Discussing Decolonisation 2024/25

About:

Hosted by the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Team at York St John University (YSJU), the Discussing Decolonisation series returns in 2024/25 with a series of talks and discussions taking place online and in person over the course of the academic year.

The events include guest lectures, workshops, roundtables and panel discussions, and are designed to be both probing and participatory in nature – challenging attendees 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 constraining anti-racist and decolonial work.

This year, the series will also be complemented by a cross-disciplinary internal reading group exploring the theory and politics of anti-colonial thought, alongside ongoing debates over efforts to ‘decolonise’ higher education. You can read more and sign up to the reading group here (please note, the reading group is currently for YSJU staff and students only, but this will be reviewed and the sessions potentially opened up in future).

Co-organisers Dr Laura Key and Lucy Potter hope that these events and sessions will facilitate critical, collective exploration of the history, politics and praxes of decolonisation and anti-colonial struggle, 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, York campus, and livestreamed via Zoom]

Tuesday 4th February, 2-4pm: Decolonising academic writing workshop with Dr Amita Nijhawan (UAL) [CC/201, York campus] 

Friday 28th March, 2-4pm: First online PGR panel on decolonisation and academic futures [MS Teams] 

Thursday 24th April, 6-7.30pm: Guest lecture by Dr Luke de Noronha (UCL) on ‘race’, racism and the postcolonial today [LX/601, London campus, and livestreamed via Teams] 

Monday 28th April, 2-4pm: Second online PGR panel on decolonisation and academic futures [MS Teams] 

Wednesday 21st May, 11-1pm: Online panel discussion on decolonisation and the politics of abolition [MS Teams]

Wednesday 4th June, 5-6.30pm: Short film screening and discussion on cultural production as resistance [CC/101, York campus]

Wednesday 2nd July, 10am-5pm: Hybrid summer finale event dedicated to building the decolonising movement in HE, with talks, workshops, refreshments and networking opportunities [Creative Centre, York Campus] 

York St John colleagues are also invited to participate in one (or both!) of our Decolonisation in Higher Education: Questions and Prompts Workshops, taking place on campus in York and London, in April and June 2025 respectively.

More information:

Booking for all events in the series is via Eventbrite, with each event bookable separately; the Eventbrite links for each event will be made available at least two weeks in advance.

If you have any questions about any of the events in the series, please email Lucy Potter (l.potter@yorksj.ac.uk) and/or Laura Key (l.key@yorksj.ac.uk).

If you would like to receive updates about forthcoming events in the series, along with recordings and materials from past events, please sign up for our new Discussing Decolonisation mailing list, here.