Events

GENDER, POWER AND THE POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION

Hosted by the Department for Gender Studies

CLM.6.02, Clement House, LSE , United Kingdom

Speaker

Dr Awino Okech

Lecturer at the Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS

Chair

Naila Kabeer

Debates on decolonising higher education in Africa re-surfaced in 2015/16 through the Fees Must Fall protests in South Africa. These protests echoed concerns shared across the globe around the nature of the curriculum and the structural framework of universities that render them non-inclusive. It is easy to conceive of these student led protests that have been vibrant and refreshing in their focus on the political struggles of students and workers, as new. However, in Africa, the histories of decolonisation conversations have been much longer. They begun through the post-independence state led-projects of Africanising universities, continued through academic freedom debates in the 90’s led primarily by faculty, catalysed by the Brettonwood institutions structural adjustment programmes and democratisation struggles in a number of African countries. Today we see these debates revitalised through the pressure to build viable, professional universities run like efficient businesses that are “globally competitive”. The confluence between global and local economic and political pressures has never been more evident in the evolution of higher education in Africa and indeed in the United Kingdom. This seminar explores the histories of resistance in higher education in Africa, with a focus on how they enabled a conversation about power and the politics of knowledge production. Secondly, I examine the interventions of African feminist epistemic communities in higher education in Africa. Finally, I conclude with a set of provocations about what these seemingly parallel conversations have to offer to the ways we teach, research and intervene in feminist conversations in our classrooms and research in UK universities.

Dr. Awino Okech's teaching and research interests lies in the nexus between gender, sexuality and nation/state making projects as they occur in conflict and post-conflict societies. In addition, Dr Okech sees the processes through which knowledge production occur as critical to transforming and re-thinking academic practice today. Therefore, the politics of knowledge production, research and research(ing) form a central part for her teaching and research focus. Prior to her appointment at the Centre for Gender Studies, she contributed to knowledge production and transfer through an adjunct teaching position with the African Leadership Centre at Kings College London where she co-convened the Gender Leadership and Society module as part of the MSc in Security, Leadership and Society.

This event is not ticketed and guests are admitted on a first come, first served basis.