300650 Decolonising higher education: perspectives from the global South (S) (SoSe 2021)

This seminar combines three research fields that have been rapidly developing over the last years: first, the post-colonial critique that is increasingly turning its attention to those formerly governed while still retaining addressing power asymmetries and the role of knowledge and culture in shaping unequal dynamics across the world. The new approaches focus on the modalities of action and rooms for manoeuvre under the condition and contributing to de-centring of established orders – as they can be currently observed in the field of higher education. The second line of research examines the recent changes in the global landscapes of higher education that are driven by neo-liberal policies and the enhanced competition between countries, universities, the academic staff, and students. Their work is especially observable in the scope of marketization and in different forms of classifying and measuring, and it is becoming increasingly visible in critical voices reacting to those. The third line of research centres on the questions of legitimacy and validity of knowledge. Modernity has allotted the centre stage to canonised academic knowledge; today, more and more actors call for re-thinking the prevailing knowledge hierarchies and the modalities of knowledge transmission. These debates take place at different sites of knowledge production, increasingly also entering the academia.
These three research fields ‘talk to each another’: They allow for critically assessing the durable inequalities in (higher) education and the changing parameters at different levels. On this basis, the seminar will link (the critique of) power and authority to knowledge production and dissemination as well as the (changing) coordinates of knowing and belonging. Selected texts will also allow for reflection on the possible and desired transgressions and more generally on the possibilities of future knowledge as well as on the future of knowledge.

Requirements for participation, required level

The seminar is open for master students. The seminar requires good English reading competences and is planned to be held in English. Students must be prepared to read all the texts listed in the seminar plan and to actively engage in plenary and group discussions. Written requirements (five text summaries to be submitted before the relevant session) will be explicated in the introductory session of the seminar.

Bibliography

Please, see relevant literature in the "Lernraum".