Description
GRÓ-GEST organised, in collaboration with Yulia Gradskova, associate professor of history at Södertörn University, an intra-Nordic workshop “Decolonizing Nordic Higher Education” at Södertörn University in Stockholm in October. The workshop was supported by ReNEW, a research hub established to enhance cooperation to develop new quality
research on the Nordic region within a global context.
In the Nordic countries, the history of colonisation is largely absent from collective consciousness in higher education. As a result, many Nordic higher education institutions fail to interrogate their own colonial positionality in their collaborations with post-colonial societies. This has direct consequences for what kinds of knowledges are supported and what narratives are produced and reproduced, and for what purposes. The goal of the workshop was to bring together scholars, primarily from Nordic universities, in a bid to stimulate intra-Nordic collaboration on research, action-plans and best-practice recommendations relating to decolonization processes in Nordic higher education.
During the workshop GEST’s representatives learned invaluable lessons and received important feedback from scholars from across the Nordic region and beyond, which will lay the groundwork for future collaborations within this important field. The workshop featured presentations, both online and in person, by scholars from across the Nordic region and in a plethora of different academic fields, including keynotes from prominent decolonial scholars Madina Tlostanova and Rauna Kuokkanen.