Theme: 5. Knowledge-making: Institutions, Objects, Cultural Ownership

Doing African Studies in a (De)colonial World: Navigating Cultural Identities and Practicing Liminal Interculturality

Roundtable Convenor(s)

• AX

  Allen Xiao

  National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore

Roundtable Chair(s)

• AX

  Allen Xiao

  National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore

Roundtable Participant(s)

• AX

  Allen Xiao

  National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore
• HZ

  Hang Zhou

  Université Laval, Canada
• SS

  Shobana Shankar

  Stony Brook University, United States
• ST

  Shinichi Takeuchi

  Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, African Studies Center, Japan
• MV

  Meera Venkatachalam

  International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Netherlands

Roundtable Abstract:

Drawing on our respective experiences across different institutions, fields, and cultures, we will interrogate the buzzwords ‘decoloniality’ and ‘decolonization’ in African studies by discussing the roles of cultural identities and interculturality in doing African studies. We will first discuss to what extent cultural identities are constitutive of doing field research in Africa. Based on field experiences, we will also explore how intersected cultural identities of both our scholars and research participants may lead to the shifting research agenda. The core of these experiences is to navigate the assemblage of cultural identities, resulting in not simply the grounding of an African studies project but also the illumination of ‘African agency’ that is regarded as the key to decolonization. However, when navigating cultural identities, we may also encounter the kinds of coloniality that is inherently embedded in institutions, structures, and histories. Therefore, we will reflect on how critical engagements with cultural identities can help us demystify the decolonization discourse nowadays. More importantly, we draw on our Asian identities and experiences to further interrogate the epistemology of Area Studies (particularly as formulated in Western institutions over the second half of the twentieth century): what might we learn from at the intersection of insights drawn from across problematized Area Studies, especially from Asia as Method?

 

In a broad sense, this roundtable discussion will lead to theoretical interventions to decoloniality and interculturality in African studies from the perspective of praxis and structure. First, we explore the linguistic praxis of learning languages, including ‘official’, vernacular and creole languages, between different academic institutions in the postcolonial apparatus, therefore discussing how these practices may render the coloniality that is shadowed by ‘decolonization’ languages. Second, we explore the socio-economic praxis of doing fieldwork across different cultural institutions and imaginations, therefore discussing how these practices may render a liminal dilemma in the uneven academic fields. Third, we explore the political praxis of writing and publishing through the Western-dominated knowledge production processes, therefore discussing to whom our work speaks and if such intercultural communication could ‘horizontally’ (versus ‘vertically’) evoke the decoloniality that we aim for.

If you have selected Institutional Roundtable above or if your Strategic Roundtable is sponsored by an Institution, please type the institution's name below.: