Past Event

As part of the Brownbag Seminar Series,  please join us on Wednesday,  March 20, 2024, as Nathan Andrews   presents:  “Re-Storying African Studies Pedagogies: Exploring the Potential of Epistemic Decolonization to Nurture Black Agency“

Abstract:
Despite the long history of decolonization as a ‘third world’ political project, decolonization as an intellectual project has gained tremendous momentum in recent times, signalled by movements such as #RhodesMustFall, #BlackInTheIvory, and Why Is My Curricula So White among others. These movements situate the coloniality of power within ongoing practices in academia and seek to disrupt systemic racism and oppressive structures of knowledge creation. Focusing on both the prospects and pitfalls of intellectual decolonization, this paper centers Africa as a subject of study and presents a plethora of ideas, reflections, and possible actions pointing to why the academic project of teaching (and researching) about Africa still requires an overhaul. Overall, the contribution seeks to provide some justification for why the notion of ‘re-storying’ is a useful concept to imagining the possibilities of centralizing Black agency in our pedagogical choices. As an introductory chapter to the new edited book titled, Decolonizing African Studies Pedagogies: Knowledge Production, Epistemic Imperialism and Black Agency (Palgrave Macmillan), the paper provides a thematic overview of research on this topic while also engaging directly with some of the core themes explored in respective chapters. Such analysis points to the persistent nature of epistemic imperialism and how to tackle it.

Nathan Andrews is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at McMaster University, Canada. One aspect of Dr. Andrews’ research focuses on the global political economy/ecology of natural resource extraction and development. His peer-reviewed publications on this topic have appeared in journals such as International Affairs, Resources Policy, World Development, Energy Research & Social Science, Africa Today, Business & Society Review, and Globalizations among others.
Dr. Andrews’ latest books include a monograph, Gold Mining and the Discourses of Corporate Social Responsibility in Ghana (Palgrave, 2019), and co-edited volumes such as Natural Resource-Based Development in Africa: Panacea or Pandora’s Box? (University of Toronto Press, 2022). A second aspect of his research revolves around the scholarship of teaching and learning, in particular critical international relations, epistemic hegemony, racism and whiteness in knowledge production and dissemination. His publications on these themes can be found in Third World Quarterly, Journal of Pan African Studies, International Studies Perspectives, etc.