Decolonising the University: turning rhetoric into reality

Abstract

There is a great deal of rhetoric and good intentions about decolonising the university and creating spaces within university curricula for First Nations and culturally diverse knowledge systems. However, the reality of university research and teaching and learning remains dominated by Northern Eurocentric knowledge in many higher education institutions. There have been decades of postcolonial, decolonial, Indigenous and feminist research that has sought to challenge knowledge production that claims universality across time and space in many academic disciplines and continues to ignore geopolitical power struggles over knowledge. This has taken on a particular urgency in many countries since the South African #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall student campaigns beginning in 2015, that later spread to other decolonial #MustFall, #Decolonise and #WhyIs movements in England, Europe and the US. In this public lecture, Professor Catherine Manathunga enacts two key decolonial moves by explicitly articulating my own standpoint or positionality and by reflecting upon the deep time or history of places of higher learning in ancient African and First Nations civilizations. She then explores definitions of decolonisation. She applies these theoretical resources to the need to trouble taken-for-granted knowledge hierarchies between Northern and Southern knowledge and argues for a truly dialogic knowledge exchange and redistribution of epistemological privilege. Finally, Professor Manathunga will describe how decolonising the university curriculum requires seven key steps and illustrate the work conducted in the global South that is exemplifying the application of these seven steps in the case of doctoral education.

This lecture is free and open to all. Registration is not required to attend in person.

More information about Professor Catherine Manathunga

Please note, the venue of this lecture is at St Cuthbert Society's Parson's Field site (See map)