St Mary’s Hosted Interdisciplinary Conference

Last week, 26th-28th May, the Centre for Research into the Education of Marginalised Children and Young Adults (CREMCYA) and the Bakhita Centre for Research on Slavery, Exploitation and Abuse (BCRSEA) at St Mary’s University, Twickenham hosted an online conference.

The title of the conference was ‘Towards Decolonised Futures: An interdisciplinary conference challenging the politics of knowing and being’.

The purpose of the conference was to deconstruct and unravel the notion of one universal way of knowing and being, focusing on the different ways of knowing (epistemic plurality) adopted by those who are traditionally silenced and excluded from power (the ‘subaltern’).

The conference began with a Keynote address from Professor Leon Tikly, University of Bristol. His talk discussed what is meant by ‘decolonising education’ and answered questions including How can we make the curriculum more relevant for our students? and How can we overcome resistance and embed change?, before drawing from his experiences of decolonising the curriculum at the University of Bristol.

Across the three days, there were a total of 17 panels discussing a range of topics, including Decolonising the Higher Education Curriculum, Decolonising Modern Slavery Studies, Decolonising Peace and Human Rights Education and Decolonising Research.

Director of the Centre for Research into the Education of Marginalised Children and Young Adults (CREMCYA), Dr Kathleen Fincham said of the event “With panellists from over 20 countries and more than 525 participants in attendance, the conference was simultaneously intellectually stimulating, challenging and potentially transformative for knowledge production and professional practice. We commit to further engaging in these important discussions in support of decolonised futures”.

To find out more about the event, visit the University website.