Abstract

In 2015, students at the University of Cape Town demanded the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes, the imperialist, racist business magnate, from their campus. The battle cry '#RhodesMustFall' sparked an international movement calling for the decolonisation of the world's universities.

Today, as this movement grows, how will it radically transform the terms upon which universities exist? In this book, students, activists and scholars discuss the possibilities and the pitfalls of doing decolonial work in the home of the coloniser, in the heart of the establishment. Subverting curricula, enforcing diversity, and destroying old boundaries, this is a radical call for a new era of education.

Offering resources for students and academics to challenge and resist coloniality inside and outside the classroom, Decolonising the University provides the tools for radical pedagogical, disciplinary and institutional change.
'A fine collection of knowledgeable yet readable essays which address a host of vital issues for our times: Eurocentrism, whiteness, power, free speech, inclusion and exclusion, and public higher education... A must-read for anyone interested in enhancing a historical understanding of our present through a consideration of what it means to decolonise'
Priyamvada Gopal, Reader in Anglophone and Related Literatures, University of Cambridge
'As Robbie Shilliam notes astutely in this timely volume, criticism of decolonising the university often overshadows the project itself. These collected reflections provide a much-needed analysis of the global movement to unsettle the Eurocentric white academy'
Alana Lentin, Western Sydney University