Is sustainability the solution to fighting climate change? More and more, sustainability and the transition to clean renewable energy sources are touted as the only way that humanity will reverse climate change disaster and survive. But sustainability as an economic practice has its critics too. Indigenous protectors and decolonial researchers for example present important arguments on the shortcomings of sustainability as it is practiced today. From the often–overlooked ethics of the global environmental crisis, to the seriousness of the ecological crisis right here in the Netherlands, ecofeminist scholar Carolina Sánchez will introduce examples and challenges to the green narrative that are guaranteed to make you stop and think.  

We are also joined in the discussion via Zoom by Sámi archaeologist and museologist Liisa-Rávná Finbog (University of Oslo), speaking on the challenges faced by the Indigenous Sámi nation in northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland with, for instance, the construction of wind farms on their traditional lands.

Carolina Sánchez-De Jaegher is a philosopher, ecofeminist scholar, and ICON Utrecht University affiliated researcher/UCLouvain (Université Catholique de Louvain) who has dedicated her academic work to environmental ethics and the theory of justice for nature. Her expertise resides in ecosystems ethics and ancestral knowledge(s), Indigenous sacred places: its international legality and the southern epistemologies.  She has done most of her field work bridging, comparing and contrasting policies for environmental protection and the emergence of epistemic resistance in the Mapuche communities of South Chile. 

SG presents: the Decolonising Knowledge series

This series of events explores the legacy of colonial power structures in society.  

Decolonisation, roughly put, is a social movement and academic project that seeks to empower knowledge, cultures, and peoples marginalized by the  legacy of colonialism and its power structures. This movement also reflects critically on the historical role of universities and Western knowledge production in relation to colonialism. It encompasses issues of race, gender, land ownership, ways of knowing, reparations, resource extraction, rights and representation, and more.  

The program will consist of a core of lecture series introducing the decolonial perspective and its application. There will also be numerous satellite events with master classes, a film night, and discussion groups. 

The Decolonising Knowledge series will be launched as pre-recorded lectures on YouTube on select Tuesdays in February, March, and May 2021. Live online discussion sessions will be organized on Tuesday evenings via VOX Delft, the open discussion platform of the TU Delft. You can join them for free through the VOX Discord server here. Download the Discord app beforehand (also free) if you want to be able to see other peoples’ video. You can find some tips here to get you started on using Discord.