are asked to read the work of a diverse range of authors;
- introduced sessions on feminist methodology and decolonising research questions into our compulsory Theory and Methods course;
- used the Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies blog to foreground the voices of those who have traditionally been marginalised in the Western academy and the issues they face;
- celebrated the voices of LGBTQ, women and people of colour through the special issues of our blog newsletter produced for Black History Month, International Women’s Day and Pride;
- undertaken staff training on unconscious bias and ensuring equal opportunities on appointment panels; and
- encouraged students to raise any concerns they have about unfair practice or inappropriate behaviour with their student representatives or with the Director of the Centre.
In the past we have also produced a list of socio-legal materials from a diverse range of authors for use by colleagues when compiling reading lists.
We encourage you to engage in debate with us and to critique our efforts to facilitate inclusivity.