Title: From Postcolonial Legacies to Decolonial Futures: Academic Libraries in Caribbean–British Contexts

Abstract:

This talk draws on Dr Alice Corble’s Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship, which examines the role of academic libraries in shaping decolonisation agendas in higher education. Through archival ethnography, oral history interviews, and institutional case studies at the University of the West Indies, the University of Sussex, and the University of London, the research traces postcolonial library legacies through the transnational flows of people, texts, ideas, political agendas, and professional norms. These movements have shaped knowledge infrastructures and institutional memory from the mid-20th century to the present.

Focusing on the overlooked histories of library–academic connections in Caribbean and British higher education, Alice explores how these relationships have mediated struggles over epistemic authority, access, institutional development, and reparative justice. The webinar will offer insights into how these historical trajectories inform current debates and practices on decolonising academic and research libraries, highlighting practical strategies and critical questions for the sector.

Biography:

Dr Alice Corble is a Lecturer in Library and Information Studies and a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at University College London. She teaches Collection Development on the LIS MA programme. Alice has over fourteen years’ experience working across public and academic libraries, including at the University of Sussex Library, where she contributed to sector-leading decolonial initiatives. Her Leverhulme research explores the historical and contemporary roles of academic and research libraries in shaping decolonisation agendas in higher education, with a focus on transnational connections between the Caribbean and Britain. This project combines archival ethnography, oral history, critical library studies, and critical university studies, to address questions of epistemic justice, knowledge infrastructures, and reparative professional practice.