Decolonising the Researcher

Decolonisation has become a ubiquitous term in recent years and is in danger of being co-opted, diluted, and rebranded by the very institutions in need of radical reform. We often hear that “it is necessary to decolonise our institutions” but in practice, how do we as a community of researchers and students integrate decolonial methodologies in a meaningful way? How can we implement change in our own research and practice going forward?

Join Dr Awino Okech (SOAS), Dr Eka Ikpe (King’s), Dr Ian Calliou (Coventry University), Dr Andrea Espinoza Carvajal (King's) and Siseko H Kumalo (University of Pretoria) for a half-day workshop on what decolonisation can bring to the research process, sharing experiences and strategies on how they navigate issues such as positionality, ethics, power, and control. What are the methods they use to actively decolonise their work and the research field? The workshop structure will enable attendees to reflect on their own research projects with the aim to facilitate a space for progressive dialogue between academics and researchers, across career stages, on the practical ways in which we can engage with decolonising methodologies.

Keynote speaker:

Dr Awino Okech - Dr Awino Okech is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Gender Studies at SOAS, University of London. Her teaching and research interests lie in the nexus between gender, sexuality and nation/state making projects as they occur in conflict and post-conflict societies. Prior to joining SOAS, she worked in the development sector across various sub-regions in Africa for over a decade, supporting women rights organisations and local movements in building local capacities for peace. Dr Okech’s recent publications include ‘African Feminist Epistemic Communities and Decoloniality’ Critical African Studies (2020) and ‘Widow Inheritance and Contested Citizenship in Kenya (Routledge, 2019).

Panelists:

Dr Eka Ikpe - Dr Ikpe is a Senior Lecturer in Development Economics in Africa and the Deputy Director of the African Leadership Centre at King’s College London. Eka’s research provides a critical understanding of socio-economic transformation processes and outcomes with a focus on African contexts that advances concept-building based on in-depth understanding of empirical realities across the fields of economic development and peace and security. Dr Ikpe is a member of King’s Decolonising Working Group. Eka’s reset publications include The AfDB and Negotiating Finance Hegemonies: Journeying towards its Origins of Industrial Development and Regionalisation (2020), and Developmental Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Post-independence Nigeria: Lessons From Asian Developmental States (2020).

Dr Ian Calliou - I am a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Trust, Peace, and Social Relations at Coventry University. I am Canadian Indigenous and non-Indigenous (Metis, Cree, and non-Indigenous). My research attempts to use Indigenous research practices and values in social science settings. I have looked at how Indigenous peoples of Canada viewed reconciliation, contextualising the discussion within their ways of knowing, being, and doing. I completed my doctoral thesis in 2019 at Coventry University. Prior to that I gained an LLM from Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York. I studied sub-altern history at the University of Manitoba.

Dr Andrea Espinoza Carvajal - Andrea Espinoza Carvajal is a PhD student in the Department of International Development, King’s College London. Her research focuses on violence, gender, and legal pluralism in the Ecuadorian Andes. She is part of an arts-based research project Imaging Social Justice and the blog Feminist Perspectives.

Siseko H. Kumalo - Siseko Kumalo is a PhD candidate working in Political Philosophy, with a focus on belonging and national identity in South Africa. He holds a Master of Arts (Cum Laude) in Political Philosophy from the University of Pretoria’s Department of Political Sciences. He received his formative training from Rhodes University where he read in Political and International Studies, Anthropology and Philosophy. He is the editor of Decolonisation as Democratisation: Global Insights into the South African Experience (HSRC Press). Siseko is a Mandela Rhodes Scholar (2017).

 

Part 2: Workshops/ Breakout Rooms

1. Co-production and Participatory Research

What are the ways by which we can co - produce knowledge, what are the challenges that researchers face and how have they resolved these issues? This session aims to equip attendees with a better understanding of the principles and practices of co-research/co-produced knowledge.

Session Facilitators:

Hana Riazuddin, King’s College London

Dr Andrea Espinoza Carvajal, King’s College London

2. Going into the field/e-fieldwork

How do we prepare to enter the field? How do we navigate the field and interact with participants in ways that endeavour to avoid reproducing power hierarchies or silencing particular voices? How do we create a research environment that enables participants to feel that their knowledge and contribution are valued/honoured? This breakout room session seeks to equip attendees with a better understanding of the critical steps to do prior to entering the field/e-field.

Session Facilitators:

Dr David Mwambari, King's College London

Claire Crawford, King's College London

3. Coming back from the field: Decolonising methodologies and the write up.

What role does reflexivity play in the post-fieldwork phase? What can we do to give back to interviewed communities or groups from the field? What can we do in the writing-up phase to not silence the voice of research participants?

Session Facilitators:

Dr Glorieuse Uwizeye, Dartmouth College

Dr Eva Nanopoulos, Queen Mary, University of London

4. Working with your own community

How do we navigate the insider/outsider perspective when working with our own community and applying decolonising methodologies? Does this create additional tensions that require deeper reflexivity?

Session Facilitators:

Dr Ian Calliou, Coventry University

Aleida Mendes Borges, King's College London

5. Engaging with the Archive

How to apply decolonising methodologies to our study of archive material, in challenging the conventional narratives of the canon, addressing limitations and failures of data and subsequent real-world implications.

Session Facilitators:

Dr Ana Laura Zavala Guillen, Queen Mary University

Dr Martha Avalos-Pelaez, Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla