C O N T E X T 1 7 3 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 41 DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION KATRIONA BYRNE ‘How do you climb the scaffold in a hijab?’ Current concerns about diversity and inclusion in third-level training in conservation call for educators to develop imaginative and engaging approaches to learning. Teaching conservation at postgraduate level, one becomes quickly aware of how the canon (what is taught and considered should be taught) serves to squash diversity. Time is precious, students are busy, so the key facts and concepts are focused on – the same galaxy of white men are trotted out to tell the history and philosophy of the field. One has to work hard to reintroduce ‘others’ into it, to find the research, to make connections and to ask guest lecturers to do the same. Fortunately, there are some good sources out there, including those disseminated by Historic England, so there is no excuse not to have at least women and LGBTQ+ historical figures represented, as well as all kinds of buildings and sites. Limitations arise when work to include diverse ethnicities focuses on narratives where the agency lies mainly with the white person. I use the tale of two sugar bowls to investigate issues of counter-narratives in one of the slave trades. However, I quickly realised that slavery narratives may be as culturally irrelevant to a young black student studying in my university as to a young white person, or at least as we currently talk about them. They can also continue the paradigm of oppression and trauma. It is as if, in order to be culturally relevant to me, my One of the SPAB scholars, Serena Gildea, sharing her back story with BCU students (Photo: Anahita Gholamhosseini)
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