Calls for the decolonization of society in general, and of specific sectors and institutions in particular, not in the least universities, are gaining traction in recent years. Grounded in longstanding traditions of anticolonial resistance and decolonial and postcolonial studies, these critiques have gained momentum with the international reverberations – including in Belgium – of the Black Lives Matter movement, targeting systemic and institutional racism. Decolonization refers to a much-needed reckoning with the colonial past, but it also and especially requires tackling the colonial present: it challenges global inequalities and their local articulations – at the intersection of racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination – that reproduce colonial power relations in the present. Universities, as powerful spaces where knowledge about the world is produced and taught, are among the institutions that are at the heart of the contestation, as evidenced by the international and local calls by students to decolonize the University, from Rhodes Must Fall to the Open Letter “Decolonize UGent.”

In response to this latter call, the Learning Network on Decolonisation of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of Ghent University aims to initiate activities to decolonize education, research and services to students and staff. The network brings together students, lecturers and researchers to co-learn and to co-create knowledge and practices to change what we teach and study and how we do it.

Through the Public Lecture and Workshop Series, the Network wants to address Eurocentrism in the curricula, as well intersectional inequalities in education and research. Local and international experts will offer insights and hands-on training for staff and students on racism and sexism in academia, and the decolonisation of the curriculum, teaching and research methods.