The Decolonial Turn and the Humanities Curriculum: Prospects, Practice and Interventions
The “decolonial turn” (aligned to the broader concept of decolonisation) is a nuanced, layered and sliding signifier. Despite its conceptual slipperiness, the insights, debate and discussion that it spurs provides a productive framework for critiquing and thinking about the education transformation project. This takes two forms:
- The `epistemological’ case in which decolonisation is seen as constitutive of reorganising and rethinking knowledge; and,
- The `historical’ case in which decolonisation is seen as playing an unprecedented role in reviewing and reconstituting social relations and identities in contemporary society.
We invite abstracts for scholarly papers for praxes-oriented sharing and panel sessions that expand critical horizons while remaining open to the nuances within a pluriversal critique. We would like to encourage Humanities’ scholars and students to interrogate the following broad philosophical themes:
- Histories and politics of knowledge production in the era of globalisation
- Knowledge production & decoloniality
- Critiques of the decolonial turn in curriculum transformation
- Students & curriculum transformation
- Technological (im)possibilities in teaching & learning
- Critical pedagogies & curricula to address bias and inequality
- Contradictions & prospects for curriculum transformation in a marketised global higher education sector
We also welcome papers and presentations that address more practical concerns such as:
- The Humanities Curriculum
- Discipline, knowledge formations and epistemic (in)justice
- Meaning, nature and purpose of universities
- Knowledge & Pedagogy
- Theories, methodologies, practice
- Global economy of knowledge
- Knowledge roles and the global South
- Remaking of intellectual cultures
- Remaking textbooks, undergraduate & postgraduate syllabi
- Reforming institutional architectures and cultures & intersectional erasures
Panels will be organised once abstracts and proposals are received and accepted for the conference.