Session 4: Experience Decolonising across disciplines in postgraduate research and supervision (April 2023)
Dr Vashti Suwa Gbolagun
Title: Autobiographical narratives and the Jos tin fields: A Decolonising approach to the negative impact of Tin mining degradation.
Summary: Tin mining degradation occurred on the Jos Plateau land, in Nigeria, for over five decades. Activities from tin mining resulted in the loss of lives, farmlands, homes and sources of livelihood. Yet, there is little mention of the consequences of this degradation on the land or its inhabitants in the dialogue regarding environmental degradation in Nigeria. In response to the lack of materials chronicling the impact of tin mining, I draw on personal and autobiographical narratives to help in revealing salient and often untold stories. From the creative narratives, as revealed in the stories and poems, and through the characters and incidences, salient issues like child neglect, rape, death, and marginalisation against women, among other issues are exposed. This paper focuses on how autobiographical accounts can bring about creating awareness and producing some positive outcomes for the inhabitants of the Jos Plateau.
Bio: Dr Vashti Suwa Gbolagun has been described as a role model, performer, collaborator, volunteer, feminist, environmental researcher, and de-coloniser. Investigating the under-researched issue of environmental damage in the Nigerian Jos Plateau. Vashti used poetry and autobiography to draw on her personal experience of living alongside tin mining and degradation by creatively de-colonising the English PhD, producing original creative writing whilst advancing innovative methodologies. In addition, Vashti has poems written in Pidgin English that have been composed into music. Vashti has been involved in storytelling workshops and film production in conjunction with her university and the local community.
Tom Kelsall
Title: “They are somewhat mentally unstable” Decolonising the Activities and History of the Special Operations Executive
Summary: This presentation will discuss the colonial history of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and how the history of the organisation, like SOE itself, remains particularly Eurocentric, with a focus on using the remaining SOE archive to address this. An important part of decolonising the history of SOE in these regions is to consider the indigenous perspective of the organisation and its history. Traditional studies of SOE, when considering impact, for example, generally limit themselves to discussion of anything which could have an impact on operational effectiveness. This presentation will examine the impact of SOE activities from the bottom up, examining the effects that decisions had on local populations. The significance of the research behind this presentation two-fold, firstly it is important to the study of SOE itself, as the first examination of the organisation in Latin America and large areas of Africa. Secondly, in the context of the modern British Intelligence community, which has been striving for diversity within itself for a number of years, the study provides an invaluable insight into where British Intelligence has come from, without which we can not quantify progress to date or the road ahead.
Bio: Tom Kelsall is currently a PhD student in the Politics and Contemporary History department at the University of Salford. His research is on the history of the British intelligence community, particularly the Second World War Special Operations Executive (SOE),with a focus on decolonising the history of SOE in the global south.
Rountable Discussion
Title: Why Decolonizing the (West/Eurocentric) Academic Study of Religion and its Positionality in Research Practices?
Hadje Cresencio Sadje obtained his MA in Crosscultural Theology at the Protestant Theological University, The Netherlands, and a Master of Arts in Ecumenical Studies (specializing in Sociology of Religion) at the University of Bonn. He is a student ambassador at the Paris Institute of Critical Thinking, and a visiting fellow at the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre Canada, Centre for Studies in Religion and Society—University of Victoria, and research associate at Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Vienna Austria.
Manotar Tampubolon is an Assitant Professor of Law at the Universitas Kristen Indonesia Jakarta, where he also received his PhD. (Law and Religion) in 2017, followed by a post-doctoral in 2022. His research focus are the following subjects: The Ugamo Malim minority group and its legal and human rights challenges in Indonesia, the intersectionality of world religions and law, religious freedom, indigenous spirituality, and decoloniality.
Thandi Soko-de Jong is a Malawian-Dutch activist-theologian. She is a PhD candidate at the Protestant Theological University in the Netherlands, where the focus of her studies is within Intercultural theology. She holds degrees in African Studies (African Studies Centre Leiden, Leiden University, the Netherlands), Theology and Development (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa), and Biblical Studies and Mass Communications (African Bible College, Malawi). Her research interest and publication projects focus on decoloniality and feminism, Anti-racism, Inclusion, Theology and Development, African Studies, Public Health.
This roundtable discussion aims to make a start at decolonizing the Eurocentric study of religion, theology, and its positionality in research practices. As it is known, European academic study of theologies and religions rested on a global colonial pursuit characterized by the need to control the theological and religious knowledge productions, and resources, and claim their belonging to the Christianizing/Civilizing project of Western global colonialism (Tayob, 2018; Mignolo, 2012; Bradnick, 2011). It implied that academic (Western/Eurocentric) theology and religious studies disciplines deployed to promote epistemic privilege, knowledge imperialism, superior race, and justification of colonialism among colonial subjects. More recently, however, critics have called for decolonizing academic theologies and religious studies research practices (including methodologies). This decolonizing project argues that academic theologies and religious studies research practices need to be understood as a specific narrative evoking universality beyond its locality by colonizing what is and what is not theological thinkable, particularly what is religious and non-religious. Accordingly, decolonizing theologies and religious studies supervisions, funding opportunities, research questions, and research practices provides more relevant learning experiences for international students, most especially for students from the Global South (Oh, 2020; Maldonado-Torres, 2014; Mignolo, 2012). Challenging the hegemonic Western paradigms, methods, concepts, categories, framework of theologies and religious studies research practices, this roundtable discussion will exlplore the following questions; why is it important to decolonize academic theologies and religious studies practices as part of the global project of decolonization? What are the impact of decolonization (within your institution/practice/research)? What are the academic privilege and academic barriers in decolonizing academic theologies and religious studies? Above all, the presenters will share their postgraduate journey experiences from their own perspective as international doctoral students (Philippines, Indonesia, and South Africa), whose research focuses on postcolonial and decolonial approaches in the academic study of religion and theologies as well as the structural challenges in European universities (Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, and beyond).
