Discussing Decolonisation Reading Group 2024/25

About:

The Discussing Decolonisation Reading Group (DDRG) is a new cross-disciplinary reading and discussion group for YSJ staff and students that will run alongside our Discussing Decolonisation event series for 2024/25.

The task of decolonising higher education requires us to engage in sustained thinking, reading and discussion about the history, theory and politics of colonialism and anti-colonial resistance, as well as with ongoing decolonisation efforts in and across the sector. With this reading group we will therefore return to some of the key anti-colonial texts and thinkers of the twentieth century, in addition to considering more recent interventions from scholars asking what it means ‘to decolonise’ the contemporary metropolitan university.

The sessions will generally take place online, over lunchtime, but the day of the week will vary to hopefully enable more colleagues to participate. Although it would be beneficial to attend all sessions, colleagues are more than welcome to join the reading group at any time and/or to dip in and out over the course of the year.

Please note that the texts listed below are offered as prompts for thinking and discussion, and there is no requirement to finish all the reading suggested. Wherever possible, we will point to key extracts around which we can base our conversations, and/or suggest podcasts or other media sources that can be accessed in lieu of the written materials.

Please click here to sign up for the reading group, and/or email Lucy Potter or Laura Key if you would like any more information.

Draft schedule:

Session 1: Monday 21st October, 12-1pm 

On decolonising the university:

• Priyamvada Gopal (2021) ‘Decolonisation and the University’, Textual Practice 35(6), 873-899 (accessible here)
• Gurminder Bhambra, Dalia Gebrial and Kerem Nişancıoğlu (2018) Decolonising the University, ‘Introduction’, pp.1-16 (Ebook here) – and/or, listen to this ‘Radicals in Conversation’ podcast (45 mins)

Session 2: Tuesday 12th November, 12-1pm 

On decolonising the mind and the role of culture:

• Amilcar Cabral (1972) ‘The Role of Culture in the Struggle for Independence’, pp.1-7 (PDF here)
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1986) Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, ‘Introduction’, pp. 1-3, and chapter 4, pp. 106-108 (Ebook here) – and/or listen to Ngũgĩ discuss his work on this podcast (51 mins) 
• Edward Said (1993) Culture and Imperialism, chapter 1, part I, pp.1-16 (Ebook here)

Session 3, Monday 9th December, 12-1pm

On (anti-)colonial violence and national liberation movements:

• Frantz Fanon (1961) The Wretched of the Earth, chapter 1 ‘On Violence’ and ‘Conclusion’ (available from various sources online, or in print from the YSJ Library) – and/or listen to this Left of Philosophy podcast (1 hour)
• Aimé Césaire (1955) ‘Discourse on Colonialism’ (Ebook here) – and/or this LRB podcast with Brent Hayes Edwards and Adam Shatz (13 mins, free extract)

Session 4, Tuesday 14th January, 12-1pm

On decolonisation as a material demand: 

• Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang (2012) ‘Decolonisation is not a metaphor’, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society 1(1), 1-40 (accessible here)
• Additional reading: Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (2022) Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously, chapter 1 ‘What, after all, is decolonisation’ (Ebook here) – or watch Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò in conversation with Alexandra Reza here (51 mins)

Session 5, Wednesday 26th February, 12-1pm 

On the concept of ‘decoloniality’:

• Walter Mignolo (2021)The Politics of Decolonial Investigations (Ebook here; extracts TBC)
• Critical responses to Mignolo: Kavish Chetty (2023) book review (here) and/or David Myer Temin (2024) ‘A decolonial wrong turn: Walter Mignolo’s epistemic politics’ (here)

Session 6, Friday 28th March, 12-1pm

On (neo-)colonial extractivism and the logic of underdevelopment:

• Eduardo Galeano (1971) Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, ‘Introduction’, pp.1-8 and, if time, ‘Seven years after’, pp.265-285 (Ebook here)
• Walter Rodney (1972) ‘Colonialism as a system for underdeveloping Africa’, in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (excerpt available here) – and/or, listen to this Verso podcast with Robin D.G. Kelley and Kevin Ochieng Okoth (1 hr 10 mins)
• Additional reading: Kwame Nkrumah (1965), Neo-colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, ‘Introduction’, pp.4-12 and ‘The mechanisms of neo-colonialism’, pp.186-197 (PDF here)

Session 7, Wednesday 30th April, 12-1pm 

On racial capitalism and (anti-)imperialism:

• Cedric Robinson (1983) Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (Ebook here; extracts TBC) – or, watch this lecture by Prof. Robin D.G. Kelley (1 hr 26 mins)
• Gargi Bhattacharya (2018) Rethinking Racial Capitalism: Questions of Reproduction and Survival (Ebook here; extracts TBC) – or, watch Prof. Bhattacharya in conversation with Dr Ashok Kumar here (1hr 16 mins) OR Nancy Fraser & Gargi Bhattacharya ‘On Cannibals and Capitalists’ Verso podcast (1 hr 11 mins)

Session 8, Friday 6th June, 12-1pm

Decolonising anti-racism?:

• Azfar Shafi and Ilyas Nagdee (2022) Race to the Bottom: Reclaiming Antiracism (Ebook here; extracts TBC)
• Arun Kundnani (2023) What is Anti-Racism and Why It Means Anti-Capitalism, ‘Introduction’, pp. 1-7 and chapter 13, pp.241-251 – or listen to this New Economics podcast (39 mins), or watch this Verso vlog (30 mins)

Additional recommended reading: 

• Remi Joseph-Salisbury and Laura Connelly (2022) Anti-Racist Scholar-Activism (Ebook here)

*Depending on interest, we may also run an additional DDRG session in early March for International Women’s Day, possibly based around selected interviews from Revolutionary Feminisms: Conversations on Collective Action and Radical Thought (Verso, 2020), and/or Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity (‘Introduction’ free from Duke University Press, 2023)