Akanksha Mehta/SOAS Image Bank
SOAS Library’s Decolonisation Operational Group is a group comprised of staff from the Libraries & Galleries directorate at SOAS, University of London, who are working together to decolonise SOAS Library and its collections. It was started in 2019 by Ludi Price and Farzana Qureshi as a grassroots, ongoing project, and are now proud to be a part of the Decolonising SOAS Working Group‘s formal library cluster. Our aim is work towards decolonising SOAS Library, as part of SOAS’s wider Decolonising SOAS Vision. In order to achieve this, we are keen to work on improving the accessibility of the indigenous material in our collections, to sustain relationships with overseas publishers, and to decolonise knowledge by challenging Western-centric epistemologies by bringing to light global histories and ways of thinking.
We acknowledge that decolonisation is an ongoing process of challenge, disruption and critical assessment of how we frame the knowledge inherent in our collections, and of our own everyday practice. As such, this website is a work-in-progress, built through the learning journey we are undergoing as a part of the decolonisation process. We welcome the support, collaboration and inspiration of other colleagues in libraries, archives, museums and galleries across the globe in this endeavour, as well as the support of SOAS' students and staff.