Abstract

Calls for decolonisation are resonating in universities across the globe today. The most dramatic instance has been the Rhodes Must Fall movement in South Africa, which helped catalyze protests around decolonising education in that country as well as activism in the UK. Our focus is on one particular aspect of today’s demand to decolonise the university: the curriculum. This opening session will ask why the demand for decolonisation is being heard so widely in universities today, what its politics and possibilities are at present in the UK, and what place decolonising the curriculum has in these broader demands for decolonising the university. To explore these themes, we bring together three scholars who have been involved in decolonising the curriculum, knowledge production, and the university in different ways. The panel will be followed by an open discussion to help set the agenda for the series of workshops and seminars in the year ahead.