Predicaments of Knowledge - Decolonisation and Deracialisation in Universities by Suren Pillay

WiSER invites you to a book discussion on

Predicaments of Knowledge
Decolonisation and Deracialisation in Universities

by Suren Pillay

Suren Pillay will be in conversation withVictoria Collis-Buthelezi (UJ)
The event will be moderated by Sarah Nuttall (WiSER)

Predicaments of Knowledgeexplores the difficult questions South African universities face after apartheid: Is there a difference between Africanising a university and

decolonising a university? What about differences between deracialising and decolonising the curricula taught at universities across disciplines?Through a range of reflections on race, language, colonial, postcolonial and decolonial knowledge projects from Africa and Latin America, this book explores the pitfalls and possibilities that face a post-apartheid generation inventing the future of knowledge. The distinctions between Africanisation, decolonisation and deracialisation are often conflated in the political demands put to universities. Suren Pillay emphasises all three as important but distinct imperatives. If an intervention is undertaken with the aim of decolonising the university while actually addressing deracialisation, it can undermine the effort to decolonise. Similarly, if an initiative to Africanise the university does not address decolonisation, both processes can be undermined. Drawing on more than two and a half decades of the author’s participation in these debates, these essays aim to intervene in and elucidate questions and predicaments, rather than offering blueprints; they are dialogical in spirit even when polemical intone. In conversation with existing continental African and Latin American experiences, they offer incisive reflections on current South African debates.

Suren Pillay is the A C Jordan Chair and Director of the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town.

Thursday, 7^th November 2024

1pm
WiSER Seminar Room

Lunch will be served at 12:45

RSVP: Najibha.Deshmukh@wits.ac.za