Decolonising Scholarship 

Additional course information

• Course objectives

  Scholars will engage in conversation as method as a process of conscientisation within a combination of seminars/workshops/engagements/presentations: artivism that speaks to decolonial feminism. Students/scholars will journal the learning objectives and, pedagogical and methodological approaches that are included in the tasks as a method for mapping the research process towards transparency and accountability. Moreover, it applies the decolonial feminist imperative of recognition, reflection and repair that is important for mitigating transference of trauma when conducting community-driven research.       

  The course will address alternative, critical, and social and environmental justice pedagogies together with research methodologies that speak to the scholarly project of decolonial feminism. The pedagogical and methodological approaches are based on Freirian perspectives of criticality, conscientisation and learning through sharing with participating scholars developing the weekly agenda/sessions through consultations based on group requirements. 

  A course outline is offered as an establishing guide to the group with a comprehensive reading list and an ongoing process of building a collective archive, including social media sites and other resources.    

  Furthermore, the course sessions will rely on blurring the lines between artivism/scholarship in order to address the importance of intersecting ontology with epistemology. The success of the course is heavily reliant on scholarly participation for making this an inclusive process whilst disrupting colonial praxis. Consequently, the course serves as collective supervision as well as building networks. This objective is crucial for post-course networks in continuing the criticality that is the decolonial feminist imperative.   

• Learning objectives

  By the end of this online course, scholars will be able to:  

  • Use journaling as a method for mapping and reflecting on the research process 
  • Engage with embodiment and co-production as approaches to mitigate the transference of trauma when working with communities 
  • Demonstrate an understanding of community-driven research methodologies 
  • Build and sustain networks to support collaborative research 
  • Contribute to the creation of collective archives 
  • Collaborate on research projects that centre participation within communities 
  • Develop research-based outputs such as booklets, murals, or workshops, recognising reciprocity as central to decolonial feminist praxis 
  • Approach research as a lived experience, contributing to education as a public good 

• Forms of tuition and assessment 

  The course will be spread across 15 morning sessions whereby scholars will participate in and reflect on observations, activist interventions, debates, dialogue, amongst others. It is an interactive course with scholars’ peer supervising each other through Freirian methods. 

  Each morning the class will begin with a needs-based agenda-setting facilitated within weekly themes: 

  1. Research question and research design; 
  2. Theoretical framework of decolonial feminism and, 
  3. Methodological framework relying on feminist, alternate and decolonial research methodologies that deal with various challenges that doctoral candidates and researchers face within various levels of the scholarly/thesis/research process.   

  The objective of the peer supervision process is to learn through sharing research problems and solutions by bringing in materials that further the aims of decolonising scholarship. Guest speakers will also engage with participants on some of the challenges and successes of conducting community-driven research. 

  The 30 contact hours are made up by daily online sessions from 10am-12pm (15 days across 3 weeks). These sessions are filled with a needs-based agenda-setting, working through research questions and using decolonial feminism as a lens for developing a theoretical and methodological framework for PhD dissertations and research papers.  

  The afternoons are reserved for self-study time, including assignments such as visits to the local museums, libraries, community centres, and fieldwork interests. 

  The final assignment will be due on the 30th of January and count for 30% of the total grade. Class participation and attendance will count for 40% (the rationale is to encourage participation and conversation as method) and, journals will count for a further 30%. 

• Course syllabus

  Course Syllabus - WS 2026

• More about the professor

  Dr Nadira Omarjee is a senior scholar, having held positions such as Senior Researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute at Uppsala University on the Africa Scholar Programme for 2019/2020 and prior to that Nadira was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Nadira also holds the SPARK Academia Chair within the European Network Against Racism (ENAR).  

  Nadira has lectured in the fields of development studies, global identity, film and media studies, feminist research methods, African feminism and feminist theory. Currently, she supervises scholars in the Sociology Department at the VU who work with a decolonial feminist lens in their research. She has been supervising and mentoring students for the past twelve years at all levels: BA, MA and PhD. Subsequently, Nadira gives guest lectures on Frantz Fanon for the VU in the graduate course Key Thinkers; applying Freirian (1970) pedagogical principles of learning through sharing, conscientisation and criticality.  

  Nadira had also developed a similar course during corona for the CERES PhD Programme where online learning was the only option. The course was deemed successful and had a turnout of approximately 20 doctoral candidates from various disciplines and geopolitical spheres. In addition, Nadira has written two books: 1. Reimagining the Dream: Decolonising Academia by Putting the Last First (2018); and 2. We Belong to the Earth: towards a decolonial feminist pedagogy rooted in Ubuntu and Uhuru (2023). The first book was based on the two decolonial student-led movements in 2015/6 #RhodesMustFall at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of Colour at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Consequently, whilst working on these books, healing as a pedagogical praxis was developed as part of the decolonial student imperative for decolonising the curriculum.  

  Consequently, Nadira employs African radical communitarianism of Ubuntu (recognition processes), Uhuru (freedom of being) and Ujamaa (notions of kinship that lead to reciprocity) in her work to understand how interconnectedness /interdependence can forge pathways towards a more inclusive global community. Nadira also serves on the board of Aralez – an Amsterdam-based decolonial foundation dealing specifically with indigenous people’s rights. Nadira’s current research is focused on thinking through vulnerability in a time of geopolitical upheaval.