In this post, Adam Ferron describes how two lively sessions focusing on ‘Possibilities and Perils of Decolonising the Classroom’ and ‘Decolonial Pedagogy’ sparked conversations around the University’s policy on decolonising the curriculum within the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) and beyond. Adam is a PhD candidate at the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. The post belongs to the Student Partnership Agreement 2024 series.
Decolonization … continues to be an act of confrontation with a hegemonic system of thought; it is hence a process of considerable historical and cultural liberation. As such, decolonization becomes the contestation of all dominant forms and structures, whether they be linguistic, discursive, or ideological. … Decolonization can only be complete when it is understood as a complex process that involves both the colonizer and the colonized.
– Samia Mehrez, The Bounds of Race, 1991.
This Student Partnership Agreement project aimed to spark a conversation about the University’s policy on decolonising the curriculum within the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) and to link these efforts with broader University initiatives and processes. These efforts align with the University’s own review, the principles of the UK Professional Standards Framework 2023 (UKPSF2023), and relevant Scottish government policies (such as in the museums and galleries and schools). The project’s objectives were primarily achieved through open consultations with IMES staff and students, whose feedback shaped the design and delivery of two sessions. These sessions were developed to complement the transdisciplinary IMES Seminar Series 2024 on Decolonising the Curriculum, organised by Dr Farah Aboubakr.
The first session ‘Possibilities and Perils of Decolonising the Classroom’ was attended by over forty staff and students from IMES and other Schools at the University. The session warned against common perils that have come to characterise this work, while offering hopeful possibilities forward. Lively discussion with audience members ensued on the following topics:
- First, clarifying a confusion between decoloniality and equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). For example, concepts of ‘coloniality’ and ‘the colonial matrix of power’ illuminated fundamental connections while respecting distinctions between decoloniality and EDI efforts. Hollow metaphors do little to change the unique epistemic and material investments upon which the University was founded upon and continues to draw its legacy from. Instead, decoloniality that emphasises a substantive equality framework must be the bedrock for any serious EDI work to emerge. Such a framework should challenge institutional ties to colonialism, engaging in active measures like divestment, curriculum redesign, and fostering spaces for critical dialogue and learning from affected communities.
- How decolonising meant learning from the struggles and organising efforts of Palestinian and other marginalised communities in guiding institutions in implementing robust and impactful decolonial practices.
- Institutional responses by the University of Edinburgh to various global and social issues, such as the War in Ukraine, the murder of George Floyd, and the decision to divest from fossil fuels.
- Issues of variance in applying various University policies, such as ‘Code of Conduct’ or ‘Dignity and Respect’ across different populations of student body.
- Concerns over military research and intelligence partnerships.
The second session was entitled, Decolonial Pedagogy by Dr. Deanne Bell, (Associate Professor in Psychology and Decolonial Studies at Nottingham Trent University) and Dr. rashne lakme (Senior Lecturer in Work, Race and Decolonial Studies at the University of Edinburgh Business School) and was chaired by Adam Ferron. It addressed the commonly raised question of, ‘how can we decolonise something, exactly?’.
To this end, additional training materials based on current evidence-based research provided by Dr Ellen Frank Delgado and Lucie Stokes detailing tangible praxis at the level of speech and actions in the classroom was provided to those with teaching responsibilities. However, this session invoked the importance of moving beyond ‘behavioural checklists’, to emphasising deeper understandings of decolonial approaches and methods.
The session explained how coloniality was produced through modernity leading to overrepresentations of certain epistemologies, which cast the metropole as ‘enlightened’, while casting a large shadow on indigenous communities in the periphery as (read: ‘darkened’, uncivilized and barbaric).
A discussion on how we might productively engage with de-linking followed. De-development was offered as a constructive reflection. Agreement was found on the issue of language learning materials which should focus on bridging linguistic and cultural understandings, especially as the Arabic language has already become so securitised and stigmatised.
A theme repeated from the previous session was the recognition of the importance of doing this work in and with communities. A fruitful outcome of this project was an offer to build greater links with UK Higher Educational (for example, staff and students from the University of St Andrew’s reached out to connect with us, and University of Edinburgh staff and students responded with a keen desire to build upon this relationship).
The project continued with some suggestions for IMES to consider:
- Student and staff workloads poses serious barriers to those wishing to engage in this important area of work. To reduce these barriers, the department could consider using this project as a foundation to apply for a larger fund (spanning 2–5 years) to create a sustained initiative over a longer period.
