Academia in a ‘Post-Colonial’ Era: Decolonial event at the University of Oslo

The African Student Association, University of Oslo, hosted the event «Academia in a ‘Post-Colonial Era’» on October 11, 2018, 5-8 pm. Location: Helga Engs hus, aud. 3, University of Oslo, Norway.

Video I  (13 min, FB). of Dag Herbjørnsrud’s introduction «Decolonize the Academy 101«.

Video II (27 min, FB) of the panel discussion.

Video III (10 min., 10) of the panel discussion.

Excerpt from the invitation, Facebook event:

«On-going debates are taking place in many universities across the West where people are questioning and challenging the prevailing eurocentric narratives of academia. How does the legacy of colonialism inform the ways in which research is conducted or courses are taught in academia? And in particular, how is the image of, research and the courses taught about Africa implicated in all this? Are colonialist attitudes toward Africa still a feature of academia and do we really live in post-colonial times? These are some of the questions that will be answered during our event on the decolonization of academia. Our main speaker of the event will be Dag Herbjørnsrud and he will give an introductory lecture into the topic, before a panel discussion with him and other panelists will take place. Main speaker and panelist: 
Dag Herbjørnsrud is a global historian of ideas, writer and columnist. He has previously worked as a journalist and commentator for Aftenposten, a political columnist for Al-Jazeera English and is the former editor-in-chief of Ny Tid. In addition to writing books, Herbjørnsrud now writes for Aeon, Dagbladet, and Afrika.no. He is the founder of Center for Global and Comparative History of Ideas (SGOKI). His latest published book is «Globalkunnskap. Renessanse for en ny opplysningtid»  (Scandinavian Academic Press, 2016. 2nd edition: October 20, 2018).

Panelists:
Mohamed Abdi is a teacher, columnist and writer. He is a co-writer of the anthology »Islamsk Humanisme» (2016) and »Kjære bror» (2018), and has also published a number of articles on the topic of integration, gender equality and religion in Samora, Vinduet and Morgenbladet and other publications.
Jonas Njau is a Master’s student in International Relations at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). Njau obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Politics from the University of Bergen and subsequently worked within the fields of politics, governance, media and art in Tanzania. Jonas is also founder and director of Finesse, a consulting firm within the fields of art, media and marketing.
Rebecca Scherr is Associate professor in English-language literature, UiO, focusing mostly on contemporary American literature. Her general areas of research include: literature and human rights, critical race studies, queer theory, and feminist approaches to studying literature.
Moderator: Rahwa T. Yohaness is the president of the African Student Association UiO and a student of International Relations at the University of Oslo.

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