Masterclass about "Decolonising Knowledges about and from Africa"

The Leeds University Centre for African Studies invites postgraduate research students (PGRs) and early career researchers (ECRs) at the University of Leeds and beyond, to participate in an in-person masterclass with the world-leading decolonial thinker, Professor Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni.

On Thursday 29 September, Professor Ndlovu-Gathseni will deliver the Leeds University African Studies annual lecture. This lecture will be combined with a masterclass on 29-30 September, aimed at PGRs and ECRs who in a small-scale setting will have the chance to present their research in progress, link it to key concepts and ideas from Professor Ndlovu-Gathseni’s work, receive feedback, and learn from the discussions with fellow participants. These two events serve to close the seminar series “African Knowledges for Global Challenges”, run by LUCAS together with the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, in the years 2020-2022.

Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni

Professor Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni holds the Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South with Emphasis on Africa at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, and was previously Research Professor at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He is a leading decolonial theorist with over a hundred publications in the fields of African history, African politics, African development and decolonial theory. His latest major publications include Decolonization, Development and Knowledge in Africa (Routledge, 2020), Epistemic Freedom in Africa: Deprovincialization and Decolonization (Routledge, 2018); and, edited with Morgan Ndlovu, Marxism and Decolonization in the 21st Century: Living Theories and True Ideas (Routledge 2021).

Participation

The masterclass takes place in person at the University of Leeds campus. The programme will be finalised on the basis of the number of participants, and will be scheduled on Thursday 29^th and possibly part of Friday 30^th September 2022. Participants are expected to attend the full programme, and to give a presentation of work in progress based on their research. In their presentation, they are expected to engage critically and constructively with key concepts and ideas derived from the writings of Professor Ndlovu-Gathseni, linking these to their own projects.

The masterclass is primarily intended for postgraduate students and early-career researchers at the University of Leeds, but expressions of interest from participants from other institutions will be considered.

Please send your Expression of Interest to african-studies@leeds.ac.uk by Friday 1^st July 2022, and include the following:

• Your name, email address, and institutional affiliation.
• A short statement (100-150 words) on your motivation to participate.
• The title and a 100-150 words abstract of your presentation.