Academic networks in Europe on decoloniality

Text and photograph by Paola Minoia

In the meantime, in Europe, the debate on critical interculturality and decoloniality is more and more visible in international networks. For instance, EADI through a working group on Post- and Decolonial Perspectives on Development is engaging more on this line, especially through its webinar series. BISA (British international Studies Association) has also a Colonial/Postcolonial/Decolonial working group. In the Nordic Countries, the group DENOR (Decolonial critique, knowledge production and social change in the Nordic countries) is organizing a workshop at the University of Gothenburg which we will attend next October. Last week (4-5 June, at the ISS, The Hague), Wendy Harcourt and Rosalba Icaza launched a new network on decolonizing pedagogies, to increase the presence of diverse epistemologies, pedagogies and diversity of students and staff. The programme included a key lecture by Arturo Escobar (photo below). At the meeting we exchanged papers and research notes. I found inspiring and stimulating reflections on structural challenges within our universities a report prepared by the “diversity commission” of the University of Amsterdam: Let´s do diversity.

Photo: Paola Minoia