Cornell University, an elite Ivy League institution in upstate New York, made history in early September when its English department became the first in the United States to change its name to reflect the global diversity of those writing in the English language.
Staff at the department voted overwhelmingly to change “English Literature” to “Literatures in English” – a symbolic shift away from an overwhelming focus on England.
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Carole Boyce Davies, professor of English and Africana Studies, hailed it as a landmark moment in the decolonisation of English literature.
She said English departments were often like “colonial relics stuck in time”, retaining a formidable streak of eurocentrism, a legacy of the discipline’s central role in Britain’s so-called “civilising mission”.
Boyce Davies jointly proposed the move in response to the slaying of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of policemen in Minneapolis in May provoked a global groundswell of protest, as well as a wider reckoning about the continued reverberations of white supremacy and empire.
The racism that led to Floyd’s death was forged in the academy, she said.
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