Event
Decoloniality: a reflexive workshop on the epistemic, ethical and methodological implications for our research praxis
@ University of Freiburg, Germany - June 26, 2013 –
Decoloniality has become an emerging topic in German Social Science. We have observed that academia in the Global North has mostly been engaged in studying decoloniality as a discourse. Our workshop suggests a different focus in asking:
What are the implications of practicing decolonial research
in the academic environment of a country within the Global North?
This workshop provides a laboratory to explore decoloniality conceived as a research “at- titude” focusing on its implications on an epistemological, ethical and methodological level and invites participants to contribute insights from their own research experience.
Together with Dr. Julia Súarez Krabbe we will elaborate on these implications using the conceptual framework of Boaventura Sousa Santos known as Epistemologies of the South(2009), which will serve as a conceptual tool for analyzing our own research experience. As Sousa Santos describes, dialogical sociology is yet to emerge. Those researchers who have set out to ‘walk the talk’ find themselves confronted with “strange mirrors [and] un- suspected lessons” (ALICE 2011) which this workshop will address. On this basis we will critically reconsider issues which are often perceived as solely individual experiences as a social and epistemological challenge.
