Decolonizing Graduate Careers
Time
Online Workshop Series 2023
Organised by Lilian Trechsel, Laurenzia Karrer and Camilla Steinböck, Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern
Decolonizing existing structures challenges us to find new ways of thinking and acting decolonially in academia. In this workshop, we will discuss a concrete decolonizing strategy framework from Olivia U. Rutazibwa (2018) as a working tool. Along our empirical data from the "IGS North-South Tracer Study 2022 - Decolonizing Graduate Careers" we will discuss three steps:
1. De-mythologize: reflecting on new starting points for our narratives. The first step in the study was to challenge the brain gain/drain narrative as a Eurocentric narrative of Europe as a place where one would want to stay after graduation. Our study shows new narratives that assign value to home countries as a place to live and produce knowledge and highlights neo-colonial barriers to the free circulation of knowledge.
2. De-silence: Understanding the barriers and power structures of silence. As a second step, the study aimed to identify how alumni with different social positions and identities, and with different kinds of knowledge, are perceived and how hegemonic white-patriarchal frameworks can influence alumni work position, publication opportunities and movement in academia.
3. De-colonize: Questioning the goals and strategies of the own programme. The third step analyses and reflects the structures and aims of the graduate programme itself by asking which and whose knowledge production it serves and what knowledge it cultivates.
By sharing our implementation of Rutazibwas framework, we aim to a) demonstrate a starting point for decolonizing structures and b) create learning moments for ourselves and the guests of the workshop. Each of the three blocks will contain a very brief presentation of the results from our study as well as a reflection phase.
Finally, we would like to discuss in a participatory and reflective way, how we can move from the revealed power structures between global South and global North to possible actions for decolonizing academic structures.
Downloads/links
Online Workshop Series 2023: Decolonizing Swiss Research Collaborations
- Reflective steps to unbundle decolonization - answering difficult questions
- Students in “the field”: Decolonizing applied research collaborations. Discussion of experiences and practices
- South-North and South-South Collaborations in Medical Genomics Research in Africa
- Our Common Challenge: Moving Beyond Inaction and Irrelevance
- Decolonising Language & Word Choice: The Case for Linguistic Equity
- Open Science as a Means to Decolonize Scientific Publishing and Foster Fairer Research Collaborations
- An interdisciplinary dialogue on ethical considerations and the role of HIC research partnerships in strengthening capacity and stimulating South-South research
- Decolonizing research – an invitation to learn and unlearn from different entry points
- Decolonizing research: from knowledge transfer to knowledge(s) in dialogue
- The Importance of Allyship and Empowerment in the Decolonization of Research Partnerships – A Workshop
- African-European School Dialogue
- Creating and evaluating equitable research partnerships: from inception to impact
- Decolonizing Graduate Careers