Thread by @MirnaGuha

Still processing the powerful discussion we had today in our #MA @ARUSociology session on #DecolonisingtheUniversity. A student shared her experiences of growing up in apartheid South Africa & feeling validated & 'seen' by the reading material. Became emotional as she talked

about how #apartheid affected her secondary & higher education in South Africa. Another shared his experiences of racism & racial abuse at his place of work in London, and how he'd envisioned a different kind of life in the UK when he migrated from Nigeria three years

ago. A third talked about being British in Zimbabwe and how her family had tried to convince her that the 'whites' were there to help the 'black people' and how she learnt to resist the 'civilising' narrative of #empire. A fourth discussed how her godfather rolled his eyes at her

when she tried to discuss the reading material with him and highlight #Brexit as an example of the need for different retellings of #British #history. She said she would keep persisting to get him to see her point. I suggested leaving copies of the reading materials around his

home. A fifth talked about how she feels guilt and shame when she thinks about how she was #socialised within her #British white working class community to think #racial abuse was alright, but learnt to see it as wrong and challenge it. Finally, a sixth talked about how #Spain,

where she grew up, needs to reckon with its own history as a #coloniser, something that is only starting to emerge now. We read @GKBhambra, #Fanon, watched a video of @PriyamvadaGopal talking about #InsurgentEmpire and the need for different mythologies of the #Empire,

discussed Dalia Gebrial's excellent chapter on the #RhodesMustFall campaign and Azille Coetzee's blog on why tackling #sexual #violence is key to South Africa's #decolonisation project, among others. Today's class confirmed that to #DecolonisetheUniversity we have to create &

foster critical & reflective spaces to have difficult but important conversations about #race and #empire within our classrooms. I'm honoured and humbled that my students felt they could trust the space and process to be open and vulnerable and listen to a range of experiences.

Simply adding the study of #Decolonising to the #Sociology curriculum enabled a cathartic and profound learning space. I look forward to what the following weeks bring as we dive into Linda Tuhiwai Smith's excellent book on #decolonising #methodologies, and discuss Eve Tuck &

K.Wayne Yang's #decolonisation is not a metaphor'! #decolonisingsociology #antiracist #learningspaces #inclusivity