Decolonization: Rethinking the coloniality of power, knowledge and being｜Webinar

The Courageous Conversations Speaker Series hosted by the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion presents:
Decolonization: Rethinking the coloniality of power, knowledge and being. This second event in the Decolonization and Questions of Justice in the University series featured Dr. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Dr. Altamirano-Jiménez who explored theories and practices of decolonization, knowledge production in the contemporary university, and the rhetorics of liberation and freedom across time and space.
Beginning with the contemporary politics of knowledge, Dr. Ndlovu-Gatsheni examined several interrelated themes: the need for a critical reflection on the grammars of liberation; decolonial “turns” in a long struggle for liberation; the African experience with decolonization of knowledge; and, finally, conclude with a focus on the resurgent and insurgent decolonization of the 21st century. In examining decolonization beyond the English-speaking world, Dr. Altamirano-Jiménez explored knowledge production, thinking feeling and interculturality; decoloniality and its discontents; decolonization in relation to land, body and Indigenous freedom; and, finally, concluded with a discussion of thinking-feeling-doing Indigenous futures.
Dr. Malinda Smith, vice-provost (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) hosted and moderated the questions from the audience.
About the Speakers
Dr. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is Professor and Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. His various publications include: Decolonizing the University: Knowledge Systems and Disciplines in Africa, coedited with Siphamandla Zondi (2016), Decolonization, Development and Knowledge in Africa: Turning Over A New Leaf (2020).
Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez is Binizaá (Zapotec) from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico and Professor of Political Science. She was appointed Canada Research Chair in Comparative Indigenous Feminist Studies in 2017. Among her books are Indigenous Encounters with Neoliberalism. Place, Women and the Environment (2013), Living on the Land. Indigenous Women’s Understandings of Place edited with Kermoal (2016).