This event handles the important subject of decolonisation and sustainability and how these processes relate to the political process of democratisation. In times of polarisation and imminent growth of autocratic regimes, the Anthropocene Navigators will explore this theme with two speakers:
Dr. Shivant Jhagroe (Leiden University): Beyond green ‘as white’: from sustainability to ecojustice
Electric cars, organic banana’s and green growth. In recent years, sustainability has mushroomed and can be observed all around us. However, many sustainability narratives and projects are designed by and for (white) privileged groups, and seem to reproduce neoliberalism and colonial structures of power. How is ‘going green’ related to western capitalism and whiteness? In what way do well intended sustainability projects (e.g. on renewable energy, ecotourism) reproduce class inequalities and extractionism? But also, what are pathways to undo the colonial traces in sustainability discourse? And what role can universities play?
Dr. Wim Manuhutu (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam): Epistemological Decolonisation from a historian’s perspective
From the early stages of colonialism, the (re-)writing of histories of territories that were colonized and the negating of indigenous histories and heritages have gone hand in hand. The acknowledgement that colonialism came with large scale epistemicide has grown, due to the work of many historians, but especially by cultural activists from communities affected by colonialism and imperialism.
The discipline of history has undergone significant changes in the last decades, as several turns (cultural, linguistic and spatial to name but a few). How to deal with the challenge of decolonizing disciplines like history, philosophy, anthropology that were closely linked to the establishment of colonialism and imperialism, is a process that raises fundamental questions for which there are no easy answers.
Moderator is Drs. Mathieu Blondeel (VU), Assistant Professor in the Environmental Policy Analysis (EPA) department of the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) of VU Amsterdam.
The event will take place online and there is no registration required. To access the event, you can either join the Anthropocene Navigators environment on campus online, where you can also engage with fellow participants before and after the event. Or you access it directly through this zoom link.
For more information about the Anthropocene Navigators community and more upcoming events, please consult their website.