YSJ, Academic Development Programme
Professional Development for Learning, Teaching and Research
Discussing Decolonisation 2024/25
October 15, 2024 - June 30, 2025
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 include or be complemented by a cross-disciplinary reading group exploring the theory and politics of anti-colonial thought, alongside ongoing debates over efforts to ‘decolonise’ higher education. You can read more about and sign up to the reading group here.
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), followed by audience Q&A [Creative Centre Auditorium, York]
Friday 22nd November, 3-5pm: Roundtable discussion on decolonisation in HE [CC/201 and MS Teams]
Tuesday 28th January, 2-4pm: Decolonising academic writing workshop with Dr Amita Nijhawan (UAL) [CC/201 and/or MS Teams]
February 2025, date TBC: Guest speaker at YSJ London campus [in person/hybrid]
March 2025, date TBC: PGR panel on decolonial research, teaching and the future of academia [online/hybrid]
May 2025, date TBC: Panel discussion on abolition and decolonisation, with opening talk by Dr Kennetta Hammond Perry (Northwestern) [online/hybrid]
June 2025: Building a decolonising movement in the North – half-day event with talks, workshops, refreshments and networking opportunities [Creative Centre, York]
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).