In ‘Western’ public discourse, the concept of decolonisation has long had a peculiar temporality. As an historical phenomenon, decolonisation is often interpreted as the process, driven by post-war independence movements, that marked the definitive end of empire. But as a political rallying cry, applied to education, museums, public spaces, or the creative arts, decolonisation positions colonial logics as legacies that persist in our everyday practices, institutions, and knowledges.

This ambiguous distinction between the colonialisms of the past and their spectral legacies in the present was never particularly stable. But in recent years, it has come under increasing pressure in the face of intensifying colonial struggles in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, and elsewhere.

The present moment, then, calls for an analysis of (de)colonial logics that avoids reductive distinctions between past and present, material and cultural, or centre and periphery. What we need is a theoretical language that is adequate to grasp the complex historical, material, and political dynamics of the present conjuncture.

ISRF Fellows and affiliates have long worked to articulate such a language. Building on a lecture series the ISRF has recently hosted, this workshop brings together a number of the Foundation’s colleagues to assess the state of research on (de)colonisation in its many dimensions. The papers presented here will form the basis for a book project edited and published by the ISRF.

Participants to include:

Chaired by Lars Cornelissen, Baindu Kallon and Chris Newfield.