Ruqia Osman is former Education Officer at the Student Union, University of Bath and is now working on a project to facilitate conversations about anti-racism within the community.
In this vlog she says Black History Month is more important than ever given the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in the US this year and the large number of Black Lives Matter protests that have been happening across the world.
Ruqia says, “Black History Month is vital as a chance to address our knowledge gap and educate ourselves because the national curriculum doesn’t represent Black history appropriately.”
She says it’s important for the higher education sector to mark Black History Month because it is “…a chance for us to celebrate Black students and staff and the contributions that they’ve made, not only to their areas of research but to university communities because they often go unnoticed.
“What I’m really looking forward to this year is seeing more universities engage with Black History Month and collaborate with their Black communities to create something that’s really impactful.”