The Department of Sociology, Shiv Nadar University, invites you to the first webinar in a series titled 'Emerging Critiques from the South', organised by SEPHIS (South-South Exchange Programme for Research on the History of Development) in association with the Department of Sociology, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi - NCR.
The inaugural webinar, 'Decolonization and Postimperialism' by Prof. Gustavo Lins Ribeiro will be held on Friday, 11 March at 8:30 PM (IST). Dr. Ribeiro is a Professor of Anthropology, founder and first Chair of the World Council of Anthropological Association, and currently teaches at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM-Lerma, Mexico).
Abstract
Colonialism and imperialism are two sides of ancient historical processes of demographic, economic, political and cultural expansions. They were boosted by the development of the capitalist world system after its beginning in the 16th century. In consequence, what is today called the Americas became a huge settler colony, colonized by Spanish, Portuguese, English and French invaders. Native resistance to the colonial enterprise has been common ever since and has included armed conflicts as well as discursive formulations from indigenous intellectuals and political leaders. Decolonization is supposed to mean the end of colonialism with the advent of political independence. However, powerful colonial structures keep on affecting postcolonial life. I will explore a few Latin American efforts to decolonize knowledge and politics, such as the coloniality of power, the Buen Vivir/Vivir Bien, and the comunalidad theoretical framework. I will also explore the need to further decolonize anthropological thought, a discipline that has grown out of the conflictive contact areas created by modern colonialism/imperialism. I will finish by introducing the notion of postimperialism as a utopian heuristic meant to destabilize the colonialism/imperialism pair.
