YSJ, Academic Development Programme
Professional Development for Learning, Teaching and Research
Discussing Decolonisation event series 2024/25
October 15, 2024 - June 30, 2025
About:
Following last year’s event series, ‘Discussing Decolonisation’ returns in 2024/25 with a series of talks and workshops taking place in person and online across the academic year.
The series is hosted by the Teaching and Learning Enhancement (TLE) Team at York St John University (YSJU), and aims to showcase the vital work staff and students are undertaking to decolonise pedagogy, curricula, institutions and collective thinking across the sector .
The events will include guest lectures, workshops, roundtables and panel discussions that are designed to be both probing and participatory in nature – challenging participants to reflect on their own positionality and personal/disciplinary assumptions, but also to engage critically with the institutional policies, practices and broader structures surrounding and informing anti-racist and decolonial work.
Series organisers Dr Laura Key and Lucy Potter hope that these events will facilitate collective discussion and critical exploration of the history, politics, theory and praxes of decolonisation and ongoing anti-colonial resistance, whilst also functioning as a call to action and demand for change in relation to higher education at YSJU and beyond.
Schedule of events:
Tuesday 15th October, 6-7.30pm: guest lecture by Dr John Narayan (KCL) on the Black Panther Party [Creative Centre Auditorium]
Friday 22nd November, 3-5pm: roundtable discussion at YSJU with short position papers on how we should understand decolonisation in relation to HE [CC/201 and MS Teams]
Tuesday 28 January, 2-4pm: decolonising academic writing workshop with Dr Amita Nijhawan (UAL) [CC/201 and/or MS Teams]
February 2025: guest speaker at the YSJ London campus [TBC]
March 2025: PGR panel on decolonisation and the future of academia [TBC]
May 2025: panel discussion on abolition and decolonisation [TBC]
June 2025: a half-day of workshops and talks on building a decolonising movement in the North [Creative Centre]
Booking for all events in the series will be available via Eventbrite from October 2024 onwards.
If you have any questions or would like to be added to the mailing list for the series, please email Lucy Potter (l.potter@yorksj.ac.uk) and/or Laura Key (l.key@yorksj.ac.uk).