The event consisted of three insightful panels – one for every faculty involved in the RPA – bridging decolonial academic research and practice across UvA’s Humanities, Law, and Social Sciences faculties. Researchers, , lawyers, activists and artists explored topics ranging from Dalit resistance to the war on terror and  police crackdown of student protests on campus.

Here’s some of the highlights: In our first panel, Cultures of Decolonization, Rolando Vazquez, Monique Roelofs, Rika Theo, and Rajyashri Goody spoke about the importance of artistic research in recovering stories from communities who have been excluded from historical archives. In our second panel of the day, Law, Coloniality and Decolonial Praxis, Tasniem Anwar, Kanad Bagchi, Hadeel Abu Hussein, and Yoriko Otomo discussed law’s colonial foundations and enduring legacies, and explored the possibilities for contestation and resistance within and beyond the legal order. Our last panel, A Decolonial Politics for a Decolonial Cause, featured Zaid Abdulnasser, Mariam Salameh-Puvogel, Joel Quirk, and Itaï van de Wal who gave our academic community an insight in the risky undertaking that is decolonial action in practice.

This launch was just the beginning. We’re excited to announce a series of upcoming events starting in October, with workshops, talks, and lectures, and we hope to see you there.