The timeline below charts the development of the project from its start in 2021 through to the creation of this website at the start of 2026. It highlights key activities, milestones and outputs in reverse chronological order, so the most recent work appears first. It provides a snapshot of how the project evolved over time and the steps we took to embed decolonial practice across the school.
Please note that the timeline reflects the project as it was up to December 2025 and will not be updated beyond this point.
November 2025: ‘Decolonising Business Schools in Context’ workshop in partnership with BAM. This in-person event invited participants to engage with creative and decolonised methodologies to explore what decolonisation means in their own personal and professional contexts.
May 2025: Decolonising a business school – from theory to practice SAGE case report: a publication which gives an overview of the project to date, sharing reflections and experiences following our work to decolonise a business school in the UK.
April 2025: Engaging with nature-based practice in business schools and organisations: a workshop to engage with ideas and debates and to experience what engaging with nature can look like within the context of business research and education across disciplines and links to decolonisation.
March 2025: Art co-creation project: a creative, collaborative two-day event in collaboration with artist Carol Pairaudeau to create a work of art with BBS colleagues and students inspired by the theme of belonging at Birmingham Business School
August 2024: “Welcoming spaces” student-led research project to develop spaces that reflect our students’ diverse identities and foster a strong sense of community.
July 2024: Professional Services creative workshops in collaboration with the Decolonisation Project and New Vic Boderlines to explore explore what it means to be connected, part of a community and how we can be empowered to make change.
May 2024: Decolonising Assessments in Teaching: A Collaborative Exploration workshop, run by Dr Kelly Rogers, which will delve into the implications of decolonisation on assessments beyond exam content.
May 2024: Exploring the relevance of decolonisation in post-socialist contexts seminar by Prof. Krzysztof Stachowiak, to examine the relationship between decolonial practices and post-socialist dynamics, highlighting similarities and differences.
April – June 2024: Business History through the looking glass of [De]colonisation: A BBS seminar mini-series looking at history’s significance in shaping our thinking, in our research and teaching and the potential value of Business History’s contributions to our understanding of the pasts, presents and possible futures of colonising and decolonising.
April 2024: Decolonising the Curriculum workshop. A session designed to explore and understand not only the ‘what’ but also the ‘how’ of curriculum decolonisation.
March 2024: Decolonisation across Universities seminar. A seminar discussing the diverse strategies, challenges, and outcomes associated with the ongoing efforts to decolonize the higher education curriculum. We were joined by Dr Alice Robson and Dr Bronwen Burton from the University of Bristol and Dr Joycelin Eze-Okubuiro from the University of Leicester.
March 2024: Decolonial Dialogues podcast series. Our brand new podcast series was launched, looking at decolonisation from different perspectives. Developed with Susan Njuguna, a BSc Economics graduate from BBS.
September 2023: Reflections after one year of the project, CoSS Essentials. Reflecting on the first year of the project, we held a session for the College of Social Sciences to share our experience and learn from each other.
September 2023: Decolonising BBS film premiere: As part of the BBS Education Conference 2023, we held a film screening which premiered two films made during workshops with students and staff exploring the topic of decolonisation.
June 2023: Decolonising a Business School: A Student’s Perspective exhibition. A student-led exhibition showcasing the objects, poems and visualisations made within workshops exploring decolonisation.
May 2023: Decolonising Professional Services. Our first enquiry what decolonising means for Professional Services was through a day long workshop, held in partnership with Black Walks Heritage Network and New Vic Borderlines to start to understand how to decolonise our operations.
March / April 2023: Decolonising the Business School: A student’s perspective. In partnership with New Vic Borderlines, the Decolonisation Project ran a series of workshops with students to delve deeper into the topic of decolonisation and gain their perspective to how it applies to their experience at Birmingham Business School.
March 2023: Citation Justice workshop. To celebrate International Women’s Day, in collaboration with Library Services, we held a workshop looking at Citation Justice, what it means and how we can practice it. We heard from FEM (Female Empowerment Maastrict), who spoke about their citation guide, followed by discussion about how we can begin to practice citation justice in both our teaching, and research practice.
February – September 2023: Decolonising the Business School seminar series: Throughout the academic year 2022/23 we be hosted a series of seminars focusing on decolonisation, challenges and discourses surrounding the project.
February/March 2023: Using art to decolonise business and management education. In a series of workshops, developed by Caroline Chapain and Emma Surman in collaboration with the Barber Institute for Fine Art, Management and Marketing students were taken out of the classroom and into the gallery.
December 2022: Launch of the formalised Decolonisation Project, showcasing the work to date within the School and a roundtable discussion from staff and students about what decolonisation means to them.
September 2022: Thematic session on Enabling Diverse Voices and Experiences in Business Education: from Inclusive Pedagogy to the Decolonisation of the Curriculum organised at the 2nd Birmingham Business School Education Conference led by Caroline Chapain, Fiona Carmichael, Chris Darko and Liza Jabbour.
February to September 2022: Research on Business schools, research cultures and (de)colonisation to understanding the lived experience of research and practice(s) undertaken by Caroline Chapain, Jo Duberley, Henry Price and Emma Surman; presentation of the early findings from the research were made at the 2022 British Academy of Management Annual Conference and the 2022 Journal of Management Studies Conference in August and September 2022.
May 2021: A workshop that brought together students, staff and external speakers to discuss what decolonisation can mean in theory and/or practice and what is needed to undertake decolonial work within the Business School
Decolonising a Business School 