There is a disconnection between, on the one hand, Europe regarding colonial history as ‘the past’ and of little consequence to its contemporary self-understanding and, on the other hand, formerly colonized countries and populations living with the ongoing legacies of that colonial past as a present reality. In this lecture, I argue for a decolonial project for Europe. This is a project that would acknowledge Europe’s past as one largely constituted by its colonial activities. Further, it would seek to rethink the idea of ‘Europe’, and its contemporary relations to the rest of the world, on that basis.
Gurminder K. Bhambra is Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies at the University of Sussex. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and President of the British Sociological Association. Her publications include Colonialism and Modern Social Theory (with John Holmwood) and the award-winning Rethinking Modernity: Postcolonialism and the Sociological Imagination.
This lecture will take place as a hybrid event at the GHIL and/or online via Zoom. In order to register for this event, please follow this link to Eventbrite.
