Decolonising the reading lists of Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

Abstract

Bias in education can be presented in various forms, not all of which are directly identifiable. Thus, before addressing bias, it must first be determined. In the case of university reading lists, assessing the diversity of authors is the first step towards debiasing education. The purpose of this study is to examine and compare diversity of author ethnicity in the two universities’ reading list. Moreover, this work investigates the claim that "Western authors dominate the university curricula". The analysis of reading lists of Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Leeds shows evidence of ethnicity bias – supporting the claim. In this study, we present an initial analysis of undergoing PhD research. Several questions remain to be answered regarding the students' and lecturers' perspectives on reading lists and their understanding of diversity and decolonising the curriculum, which will be investigated in future research.