We Were Never Meant to Survive

In this short film co-produced with filmmaker Kuran Javeri and artist Maria D’Amico (www.mariadamico.com) we explore what it means to do socio-legal research & teaching, whilst acknowledging racism as a legal pandemic. The film draws from various sources including the voices of students of colour involved in decolonising the university projects, a collaboration between QMUL, Lancaster, Keele and Kings College London, led by Decolonise UoK between 2018 and 2020 (see: https://research.kent.ac.uk/sergj/kal.... Their stories of(un)belonging focus on intersecting violence’s emanating from our curriculum, co-optation practices and other aspects of their lives as students in British higher education.

The film is inspired by the words of our students as well as students from elsewhere. It is also inspired by the work of our ancestors, particularly the words of Audre Lorde: “We were never meant to survive” from her poem ‘A Litany for Survival’ (The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (1978)).

How can we do socio-legal research when racism continues as legal pandemic?

The end segment of the film invites teachers, researchers and leaders within HE to engage with the Decolonise UoK principles (https://research.kent.ac.uk/sergj/wp-...) as a way to enter into the lifelong process of anti-racist and decolonising pedagogy and research. We ask the audience to take some time to think about their awareness of systemic racism within their workplaces and practices, how it might impact their work and how one can mobilise our positions within our institutions to tackle structural and other intersecting inequalities in tackling racism as a (legal) pandemic.

The reflection exercise can be accessed here https://forms.gle/6rqNE627zassVB2W9 or you can share your reflections on twitter using #LegalRacism. Participants may want to consider any or all the following prompts:

· Facilitating participant leadership

· Group publishing to recognise participant contribution

· Really listening to Students/Participants

· Accessibility of research outputs to marginalised groups

· Space for self-care and wellbeing

· Mitigating risk of co-optation by the institution

· Communities of practice

· Intersectional anti-racist approaches