Scientific knowledge and processes of decolonization

Decolonization, in the three decades after World War II, entailed the emergence of new nation-states out of empires. This development was inseparable from a global shift of values through which colonialism and its inherent “rule of difference” were delegitimized. Accordingly, the decolonization agenda posed a challenge to many forms of scientific knowledge previously tied, in formal and informal ways, to the exercise of colonial rule. In this seminar, we focus on scientific knowledge and the processes of decolonization through three presentations.

• Ana Antic (UCPH): Decolonisation, transcultural psychiatry and the birth of a global psyche
• Casper Andersen (AU): Science and decolonization in UNESCO
• Søren Rud (UCPH): Governing sexual citizens: decolonization and venereal disease in Greenland

Moderator: Stuart Ward (UCPH)

The seminar will be followed by a small reception.