UCL Political Science Events

The Postcolonial Academy: Knowledge, Memory, and Liberation

Episode Summary

Recorded in March 2026, this Policy and Practice Seminar examines the historical and ongoing relationship between universities, knowledge production, and colonial power, asking how the legacy of empire continues to shape the modern academy. It explores how universities once legitimised colonial rule through research, training, and the construction of racial and cultural hierarchies, and considers what responsibilities institutions now hold in addressing those histories. The discussion also reflects on decolonisation, knowledge systems, and the role of higher education in postcolonial contexts. Speakers include Simukai Chigudu, Cathy Elliott, and Tariq Jazeel.

Episode Notes

In the colonial period, universities did not stand apart from empire, but actively legitimised colonial power through their production of knowledge, training of administrators, and construction of racial and cultural hierarchies.  In the post-colonial era, what role does the modern academy play in shaping these relationships? Our expert panel will explore the role of the modern university and systems of knowledge production in the postcolonial context. 

The discussion will feature Dr Simukai Chigdu’s upcoming book “Chasing Freedom: Coming of Age at the End of Empire”, a personal memoir that explores the inheritance of violence, of struggle, of African liberation. Copies of the book will be available at the event.  

Meet the speakers 

• Dr. Simukai Chigudu is Associate Professor of African Politics at the Oxford Department of International Development and Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford University. He is broadly interested in the politics of global health and epidemics, race and identity, citizenship and activist movements, with a regional focus on Africa and the African diaspora. His upcoming book, Chasing Freedom, has been named by Foreign Policy as one of the 30 biggest book releases in foreign affairs, history, and political science in 2026.  
• Prof. Cathy Elliott teaches in the Political Science department and is Vice Dean Education in the Social and Historical Sciences faculty at UCL. She teaches extensively about colonialism and what it might mean to decolonise a University in the metropolitan centre. She has supported numerous student-led projects aiming at combating racism, diversifying reading lists and challenging awarding gaps, including co-publishing with students on the dilemmas of working with and through universities to challenge the ongoing legacies of colonialism. Her research interests are on relational pedagogies, the use of imagination and creativity in teaching politics and more widely on story-telling and temporality in International Relations. 
• Prof. Tariq Jazeel is Professor of Human Geography at UCL. His research explores the spatial constitutions of nation, identity and belonging in South Asian contexts, especially in Sri Lanka, as well as the challenges of engaging non-western contexts. Tariq co-founded and co-directs UCL’s Centre for the Study of South Asia and the Indian Ocean World, which is based in the College’s Institute of Advanced Studies. 

Recorded 19 March 2026