Disrupting epistemic hegemony: race, decolonial research in UK and Belgium universities

• In Event: Genocide and Imperialism

Abstract

This article probes the complexities and challenges of doing race and de/postcolonial scholarship as a racialised doctoral researcher. In doing so, this article explores how HE governance, political economy, discourses on migration, race and colonial legacies embedded within universities, shape these experiences. It examines who can do such research and whose work is recognised as authoritative or valuable across two Higher Education (HE) contexts: England and Flanders. Empirically, drawing on twenty-five semi-structured interviews with non-white racialised doctoral activist scholars we (1) highlight the material preconditions for undertaking de/postcolonial and race scholarship; (2) trace accounts of valuation and epistemic legitimacy of these researchers. I argue that both material and symbolic dimension play a role in constraining and enabling this scholarship. Additionally, I argue that the HE landscapes of England and Flanders are differentially shaped by the legacies of colonialism, and by academic capitalism.

Authors

• Elif Lootens

• Bart Van de Putte

• Peter A. J. Stevens, Universiteit Gent

• Lili Schwoerer, London School of Economics