Minor Global Studies and Colonial Critiques
This Minor introduces you to the notion of decolonization, its meaning, the theories behind it, and its application to international "development."**
Throughout the programme, we will approach decolonization by consciously and proactively teaching a diversified, transformed and decolonized curriculum, and by applying engaging pedagogies such as critical arts-based methods.
By looking at the extent to which global challenges affect countries of the Global South disproportionately, this Minor fosters a reflection on how and why the gap between Global North and Global South countries continues to widen.
❝ I was one of the two billion of us who became underdeveloped on January 20, 1949, when President Truman coined the word “underdevelopment” and began the campaign to develop us.
Twenty years later, having already suffered the horrors that accompany this enterprise, many of us recognized that its goal—to make us like the developed countries, to adopt the American way of life—was clearly impossible… and very damaging.❞
Gustavo Esteva, 2022
In designing and pursuing development goals, higher income countries have historically and systematically overlooked two important factors:
1) legacies of colonialism that were, more than often, represented in agenda-setting, interventions, and measurements in international development;
2) the very notion of development. What development is and how it is supposed to look like has been constructed based on Western ideas and ideals.
As a result, the complexities of development issues are deepening globally, and the burden of the Global South in carrying old and new forms of inequalities is disproportionately greater, further entrenching the marginalization and disadvantage of some groups.
*While undoubtedly beautiful, this picture invites us to reflect critically on our gaze and to avoid contributing to the exotification of the Global South. Exotification happens when we view regions of the world, particularly in the Global South, through a lens of stereotypes. This phenomenon results in the creation of simplistic, idealized, and often inaccurate representations of people and cultures, which can then be imposed upon them, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and reinforcing racial biases. These biases, among many others, are the types of attitudes we aim to expose and challenge in our Minor.
**"Development" as a notion is closely reflected upon by scholars from the Global South, including Gustavo Esteva and Arturo Escobar. They argue that in order to pursue development, regions must first be perceived as underdeveloped by those who fund and design development initiatives. As a result, "development" has come to signify backwardness and to serve as a rationale for Western interventions and neocolonialism.
Last modified: | 19 June 2024 10.46 a.m. |