DeCentered Conversations
1 December 2021

Africanising/Decolonising Ourselves: The Implications for Advancing Critical University Studies – Africa (ACUSAfrica)

André Keet’s GDC webinar envisions a conversation between the notions of Africanising and decolonising the university; and how this may look like in the South African and African context.  It further locates these discussions within an African interpretation of Critical University Studies, understood as the study of universities through analyses of power, privilege and authority. Reflecting on different programmes and their associated practices that orbit the notions of Africanisation and decolonisation within universities, the talk also attempts at linking these praxes with the general decentring programme.

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7 April 2021

A lecture by Raewyn Connell

“Meeting at the Edge of Fear”: Decolonizing the university world.

The title comes from a poem by Saleha Obeid Ghabesh, about solidarity between women across time and space. Raewyn considers the nature of the dominant knowledge formation, several kinds of alternative knowledge formations, and issues in the process of decolonizing university work and establishing epistemic diversity. Raewyn Connell is Professor Emerita, University of Sydney, and Life Member of the National Tertiary Education Union.  She is a widely-cited sociological researcher, the author of Gender & Power, Masculinities, and Southern Theory. Her recent books include The Good University and Gênero em termos reais. Her work has been translated into twenty languages. Raewyn has been active in the labour movement, the peace movement, and work for gender equality. Details at www.raewynconnell.net and Twitter @raewynconnell.

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17 February 2021

A DeCentered Conversation with May Al-Dabbagh

In this conversation Peggy Levitt talks with GDC member May Al Dabbagh about the meaning of decentering from the Gulf region and about how she developed “Self Tracing” as a research method and pedagogy tool. May Al-Dabbagh is an assistant professor at New York University Abu Dhabi and has an associated appointment as a global network assistant professor at New York University. She conducts research on gender and work in the Gulf using a combination of social psychology, public policy, and post-colonial feminist lenses. She runs Haraka: Experimental Lab for Arab Art and Social Thought as part of the the newly established Arab Center for the Study of Art.

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14 January 2021

Blog: ‘Who remains?’ (Part 1): Before we even start our research…

It seems inevitable to apply the question of institutional racism to our own institutional structures within the field of migration, integration and racism research in Germany. Experiences, ideologies and biases of those conducting the research ultimately also influence the topics as well as the research perspectives. The results may also have implications for other disciplines, like history. That is why we offer an insight into our perspective.    Blog co-authored by Dimitra Dermitzaki, Alina Goldbach, Nuriani Hamdan, Ali Konyali, Hanna Mai, Saboura Naqshband, and Bahar Oghalai.

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27 November 2020

A DeCentered Conversation with Felisa Tibbetts

In this conversation with Peggy Levitt, Felisa discusses her approach to decentered pedagogy and practice and her use of political biographies in her classroom. By asking students to reflect on how their own political experiences and socialization shaped their current commitments and tools, they get a clearer, more grounded sense of how their political past drives their future activism forward. Felisa Tibbetts holds a Chair in Human Rights Education at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and is an Instructor in the International Development Program at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York, USA

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