Workshop by Ali Meghji on Decolonising the curriculum

We’d like to invite you to our event (in collaboration with the Sociology department) with Ali Meghji, Prof. in Social Inequalities in the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge. The workshop is for students, PhDs and lecturers, and will tackle the topic of decolonising the curriculum / teaching: “Decolonisation or Diversion? Resisting Empire in the Academy”.

Taking place Thursday May 15, 2025 – from 10:00-11:30. At campus UFO T1 building, Aud B (Walter Soete).

Registration link: https://event.ugent.be/registration/AliMeghji20250515

Content:

We are witnessing a moment where Du Bois, Fanon, and other radical -black- scholars, are appearing more often in syllabi, but are they being read, or merely referenced? And when they are read, are their most radical insights being taken seriously, or softened for institutional palatability? This discussion / workshop goes into:

• The dangers of lazy decolonisation: Co-optation of radical thinkers (e.g., Fanon quoted in HR workshops). Institutional performativity.
• How to meaningfully decolonise the curriculum: Beyond reading lists: rethink methodologies, hierarchies of knowledge, languages of instruction, modes of teaching. Who gets to speak? Who gets cited? Who gets funded?
• Recovering and protecting radical thought: How to engage radical thinkers without de-fanging them? How to resist the neoliberalisation of radical theory. Possibility of building radical solidarities across racialised/colonised geographies.