The Institute of Education has renamed its Drama Studio after a woman for the first time in its 122-year history.
Robert Delaney Online Editor
Punnett Hall, named after the former vice-principal of the London Day Training College (now the IOE) Margaret Punnett, was unveiled last Wednesday 16 October at a ceremony attended by numerous members of IOE faculty staff, including Professor Li Wei, the IOE’s Dean.
The IOE has, for nearly its entire history, consisted of a majority female student and teaching base.
However, the institution has not, until this month, had a room named after a female alumnus or member of staff.
It does, however, have five lecture halls named after male directors of the institution, leading questions to be asked about UCL’s commitment to more inclusive naming procedures.
The commitment of UCL to de-naming and renaming buildings on campus is further brought into question when one looks at the Review of Names Used within the UCL Estate Report from 2020.
In the report, Dr Clare Goudy, the former secretary of the now defunct Buildings Naming and Re-naming Committee, notes that four UCL buildings had ties to particularly problematic historical figures.
Only one of the four buildings named has been changed since the report.
Indeed, out of the Eastman Dental School, Petrie Museum, Rockefeller Building and the R.A. Fisher Centre, only the latter has been renamed, despite all figures named having ties to eugenics and racialised science.
UCL’s position as the historic home of eugenics makes this lack of change seem even more pertinent.
The Cheese Grater, at the Punnett Hall unveiling event, conducted an interview with Professor Georgina Brewis, the IOE Professor of Social History and project lead on GenerationUCL, UCL’s bicentenary history project.
Professor Brewis was also the main driver behind the former Drama Studio’s name change to Punnett Hall, having spent a grand total of five years to enact such a change.
When asked why it took five years for Punnett Hall to be renamed, Brewis told The Cheese Grater that she’s ‘not exactly sure’.
She noted that ‘a 2018 committee under a different director’ (Rebecca Francis, the IOE’s first female director appointed in 2016) agreed to the room naming in 2018, but ‘huge building works and the massive Masterplan’ was one reason why the plans for Punnett Hall were put on hold.
Professor Brewis joked that the process of getting Punnett Hall named was ‘torturous’, especially with UCL’s Naming and Re-naming Committee being out of action for ‘the past few years’.
The committee’s absence made Punnett Hall’s naming process much more difficult than initially anticipated.
Professor Brewis went on to explain that ‘the timing of (the Punnett Hall renaming process) wasn’t good with eugenics and everything [sic]’, with reference to UCL’s de-naming programme that was enacted in response to the BLM movement of 2020.
She explained that ‘At the time (UCL) were denaming spaces, so they weren’t super keen to rename spaces’, even if said spaces didn’t have a personalised name prior and were being renamed after objectively positive figures in UCL’s history.
Brewis also cited Covid and the fact that the Drama Studio was a ‘recognised space’ in the masterplan and anxieties around the ‘de-naming of other IOE rooms named after men’ as blockages to the process.
Margaret Punnett was also an ‘unselfish figure’, as seen in Professor Brewis’ research on the former vice-principal.
Punnett’s reluctance to put herself forth for recognition by the IOE during her lifetime, alongside the fact that she was a woman in the early-mid 20th century, has meant she has had an unfairly minimal presence in the historical record compared to her male contemporaries.
It’s no wonder that Punnett hasn’t been given recognition by the institution she played a crucial role in until 2024, 78 years after her death.
When asked about the next steps in the wider room-naming process at the IOE and UCL at large, Professor Brewis noted that ‘it’s taken 120 years to get a [woman’s] name at the IOE’ so ‘it’s a long process’.
She also remarked that Margaret Punnett was a ‘middle-class white woman… and (that) there’s loads more to be done’ in diversifying representation on the UCL Estate.
With the 200th anniversary of UCL around the corner, it is evident that Professor Brewis wants to push forth in giving representation to all those who have been a part of the UCL community, not just dead white men.
One can only hope that UCL assists, rather than hinders, this important process.
A UCL spokesperson said,
‘Applications to name a space, room or building at UCL are open to anyone and all are considered as part of an evaluation and due diligence process.
‘Earlier this year, we were delighted to rename the IOE’s drama studio Punnett Hall, in recognition of Margaret Punnett, a pioneering female educator who helped train thousands of teachers at UCL in the early 20th century.
‘We will continue to ensure more of our spaces are named after women who have made such a positive impact on our community and helped shape UCL’s history.’
This article appeared in the Digestive 3
