Reparative Futures programme

Reparative Futures is a £10 million programme. It aims, through a series of targeted initiatives, to redress some of the systemic injustices arising from the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved African people.

The University acknowledges its historical ties with individuals linked to that activity and the significant work required to address this legacy and ongoing anti-black racism within the University and beyond.

The Reparative Futures Programme was announced in November 2023 and began in February 2024. It will run for 10 years with a view to creating a sustainable impact that can continue and be built on well after the formal programme has completed. It will be co-created with Bristol’s Black communities, students and staff.

On this page

Programme mobilisation phase

The Reparative Futures programme combined with the University’s institutional commitment to anti-racism and the work of the University's Anti-Racism Working Group forms the basis of our ongoing efforts to dismantle all forms of racism wherever they exist.

To build a programme that has real impact on communities that continue to suffer the long-term effects of historic enslavement and racial injustice, it is important that we listen, and seek to understand these legacies and that we work with affected communities within and beyond our institution.

We are therefore in a mobilisation phase of the Reparative Futures programme to set up and embed partnerships and co-creation processes as well as the governance of the programme that will ensure we meet the principles we have set for the programme. This mobilisation phase will run until the end of July 2025.  

The mobilisation phase includes tasks such as:  

  • appointing internal and external collaborators and accountability partners 
  • defining frameworks for co-creation and learning 
  • developing a communications and engagement plan 
  • developing equitable funding allocation models, so that funding and the outputs from joint projects are shared fairly  
  • developing governance  
  • developing core principles.

Programme roles

In late April 2025, we created a new role to officially lead the programme: Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor Reparative and Civic Futures. We appointed Dr Marie-Annick Gournet to this role.

Dr Gournet is recruiting a team with permanent and advisory roles to help drive forward our ambitious plans for the programme.

The Accountability Partners, who co-create and advise us, are a key element of the programme.

We already have community Accountability Partners, and we plan to have staff and students joining this group by mid-Autumn 2025, to help shape the Reparative Futures programme as it develops.

Community Accountability Partners

In May 2024, we appointed 24 community Accountability Partners, to work with us to build the infrastructure we need to deliver the Reparative Futures programme. 

We recruited the community Accountability Partners through an open application process, using local and national recruitment advertising platforms. They were selected based on their experience and expertise working with Black communities in areas of strong relevance to the programme, for example: education, health and wellbeing, opportunities for youth, arts, culture and history, community research and criminal justice.   

The community Accountability Partners provide a link between the University and the wider community of African descent, and hold the University to account for its ambition to create transformational change through reparatory justice work. They bring their unique perspectives, expertise and experiences to challenge the University to do better. 

Our principles for Reparative Futures

Co-creation

We want to work closely with staff, students and external communities to develop equitable outcomes that are informed by and shaped with people of African descent.

We recognise that as an institution, we cannot know what is best for all our communities without working in partnership with them. 

Communication and engagement

We commit to being open and transparent about what and how we are doing, and talking regularly with our communities.

Dedicated resource

We commit to dedicate resource to support bringing about this change, recognising the time and expertise of contributors within and outside the University.

A holistic and cohesive approach

The programme is distinct from, but related to, initiatives such as the ​equity, ​​​​diversity and ​inclusion activities ​​that already exist at every level across the University.

Though our work is specifically aimed at addressing the legacies arising from the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved African people, dismantling the lingering impacts of racism will have wider impacts on equity and inclusion.  

We will therefore take a holistic and cohesive approach, working in tandem with other race equality initiatives, reviewing activities and processes to understand what is working well and where we need to make changes.

Research driven

Further research into our past will help us to contextualise our buildings, and further research into the present-day impacts of enslavement will provide a solid foundation for the work undertaken within the Reparative Futures programme.  

Delivering the programme

The mobilisation phase will lay the guiding principles for partnership working and establish the Programme's governance. After this, we will co-create prioritised action plans and metrics with the accountability partners, informed by internal and external stakeholders, and shared with our communities.

The programme’s initiatives and actions will be overseen and co-created by the various stakeholders brought together in the earlier mobilisation phase of the programme. By working together in this collaborative way we can be confident that we are using our resource to transform the way the University works with and for African descent communities. 

Checking our progress

Reflecting on our progress will be important for us to achieve transformational change for those with lived experiences of Afriphobia. This means reviewing where our focus and funding should remain, and where it might need to change. Regular stakeholder events with our Accountability Partners, community members, staff and students will help us in this process.

We will regularly update on our plans, actions, and progress. If you want to be involved in the programme in the future or receive our announcements, you can email us to register your interest: reparative-futures@bristol.ac.uk.

Why the term 'Afriphobia'

Afriphobia can be defined as specific forms of systemic racism and structural discrimination which target people of African descent, manifested by both overt and covert acts of direct, indirect, and structural racial discrimination. 

Why the term 'Reparative Futures'

During the public consultation on renaming the University's buildings which were associated with individuals linked with the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved African people, we held an event titled ‘Confronting the past, shaping the future’ at the Rose Green Cricket Ground in Bristol on 11 July 2023.

The event’s title was inspired by Bob Marley’s iconic phrase: 'In this great future, you can’t forget your past.'

We were also inspired by a line in Maya Angelou’s poem 'On the Pulse of Morning' which Professor Leon Tikly quoted during his speech at the event: 'History, despite its wrenching pain Cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.' (Angelou, M. (2015) The Complete Poetry. Virago Press.)

From these, and to acknowledge the impact that public opinion at this event had on our programme’s direction, we adopted the term ‘Reparative Futures’ for our programme name.

In the context of our programme name, the term 'Reparative Futures' means the importance of knowing, understanding, acknowledging and bearing witness to the past to better shape and transform our future. Our ‘Reparative Futures programme’ seeks to create a more just and equitable future free of Afriphobia, through education, research and civic partnership. 

Other uses of 'Reparative Futures'

The phrase 'Reparative Futures' has also been used by other scholars and other projects.

We acknowledge the valuable work of Arathi Sriprakash, David Nally, Kevin Myers, and Pedro Ramos-Pinto (2020) in a paper commissioned for the UNESCO Futures of Education Report. In the paper they discuss and explain the concept of reparative futures.

The term has also been used by others in other contexts, including:

Programme commitment

We commit to working in partnership with key stakeholders, locally, nationally and globally to understand and eliminate systemic barriers, particularly in the domains of education and research. 

We will decide detailed actions to realise this commitment in consultation with our internal and external partners, on a regular basis over the duration of the 10 year programme.

The programme will also focus on areas identified through the Reparative Futures engagement events: 

  • Further research into our history in more recent times and its impact on persistent racism and race-related inequalities.
  • Contextualising and explaining the names of buildings across the University.
  • Expanding educational access and opportunities for individuals of Black heritage.
  • Creating a community fund for equitable collaborative initiatives between local groups and the University.
  • Improving and updating the website to ensure transparency about the programme and its initiatives.
  • Engaging with and making our historical records available and accessible to the widest possible public via both physical and digital means.