Description
Decolonisation initiatives, including the curriculum, research, teaching and operation, are important for business schools, especially in the UK – not just because staff and students in UK business schools are highly international but also in light of the UK’s long imperial past.
This webinar will focus on three DTC initiatives in the UK and, through presentations and in discussion with attendees, unpack what we can learn from these initiatives in terms of research methodologies. What does working with our colleagues to promote reflective change teach us about research methods and the challenges of implementation? And what do we learn from these initiatives in terms of the research methods we use in our respective disciplinary areas?
The Webinar will offer ideas around historical, participatory, decolonial, intersectional gender and playful research approaches drawn from the experience of collaborating on DTC projects.
Attendees are requested to familiarise themselves wiht the following documents prior to the event:
The BAM Guide to Decolonising the Business School Curriculum
SAGE: Decolonising a business school in context: From theory to practice
Lancaster University's The Guide to Developing a Gender-Aware and Inclusive Curriculum
Provider Information
BAM Research Methodology Special Interest GroupWho Should Attend?
The event speaks to Sections A1-3, C1-3 and D1-3, as detailed in the BAM Framework.
Speakers
Professor Martyna Śliwa
Martyna Śliwa is Professor of Business Ethics and Associate Dean for Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability at Durham University Business School UK.
Her research focuses on diversity, inclusivity and intersectionality in organizations, language differences and their effects on organizational hierarchies and power relations.
She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Management Learning and the Vice-Chair for Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity for BAM.
Dr Caroline Chapain
Dr Caroline Chapain is an Associate Professor in Management at Birmingham Business School. Born of French nationality, Caroline has studied, worked and lived in France (20 years), Canada (10 years) and the UK (20 years). In addition, she did her Ph.D. in Mexico.
This cross-cultural experience made her reflect on the notion of identities and cultural practices as well as issues related to the production of knowledge. While her career initially focused on researching the links between creativity and local and regional economic development in North America and Europe, she has progressively shifted her research interests towards the practice of responsible management and education and issues related to equity, diversity and belonging in business schools as well as the practice of art-based research and education. She brings these personal and professional identities and perspectives to her understanding and practice of decolonising work.
Dr Ray Ndibalema
Dr Rweyemamu Alphonce Ndibalema is an Associate Professor in Management at Birmingham Business School. Rweyemamu is from Tanzania, whose life experience spans from living, studying and working as an academic in different countries including Canada (lived), New Zealand (lived and studied), Tanzania (lived, studied and worked) United Kingdom (lived, studied and worked) and the United Arab Emirates (lived and worked). Rweyemamu holds Ph.D. in Management centred on work engagement among academics, it aimed to discover the environment/conditions that trigger positive people engagement enabling them to unleash their best selves. Decolonising Business education coincides with his passion to providing/fostering an environment in academia where every person despite their race (ethnicity) or gender is not disadvantaged by the dark colonial legacy but instead has the best conditions/opportunity to reach their full potential. He brings both in his personal and professional capacity his international lived, study and work experience in our reflective journey of decolonising business education in our business school.
Dr Emma Surman
Dr Emma Surman is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Birmingham Business School. Emma’s research and teaching falls broadly within the areas of consumer culture and the sociology of consumption. Recent projects have explored the links between the production and consumption of food including food swapping, communal eating, school gardens and community responses to food poverty. Emma has held grants from the EPRSC, ESRC and AHRC and has published in journals including Sociology, Sociological Review and the Journal of Business Research. Her teaching takes a critical approach to understanding the role of marketing in society and what responsibility entails in the context of a business school, in part informed by a period spent as PRME champion for BBS. She is one of the editors of Responsible Marketing for Well-being and Society: A Research Companion, published by Routledge.
Anita Lateano
Anita Lateano is a Research Fellow at Birmingham Business School. Born in Birmingham, UK, Anita identifies as mixed race with heritage that spans both Asia and Latin America.
With a professional background within the environmental and charity sector which included work in South Africa and Tanzania, this led her back to academia, with a desire to reflect on those experiences, the role of INGOs in critically understanding climate and environmental injustices.
