School of Social and Political Science

Content

As the third workshop under the wider Teaching Feminisms, Transforming Lives project, the theme centered on Decolonising Feminist Knowledge: Reflections on Research and Curriculum. The aim of this day-long workshop was to bring together early career and established scholars interested in engaging with the methodological and pedagogical challenges faced in the process of decolonising feminist research and/or teaching.

Reverberations of the call to decolonise are being felt in academia across the globe today, with debates about what constitutes knowledge, how knowledge is produced, whose knowledge counts, and why to democratise the curriculum taking centre-stage. As feminist scholars, ensuring that our research methodologies and pedagogical strategies are as diverse and inclusive as possible is central to our engagement within the academy.

The keynote was delivered by Prof Rukmini Sen (Ambedkar University Delhi), on 'Writing the Self, Walking with the Social: Feminist Reflections on Knowing and Knowledge'.

Recording of Prof Rukmini Sen's Keynote

This workshop was co-sponsored by the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for South Asian Studies, GenderED, and Sociology, and held at the University of Edinburgh.

You can access the workshop programme and abstracts below.

Decolonising Feminist Knowledge Workshop Programme

Workshop Abstracts

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Recordings of the Decolonising Feminist Knowledge Workshop

Dr Supurna Banerjee (Institute of Development Studies Kolkata) - ‘Interrogating Power Structures of Feminist Research: Towards Decolonising Research Methods and Practices'

Dr Radhika Govinda (University of Edinburgh) - ‘“Mirror Mirror on the Wall...” The Promise and Perils of Decolonising Feminist Classrooms'

Dr Órla Murray (University of Edinburgh) - ‘Doing Feminist Decolonial Research Through Reflexivity and Accountability’

Megan Harrington (University of Edinburgh) - 'Western Eyes, Decolonial Glasses? Researching Malawi, Interrogating Western Feminist Knowledge Production on the Global South'

Kamya Choudhary, Marta Kowalewska & Cat Wayland (University of Edinburgh) - ‘Decolonising Research and Feminist Friendships: A Conversation Across Boundaries’

Janine Francois (University of Bedfordshire) - ‘From Safer Spaces to Braver Spaces: A Black Feminist Responds’

Dr Emma Hill (University of Edinburgh) - ‘Borderlines: Reflections on Researching Displaced Migration in Scotland and the Decolonial Agenda’

Dr Amélie le Renard (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) - ‘Analyzing Western/White Hegemony in the Arabian Peninsula: Reflections on Intersectionality, Postcoloniality and Knowledge Production’

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Decolonising Feminist Knowledge Art Mural

Kamya Choudhary, Megan Harrington and Cat Wayland, three PhD students from the School of Social and Political Science, received a grant from the Principal’s Office, making possible an art mural by Raquel Durán on the workshop theme.

Kamya shares our vision and rationale behind having an arts-based element to our otherwise academically intensive day-long line up in the Gender Politics blog.

• Choudhary, Kamya. 2019. “Decolonising Feminist Knowledge Through Art.” Gender Politics at Edinburgh.

Similarly, Cat and Marta sheds light on their experiences of co-organising this workshop.

• Wayland, Cat and Kowalewska, Marta. 2019. “Decolonising Feminisms, Transforming Lives.” Gender Politics at Edinburgh.

You can view the entire art mural as a pdf.

'Decolonising Feminist Knowledge' Art Mural, by Raquel Durán