The Decolonization of Education and Research in Belarus and Ukraine: Theoretical Challenges and Practical Tasks

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

The full-scale war launched by Russia against Ukraine in 2022 and supported by the Lukashenko regime has focused attention on the urgency of decolonization as a process of overcoming the structural, political, and cultural subjugation by the “empire.” Decolonization as a practical task unites Belarusians and Ukrainians in their aspirations for national independence including liberation from the Russian imperial ideology in such key fields of knowledge (re)production as education and academic research. The journal issue to be presented and discussed at the round table is concentrated on determining the meaning and relevance of the concept of decolonization with regard to the system of education and scholarly research in Belarus and Ukraine. Thereby it aims to develop the theoretical and methodological foundations for decolonization both in today’s conditions and after the end of the war. Speaking in practical terms, the issue addresses the question: How exactly is decolonization to be achieved in education and in humanistic and social science research? The participants of the discussion (resp. the authors of the issue) are going to touch upon the following topics:
● National liberation and decolonization in/of education;
● Decommunization, de-Sovietization, decolonization;
● Knowledge production and the phenomenon of self-colonization in scholarly research;
● Overcoming the “post-Soviet” paradigm and the prospects for Belarusian and Ukrainian research in the global context.

Sub Unit

• Sociology, Public Health, Education

Chair

• Tatiana Shchyttsova, European Humanities U (Lithuania)

Roundtable Members

• Valeria Korablyova, Charles U in Prague (Czech Republic)

• Aliaksei Lastouski, Uppsala U (Sweden)

• Tatiana Shchyttsova, European Humanities U (Lithuania)

• Andrzej W. Tymowski, American Council of Learned Societies