Pedagogies of Solidarity: Anti-colonial possibilities
Dr. Juanita Sundberg
Associate Professor of Geography
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Sep 24, 3:30 PM
GUGG 205
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Meeting ID: 926 4853 9892
Abstract
In this presentation, I point to the classroom as a crucial space for anti-colonial praxis. While unlearning colonial epistemologies is an important step in anticolonial practices, it is only one step. Additional steps must accompany unlearning to materially – not metaphorically - reconfigure institutional practices that perpetuate coloniality in the discipline of geography. Enacting anticolonial institutional change requires actions on multiple fronts. Here, I focus on the limitations and opportunities of differing pedagogical approaches. In particular, I reflect on my own efforts to enact decolonial praxis through my fourth-year community service-learning seminar, “The Politics of North-South Solidarity in Theory and Practice.”
Using pedagogies of solidarity, the seminar creates conditions for differently situated actors – students, myself, Indigenous leaders, ally groups - to build alliances that support Indigenous struggles for self-determination in Mexican or Guatemalan and Canadian settler colonial societies. My presentation will highlight specific pedagogical strategies enacted in collaboration with Indigenous leaders to reflect on unsettling and challenging practices to nourish anticolonial solidarity. I offer these reflections in conversation with and support of ongoing de- and anticolonial praxis in the discipline of geography.
