After attending the recent Decolonizing the Academy conference, PfAL 5 candidate Aaron Munzaa asserts in the Africa at LSE blog that while listening is good, it is critical that there is active engagement in deconstructing dominant and oppressive power structures and legacies in all spheres of life.
Conversations on colonisation and racism are difficult to have between races. These brutal racial ideologies have left a scar in the conscience of humanity. What is even more difficult is to confront the reality that the legacies of this noxious and oppressive heritage persists in our world today – from pristine halls of the academy to the murky residences of shack dwellers, as was ably examined on 21 and 22 April 2016 at the University of Edinburgh during a conference aptly themed Decolonizing the Academy. Brave scholars congregated to discuss and share experiences on this incredibly complex issue and the many faces it wears in our world today. There was great diversity among those present and the depth of their work was enlightening as they exchanged ideas and experiences in confronting multiple power structures of domination that continue to exist in the classroom, research, publishing, language, ideas, history, and institutions among others.