She joined BBS after gaining an MA in Social Anthropology from SOAS and this is Anita’s first position within Higher Education, allowing her to hold an “outsider” perspective within both the Business School and academia. Alongside working on the Decolonisation Project, she is currently a PhD student at the University of Westminster.
Dr Sophie Alkhaled
Sophie Alkhaled is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Lancaster University Management School, UK. She is the Director of the Academy for Gender Equality and Social Justice Research in Organisations, and the Founder and Director of the Gender Equality Observatory at the School.
Sophie’s research focuses on the intersectionality of gender, entrepreneurship, empowerment and poverty alleviation, and their collective impact as a catalyst for social change and sustainable development amongst refugee and marginalised communities, particularly in Middle Eastern contexts.
She has published her work in leading journals such as Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Studies and Gender, Work and Organization. She serves as Associate Editor at Gender, Work and Organization, and is a member of the Editorial Review Board for Organization Studies.
Facilitator
Dr Fariba Darabi
Dr Fariba Darabi is an experienced management educator with particular expertise in the fields of Entrepreneurship, International Business, and Research Methods. She held Visiting Professorship at University of Capitole 1 (Toulouse, France); committee member for the EFMD doctoral programmes conference; serves on the British Academy of Management’s Council as a Management Knowledge and Education Committee member, co-leading the ‘Education-focussed Professor’ programme, and Co-Chair for the Research Methodology Special Interest Group.
Fariba is UK Council for Graduate Education-recognised research supervisor, with doctoral completions and external examination experience. Her primary research interests are Engaged Scholarship, SME Entrepreneurship, and Global Supply Chain Management; Research methods is her secondary research interest, for which she is authoring a textbook. Fariba is an engaged scholar who has successfully secured research grants to ‘Harness AI and Generative AI for Welsh SMEs’ Innovation’, acting as Principal Investigator, and is co-investigating a ‘AI-driven innovation in UK SMEs’ project funded by ISBE’s RAKE fund. She has also been successful in attracting UKRI funds for a KTP project. She has published in World Class Journals such as the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour Research and Human Resource Management Journal, alongside authoring chapters in edited research volumes.
Please visit Fariba’s full profile here: https://www.bangor.ac.uk/staff/bbs/fariba-darabi-658619/en
Professor Stephanie Decker
Stephanie Decker, FAcSS, is Professor of Strategy at Birmingham Business School. She has contributed substantially to interdisciplinary research that draws on historical knowledge to expand and problematise management knowledge.
This research stream was recognised in the REF 2022 panel report for its contribution to the theoretical sophistication of business history. Her work spans methodological and theoretical issues, as well as empirical research on the role of international business in global contexts that are often underrepresented in business research, such as Africa. She has been joint editor-in-chief of Business History since 2020.
As Co-Vice Chair for Research & Publications at the British Academy of Management, she has developed BAM’s Open Access strategy to support the continued excellence of our journals, British Journal of Management and International Journal of Management Reviews, as well as supporting the further development of the BAM research grants scheme.
She co-authored the BAM Guide to Decolonising the Business School Curriculum with the BAM Vice Chair for Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity & Respect and continues to champion interdisciplinary research in business, management and beyond.
Benefits of attending
- Reflecting on the role of DTC for our research agendas and how our methods can better reflect our insights and learning from engaging in DTC activities;
- Introducing a wide range of different DTC approaches to the BAM community, based on colleagues’ experiences at different institutions,
- Engaging in a forward-looking dialogue with the wider BAM community about how we can make DTC meaningful.
Contact
Please contact the BAM Office at [email protected] with any queries.
Event Fee
BAM Members and Student Members: Free
Non-Members: £60
If you are booking multiple paid events as a Non-Member, it may be cheaper for you to purchase a BAM Membership as nearly all BAM Events are free or at a discounted rate for Members.
For more information about Becoming a BAM Member, please visit BAM Membership
Registration closes on 9th January 2026 at 23:59 GMT