Decolonizing Knowledge

Interdisciplinary scholars rethink strategies for moving contemporary decolonization politics forward by revisiting the writings of the mid-20th century anti-colonial movements’ leading intellectuals.

This exciting and thought-provoking collection looks at how colonial knowledge is produced and resisted in locales and by people not always given due consideration in mainstream theory and politics.

In a time when the practice of decoloniality is getting increasingly distracted by superficial propositions, neocolonial appropriations and banal jargon, this edited volume brings in fresh air of hope that there is still a possibility to revive the practical intentions with which decolonial movements were born.

An essential and timely work, this volume illuminates foundational perspectives on decolonization, offering a "back to the classics" approach that revisits the deeper traditions of Third World anti-colonial and anti-racist thought. Rooting current manifestations of decolonization in the works of Fanon, Cesaire, Mariátegui, Du Bois, Uberoi, Dutt, Rodney and others, the chapters powerfully challenge the institutional cooptation of the decolonial in academia and reframe it in connection to a broader societal and global project.

Radha D’Souza is Professor of Law, Development and Conflict Studies at the University of Westminster, UK. She is a lawyer, social justice activist, writer and commentator. Together with Dutch artist Jonas Staal she is co-founder of the art project Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes .

Sunera Thobani is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Her publications include Exalted Subjects (2007); Contesting Islam, Constructing Race and Sexuality (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020); and Coloniality and Racial (In)Justice in the University (2022). She is founding member of Researchers and Academics of Colour for Equity (RACE, 2001).