- Opportunities for students to engage with the topic, for example, through formative or summative assessments, or establishing a student essay prize on decoloniality at IMES.
- IMES to integrate teaching, learning, and outreach by utilising its unique expertise in historiography and linguistic translation, potentially collaborating with the University of Edinburgh’s Wikimedia in Residence programme.
- A dedicated webpage on the IMES department’s website to clearly communicate IMES’ vision and strategy for curriculum decolonisation would help students and staff understand and engage with ongoing decolonial efforts. This webpage could also serve as an archive of past and present activities, enabling continuity and allowing new cohorts to build on previous work rather than repeatedly starting from scratch.
- Forming an IMES committee to steer future work and providing a brief yearly update of activities—also published on the webpage—would help capture and share these learnings.
- Continue to build institutional and departmental literacy through activities and projects (e.g., the Decolonising the Curriculum Hub). Simultaneously, IMES could contribute its own specific concepts and ideas to the broader University effort, offering unique insights for other Schools and departments to adapt and apply.
- Investigate IMES’ own historical connections to imperial and colonial legacies. For example, consider how 260 years of Arabic language training at the University might intersect with its institutional history and the reparations research the University is already undertaking.
- PhD tutors and teaching staff expressed the need for more (and higher-quality) training on Inclusive EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) practices, specifically on ‘tangible behaviours and practices’ informed by current, evidence-based research, while also offering more sessions on decolonial pedagogy for teaching staff.
- Consider introducing a decolonial mechanism or evaluative criteria for module and course design. For example, this could take the form of a peer review process or another system to identify and address teaching materials (or historical sources) that might be discriminatory or perpetuate stereotypes. Such a mechanism could also help ensure that historical sources are framed with appropriate contextualisation.
As part of this project, a financial donation was made to Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP).
Alaa Al-shaikh al-Sulaiman is an experienced Arabic language instructor and a native speaker. Over the course of her 18-year of teaching experience, Alaa has taught classical, modern standard, and colloquial Arabic as a second language at various prestigious institutions in the United Kingdom and internationally. Alaa has been working at the University of Edinburgh since 2013.
Dr Deanne Bell is an Associate Professor of Critical Psychology and Decolonial Studies. Her research and scholarly commitments are to exposing and dismantling colonial systems of knowledge and exclusion. Her scholarship confronts coloniality in higher education and in historically marginalised communities in the global South and North.She has founded multiple ‘decolonial infrastructure’ projects in the academy including creating a new pedagogy for a university community to begin to understand systemic racism, creating opportunities for decolonial PhD research, and is the founding director of NTU’s Decolonial Research Collaborative.
Adam Ferron is PhD candidate at the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. They earned an MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the SOAS, and an MSc in Middle Eastern Studies with Arabic from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to coming to Edinburgh, they were Scholar-in-Residence at the Council for British Research in the Levant based in Amman, Jordan. Their current ESRC-funded research concentrates upon the political use of X, formerly known as Twitter, by religious actors primarily in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region. They are Project Lead for Curriculum Decolonisation in IMES and Beyond, as well as contributing to The Decolonising Wikipedia Network and The Decolonial Critique.
Dr Giulia Liberatore is a Lecturer at IMES and Social Anthropology, and an academic lead on the Muslims in Europe research theme at the Alwaleed Centre. She has a doctorate in Anthropology from the London School of Economics (LSE), and, prior to coming to Edinburgh, she worked at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society at the University of Oxford. Her research interests are in the anthropology of Europe, religion (Islam and Catholicism), migration, and the politics of difference.
rashné limki is Senior Lecturer in Work, Race and Decolonial Organisation studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her academic thinking and writing focuses mainly on the role of coloniality in the world as is, and the possibilities for decolonisation. She is currently working on a monograph titled “De/coloniality and the Future of Work” to be published by Bristol University Press. She occasionally blogs at rashne.me.
Shaira Vadasaria is a Lecturer in Race and Decolonial Studies in the School of Social and Political Science and a Senior Associate Fellow of the Alwaleed Centre, University of Edinburgh. Before joining Edinburgh, she held an Assistant Professorship appointment at Al-Quds University, Bard College (Palestine, 2016-2019) and Visiting Professorship in the Global and International Studies program at Carleton University (Canada, 2020). In 2020, she co-founded RACE.ED. Her research advances interdisciplinary social inquiry on genealogies of race and racial violence constitutive of settler colonialism, imperialism and empire, with an interest in ethics and methodology.
