‘It's all very well having a diverse curriculum, but if there is no curriculum, it can be as diverse as you like’: Precarity and decolonising in the neoliberal UK higher education system

Abstract Drawing upon interview research across two academic departments as part of the early stages of a ‘decolonise the curriculum’ initiative at a Southern UK university, this study highlights a growing gulf between policy and practice in efforts to address systemic racial inequalities in UK universities. A reliance upon precarious labour, a culture of unpredictable change, and entrenched academic hierarchies were found to contribute to issues of ownership over knowledge, a lack of time to engage with decolonising, and to securely employed staff directing the responsibility for such work away from themselves, often towards the more precarious. Underpinning the analysis was a theme of collective disillusionment: where anxiety and a sense of impending doom around the future of a career, a course and even an entire discipline impede social justice aims. Utilising theories of neurotic academia and crisis ordinariness, the discussion shows how the current neoliberal market imperatives of universities in the UK must be considered when attempting to embed decolonising initiatives.