KOLKATA: A one-year programme of special lecture series on ‘Decolonization of Knowledge and Decolonial Pedagogy: Looking Back and Moving Forward’ organised by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies and Research, Sister Nivedita University, (CISRS) New Town, Kolkata is undergoing from April, 2025. Every month, an internationally acclaimed stalwart is gracing the lectureship programme. In May 2025, it was Prof Emeritus Walter Mignolo, one of the founding scholars of the subarea who delivered a lecture on ‘What does it mean to Decolonize’. The event was attended by 75 faculty and scholars globally in a blended mode.
On Friday, Syed Farid Alatas, who is a professor of sociology at the National University of Singapore (NUS), will deliver the much-awaited lecture. Another stalwart social scientist known for his work on post-colonialism, Eurocentrism in the social sciences and the recovery of Ibn Khaldun’s sociological thought, Prof Alatas has made significant contributions to the understanding of Southeast Asian politics, the impact of colonialism on knowledge production and the development of alternative discourses in the social sciences.
He will deliver his lecture on ‘Critique and Construction in Knowledge Creation: Taking Decolonization Seriously’ on Friday at 2 pm. All lectures are in hybrid mode. This lecture series is unique in its own right. “To the best of my knowledge, this area is almost non-existent even in social sciences in India. It is very unfortunate as India is the classic example of colonization and coloniality,” said Prof (Dr) Bula Bhadra, Professor Emeritus and Director, CISRS, SNU.