Decolonizing Futurities: A Global Racial Justice Symposium

109 Tower Road,Ithaca NY 14853

10 June, 2022

Description

The 2022 “Decolonizing Futurities” symposium will be hosted by the inaugural cohort of Global Racial Justice Fellows. Through this symposium, we seek to critically analyze the construction of race and racial relations, and to reimagine a horizon of racial justice in contemporary life. Our aim is, thus, to decolonize existing anti-racist approaches, recognizing that decolonization is not a metaphor but an ongoing practice. To this end, our panels on Friday, June 10th address key arenas of social life: how we think, how we live, and how we remember. In our first panel, we explore how elements of (settler-)colonial thought have endured—over time and across spaces—to shape postcolonial imaginaries. In our second panel, we consider the implications of racialization in access to healthcare, nutrition, and housing in contemporary life. In our third panel, we reassess our understanding of what constitutes “history” to reflect the complex global realities we currently inhabit. All three panels will then convene in a final roundtable on Saturday, June 11th to attempt a radical re-imagining of our futures—a novel solidarity framework that honors a politic of shared responsibility. Free registration required: Reserve your ticket (link) Breakfast and lunch will be provided for all in-person attendees. Learn more about our symposium. *** Symposium Panelists Panel 1 | How We Think • Oumar Ba | Cornell University, NY, USA • Reggie Jackson | University of Michigan, MI, USA • Sarah Radcliff | Cambridge University, UK Panel 2 | How We Live • Jonathan Cohen | University of Southern California, CA, USA • Tashara Leak | Cornell University, NY, USA • Amali Lokugamage | University College, UK • Jill Stewart | Middlesex University, UK Panel 3 | How We Remember • Durba Ghosh | Cornell University, NY, USA • Zayd Minty | Wits University, South Africa • James Chase Sanchez | Middlebury College, VT, USA *** Detailed Schedule Friday, June 10th Breakfast & Opening Remarks | 9:00am – 10:00am, Uris G08 Panel 1 | How We Think: Colonial Thought | 10:00am – 11:30am In this panel, we propose to study how elements of colonial thought have endured or evolved, over time and across spaces. To this end, we ask the following questions: (1) How have colonial “ideas” and “symbols” been reformulated by non-Western actors in their own projects of domination? (2) How have these ideas been internalized and even co-opted by societies engaged in anti-colonial struggles or post-colonial nation-building? And; (3) Given the persistence of colonial thought in the contemporary period, what would “decolonization” entail? In answering these questions, we hope to identify some underexplored mechanisms by which Western colonial thought has helped install other formations of essentialism and the processes by which colonial norms became institutionally, behaviorally, and rhetorically entrenched and came to shape postcolonial imaginaries. Ultimately, our aim is to reconsider today’s decolonizing frameworks. Coffee break | 1:30am – 12:00pm Panel 2 | How We Live: Health and Housing | 12:00pm – 1:30pm At the local level, social injustices are highlighted in health, housing and quality-of-life disparities, and the sequelae of affected interpersonal experiences and development opportunities. In this subpanel we will explore the determinants and consequences of inequity and how the colonial building blocks of society have shaped our contemporary systems of environmental and human health. We aim to identify possible entry points and calls to action to address mechanisms that inhibit justice and obfuscate the ability to thrive within our communities. We will highlight the causes and implications of each issue, as well as important methodological obstacles to consider in understanding and communicating each facet. Lunch | 1:30pm – 2:30pm Panel 3 | How We Remember: Sites of Memory in Public Space | 2:30pm – 4:00pm In this panel we want to address how space and place are racially coded, and how institutionalized practices of collective remembering can often sustain assumptions of racial inequality. Public spaces continuously reflect back to us the history of the present, thereby necessitating political discussion about their role in maintaining assumptions regarding the limits of community. Referencing recent conflicts around contentious public monuments in the U.S. and elsewhere, we wish to examine symbols of public space– whether construed as ‘vandalism’ or ‘abolition’ – and consider what they say about current disconnects between state identity and the lived experiences of their diverse populations. In so doing, how might we rethink our relationship to the colonial past? How might we reconsider practices of commemoration to account for the living relationship between the present and our inheritances rather than consigning these legacies to a past that has always already been “overcome”? And finally, if authentic enfranchisement in the present necessitates a comparable enfranchisement in a collective past, how can we take action within our own institutions to have them serve as more effective interfaces between our inherited past and our contingent future? Saturday, June 11th Breakfast | 9:00am – 10:00am Roundtable | How We Imagine: Decolonizing Futurities | 10:00am – 11:30am This last conversation will include perspectives from each of the 3 panels, with outlooks on how to approach our future. Closing remarks | 11:30am – 11:45am