Last week, in the council chamber within the main building of Cardiff University surrounded by portraits of venerable white men, I attended a day long workshop on decolonial research led by Dr Leon Moosavi. As I embark on my PhD I am interested in what it takes to do the day job in a way that embodies the decolonial ideals of the utopian fictions I am studying, so that my research can work towards the same aim.
A great part of the session surveyed the work of theorists and practitioners of social science research across the globe who, over the past 50+ years, have articulated and employed decolonial research practices, and argued for the need to decolonise research. I am not going to try to summarise that here, although I have listed those whose work we covered at the end of this post. These notes are my reflections on what I learned at the workshop that I hope to apply in my own research practice.
This is pedagogy
One of the first points I noted was about my own role in the academy. I’ve always thought of pedagogy as being about teaching, and as I do not teach, I have dismissed it as a science that isn’t yet relevant to me. I have seen myself as a student of the academy, not part of it.
However, Moosavi quickly clarified that pedagogy is not just about teaching. It includes research and academic writing as, even if I never step in front of a class of students, through my PhD I will be contributing knowledge that others (hopefully) will use to further their own education or to teach others.
Decolonial reflexivity
Another point that Moosavi put us straight on from the start is that decolonial training is not a simple case of learning how to do it then doing it right. As decolonial researchers, we will make mistakes. I certainly expect to, as a white person talking about decolonisation. But even the Caribbean and African researchers I spoke to at the workshop, who are working within their own communities, said they often feel uncomfortable about the extractive nature of academic research.
Moosavi encouraged us towards ‘decolonial reflexivity,’ his phrase for turning the gaze inwards as decolonial researchers to question our processes even when working with the best intentions.
White supremacy
I have not taken the time here to explain why research needs to be decolonised, essentially because it goes without saying for me that any institution invented and controlled by a mostly white male elite is implicated in ‘white supremacy’. However, Moosavi reminded us that people who are not already into decolonialism find this term pretty extreme as they associate it with far-right groups and not the structures of ordinary society.
We talked about ‘white privilege’ as another descriptor of the state of things. An important question came up at this point, which was can you use and contest white privilege at the same time? I will leave this open as it is something I need to remain considerate of as a white researcher myself.
Decolonial research practice
As Moosavi shared his and others’ thoughts on decolonising research, several recurring themes began to emerge. I have grouped these together below to summarise what I now understand to be a decolonial approach to conducting research.
A decolonial research practice:
- Notices and corrects citational bias
- Is present amongst the community being researched and disseminates knowledge to them
- Connects with the literature rather than cherry-picking quotes from it (e.g. from Audre Lorde) – this was a suggestion from attendee Nysha Chantel Givans
- Demystifies the research. Doesn’t get seduced into creating research outputs that require a PhD to understand
- Co-creates with research participants
- Acknowledges and minimises the power imbalance between researcher and researched
- Accommodates the culture being researched (not the other way around)
This list is something I will refer back to and hold my work up against as I carry out my PhD research.
Having a political agenda for research
There are ways in which even a humanities researcher is traditionally expected to occupy the position of an objective observer, for instance avoiding writing in the first person. I sometimes justify writing about feminism and environmentalism and racial justice because that’s what’s in the texts I’m studying, somehow taking my own views out of the equation as if I haven’t personally chosen these texts to write about.
My PhD supervisors have been encouraging me to put more of myself into my work and this idea was further supported in this workshop, which emphasised that decolonial research does have a political agenda. Many research approaches do, e.g.:
- Feminist – overcome patriarchy
- Environmental – stop ecological damage
- Anti-racist – overcome white supremacy
- Emancipatory –dismantle coloniality
- Social – help communities achieve change
So, this is my sign (if I needed one) to be bolder in the political agenda for my research.
Can research decolonise?
Moosavi closed with the message that our research may play a small role but it won’t actually change the world. I mean, this was a bit of a blow as I was actually hoping to change the world. Same for the fiction I am studying – Nisi Shawl has written about writing ‘change-the-world fiction’ here.
However, I think I know really there won’t be one text that changes the world. It will be an accumulation of change-the-world books, cookies and horses (see Shawl’s letter if this reference makes no sense to you). The more people decide to do things differently, the more the world will change. In the closing words of the workshop, take small steps, it won’t be perfect.
Decolonial research theorists and practitioners
As promised, here’s a list of the theorists and practitioners whose work we learned about on the day:
- Anu Henriques and Lina Abushouk
- Paulo Freire
- Jason Arday
- Rodolfo Stavenhagen
- Minha-Ha Trinh
- Linda Tuhiwai Smith
- Walter and Suina
- Marsh et al – Two-Eyed Seeing approach
- Cooms and Saunders
- Shefer and Bozalek
- Eve Tuck
