We are excited announce the Decolonial Futures RPA Hard Launch event, taking place on June 24 over the afternoon and evening. This will take place at droog (Staalstraat 7B, 1011JJ Amsterdam)
This event will feature 3 panels, each led by one of the RPA coordinators, Sanjukta Sunderason (Humanities), Eliana Cusato (Law), and Darshan Vigneswaran (Social and Behavioural Sciences). This will be followed by drinks and an informal dinner. Guests are invited to join for all or any parts of the day. Please be sure to register here, even if you only plan to attend for part of the event.
12:30: Open doors
13:00-14:15: Panel 1
15 min break
14:30-15:45: Panel 2
15 min break
16:00-17:15: Panel 3
17:15-18:00 Open floor for questions
18:00-20:30: Drinks and dinner
Cultures of Decolonization
Chaired by Sanjukta Sunderason
13:00-14:15
Speakers: Monique Roelofs, Rolando Vazquez, Rika Theo, Rajyashri Goody
The panel, Cultures of Decolonization, will be steered by Sanjukta Sunderason, with a set of speakers from multiple disciplines and practices tied to cultural thinking and practice. We will discuss how the question of cultural forms – whether in artistic, political, historical or pedagogical practice – can provide us with new directions to craft decolonial methodologies in academia and beyond. Some of the questions shaping this panel will include, among others:
What does thinking via cultural forms and practices bring to the discussion of decolonization? What histories can we draw, of such cultures of decolonization? What archives – and precarities – are we working with here? What methodological futures can we shape from these?
Law, Coloniality and Decolonial Praxis
Chaired by Eliana Cusato
14:30-15:45
Speakers: Kanad Bagchi, Hadeel Abu Hussein, Yoriko Otomo, Tasniem Anwar
This panel brings together scholars exploring the relationship between law and coloniality drawing inspiration from different intellectual traditions. The panel will scrutinize law’s colonial foundations and enduring legacies, as well as consider the possibilities for contestation and resistance within and beyond the legal order. Building upon their wide-ranging research interests, the speakers will discuss issues such as land rights in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, human-non-human entanglements, global political economy, technology and the ‘war on terror’. The speakers will also reflect on the role of lawyers, legal educators, and mentors in bridging decolonial theory and praxis.
A Decolonial Politics for a Decolonial Cause
Chaired by Darshan Vigneswaran
16:00-17:15
Speakers: Zaid Abdulnasser, Mariam Salameh-Puvogel, Joel Quirk
A Decolonial Politics for a Decolonial Cause will take its cue from recent protests for the protection of Palestinian lives, and subsequent brutal police crackdowns at the UvA, to think through the political strategies and tactics that may be deployed in the service of contemporary decolonial struggles. We will discuss how strategies like occupation, diplomacy, boycotts, and prosecutions might be deployed in the service of marginalised and victimised populations, while also paying keen attention to the problems involved in evoking the instruments of European states in order to achieve concrete change in colonised and formerly colonised zones. Some of the questions addressed by panel members will include:
Can we differentiate decolonial forms of political strategy from decolonial causes? What forms of decolonial praxis should scholars and activists choose?
Best wishes,
The Decolonial Futures Team
Image: Graffiti from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. c. 2015