Seminar with Dr Mikel Burley: Conceptual Decolonization and Conceptual Justice

Please join us on Thursday 1st December, 11.30 am (GMT) for a research seminar with Dr Mikel Burley who will speak about:

“Conceptual Decolonization and Conceptual Justice: Critically Examining Proposals from Kwasi Wiredu and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o”

The seminar is jointly hosted by the Leeds University Centre for African Studies and the Leeds Centre for Religion and Public Life.

The event will take place in hybrid form, meaning that you can attend in person (Botany house 1.03) or online via MS Teams.

Abstract

Kwasi Wiredu (1931-2022) was a Ghanaian-born philosopher; Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (b. 1938) is a Kenyan-born writer. Each of them has advanced arguments concerning ‘conceptual decolonisation’ (Wiredu) or ‘decolonising the mind’ (Ngũgĩ). These and related notions of decolonization are becoming increasingly influential in contemporary academia and elsewhere. Yet such notions are not without their critics. One especially vocal recent critic is the Nigerian-born philosopher Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Cornell University), who has argued, in relation to African contexts, that what he calls ‘the decolonisation trope’ risks underplaying the creativity of African people to adapt non-indigenous concepts and ideas for their own purposes and has questioned the assumption that there is a straightforward distinction between African and non-African languages and concepts. This paper summarizes and engages critically with the debate.

Speaker

Dr Mikel Burley is an Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Leeds, his full profile can be accessed here.

Attendance

You are welcome to join the seminar in person, or online via MS Teams.