GRC Event: Decolonizing and Re-Gendering Our Curricula Workshop
With Dr Manjeet Ramgotra, SOAS, University of London
16th May 2-5pm, Verdon-Smith Room
2:00-2:15
2:15-2:45
2:45-4:15
4:15-5:00
Registration and Tea/Cakes
Introduction & Q&A, Manjeet Ramgotra
Workshop Activity: (Re)-designing a syllabus
Plenary discussion, transforming syllabi
Workshop Activity
In pairs, either working with your own syllabus, or a syllabus that you teach on:
➢ Subject the syllabus to a de-colonizing and re-gendering critique;
• Who are the authors?
• Where are they from?
• From what traditions do they write?
• How is this syllabus taught?
➢ Subject the syllabus to a re-design
• What core concepts do we think we should teach for students to acquire the
basic knowledge of a particular subject?
• Who should be included, and why?
• What ‘new’ traditions/perspectives/voices should be included and why?
• How might this transform our sources?
• How might these changes transform the pedagogy of the syllabus?
Materials to bring with you:
Your own syllabus; or a syllabus that you currently or would wish to teach
Suggested reading in advance of the workshop:
Please try to read at least two of these pieces before the workshop so that we can draw on these in
our discussions. We are not prescriptive; some may speak more to your discipline, your
methodological approach, or you may have a favourite author.
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Audre Lorde - http://collectiveliberation.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/01/Lorde_The_Masters_Tools.pdf
bell hooks (1965) Toward a Revolutionary Feminist Pedagogy http://people.oregonstate.edu/~vanlondp/wgss320/articles/Toward-RevolutionaryFeminist-Pedagogy-bell-hooks.pdf
bell hooks (1994) Teaching to Transgress (London: Routledge) available in library, chapter 1 https://academictrap.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/bell-hooks-teaching-to-transgress.pdf
Zoe Todd, An Indigenous Feminist’s take on the Ontological Turn: ‘ontology’ is just another
word for colonialism - https://umaincertaantropologia.org/2014/10/26/an-indigenousfeminists-take-on-the-ontological-turn-ontology-is-just-another-word-for-colonialismurbane-adventurer-amiskwaci/
Paolo Freire (1996) Pedagogy of the Oppressed (London: Penguin) available in library,
chapter 1 http://www.msu.ac.zw/elearning/material/1335344125freire_pedagogy_of_the_oppresed.
pdf
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing
Solidarity Review of this here: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10752
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Carolyn M. Shrewsbury (1993), What is Feminist Pedagogy? http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~pchsiung/summer/SCMEDIA/Shrewsbury.pdf
Spivak, G.C. (2004) Righting Wrongs, South Atlantic Quarterly, 103: 2/3, 523-581 http://saq.dukejournals.org/content/103/2-3/523.citation
Fatima Pirbhai-illich, Shauneen Pete and Fran Martin (2017) Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
(London: Palgrave) to be published March 2017
You might also like to consider reading Paul Gilroy’s piece that raises critical remarks https://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-gilroy-rosemary-bechler/paul-gilroy-in-search-ofnot-very-safe-starting-point