Recent events have initiated both a re-evaluation and, consequently, a re-write of what would otherwise have been a straightforward précis of an uplifting panel session where four academics – at very different stages of our careers – who fall under the BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) category discussed our experiences. The thread binding us together was – despite our divergent journeys leading there – our work within British universities and, broadly speaking, within English departments. Aside from these commonalities, and the shared experiences and connections once inside the UK academy, we could arguably, present ourselves as a manifesto repudiating the idea of a monolithic BAME experience.

In fact, any conclusion from our initial presentations could be summarised thus:

To briefly address these points, it is salient to note that the panel was composed of four people, born in three different continents, from different ethnic backgrounds, educational backgrounds, genders, social classes, and, ultimately, different initial experiences of teaching within higher education institutions. If only more English departments were to boast such diversity in their employment practices!

As loosely defined ‘Early Career Academics’, a range of previous employment, including teaching roles, had also preceded our presences on the faculty payroll. And on this note, our wealth of experience meant that we continued to cross disciplines once inside the academy.

The idea of a permanent, secure job within academia is increasingly rare and, as such, expertise has widened. This phenomenon is not limited to BAME staff, of course, but it is also worth taking into account the large subset of BAME staff whose experience of living and being educated outside of the UK has enabled them to more easily reach beyond their immediate areas of expertise within English.

Here I shall divulge further my own peripatetic existence: as a British-educated PhD candidate, sat between the Creative Writing Department at one institution, on the one hand, and the Religions and Philosophies department at a neighbouring institution, on the other, my practice-led research comprising of fiction, Caribbean Pentecostalism and migration straddles disciplines in an atypical manner.