The University of Pretoria’s (UP) Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship (CAS) and the Department of English cordially invites you to join Professor Ankhi Mukherjee (University of Oxford) in discussion with Professor Corinne Sandwith (Department of English, UP). Professor Mukherjee will speak to Decolonizing the English Literary Curriculum, a collaborative volume with 27 contributors which she co-edited with Professor Ato Quayson (Stanford University), published in 2023. Professor James Ogude (Director, CAS) will moderate the discussion.

George Floyd's death on May 25th 2020 marked a watershed in reactions to anti-Black racism in the United States and elsewhere. Intense demonstrations around the world followed. Within literary studies, the demonstrations accelerated the scrutiny of the literary curriculum, the need to diversify the curriculum, and the need to incorporate more Black writers. Decolonizing the English Literary Curriculum is a major collection that aims to address these issues from a global perspective. An international team of leading scholars illustrate the necessity and advantages of reform from specific decolonial perspectives, with evidence-based arguments from classroom contexts, as well as establishing new critical agendas. The significance of Decolonizing the English Literary Curriculum lies in the complete overhaul it proposes for the study of English literature. It reconnects English studies, the humanities, and the modern, international university to issues of racial and social justice. This book is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core. 

Date: Tuesday, 12 March 2024

Time: 14:00 to 16:00

Venue: Old College House, Hatfield Campus, University of Pretoria

RSVP: By Friday, 6 March 2024

Enquiries: Ms Ayanda Sihlahla, [email protected], 012 420 4093