POSTCOLONIALISM, DECOLONIALITY, & DIALOGUE - RECOVERING SUBMERGED KNOWLEDGE (CERS-4820)

This course is appropriate for MA and PhD students (additional research) interested in understanding the critically important methodologies of Postcolonialism and Decoloniality Studies and will introduce students to questions, ideas, and debates taking place within these fields in their relationship to Africa, Asia, and North & South America. This regular course, taught remotely and synchronously, will examine current scholarship at the intersection of colonialism/neocolonialism and the Study of Religion. The course focuses on the contemporary efforts to rediscover the internal lens for the study of religious cultures, indigenous knowledge, and thought systems that arose in the global South. The main focus will be on the hermeneutics of Decoloniality Studies with a critical evaluation of Postcolonialism. From Decoloniality’s critique of modernity emerges (i) an analysis of political, economic, social and cultural thought constructions influenced by problematic epistemic criteria; (ii) a critique of Postcolonialism itself for its lack of self-reflection; and (ii) a call for the construction of a new epistemology of/by the global regions impacted and their diasporic traditions. The course will require critical reflections and research papers. [Auditors With Faculty Permission]