SOAS has posted an interview with the team that developed a “Toolkit for Decolonising”

What is decolonisation in an academic sense and why is it important?

Lizi: Decolonisation means questioning and dismantling the assumed ways of thinking and the ways in which we study and disseminate information, who we study and why, and looking at the methods of study and assessment. Traditionally it’s been centered around Europe and western cultures. Decolonisation looks outside of that and outside of those preconceived notions and assumptions to include a more expansive worldview.

Lesley: I think in the UK, SOAS is the only university to bring decolonisation to all the curricula over time, not just philosophy. Our curriculum is about diversity and our assessment performance is diverse too, which other universities do not do. Even though we have a lot of room to improve, I hope it can raise awareness to other universities to showcase that this is what can be done and how important it is.

What was the motivation to approach decolonisation with this toolkit?

Dr Giladi: Philosophy – as an intellectual discipline in higher education – is very parochial. The Anglo-European tradition has been obsessed with – in the latter part of the 20th century – the conflict between Anglo-American philosophy and continental European thought. The idea of thinking about philosophy as something outside Europe has never been sufficiently addressed, partly because so much of western philosophy is built on systemic exclusion of African, Asian and Middle Eastern voices.