| Unit name | Decolonising Geographies |
|---|---|
| Unit code | GEOGM0070 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Jackson |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Geographical Sciences |
| Faculty | Faculty of Science |
This unit will explore how decolonising imperatives from decolonial, postcolonial, Indigenous, Black, queer, and related studies are fundamentally transforming human geographies and our cognate social sciences and humanities disciplines. Today’s decolonising imperatives respond to a widely accepted recognition that colonialism and coloniality continue to shape late modern life, including how knowledge is produced in universities. This unit will do two primary things. First, it will analyse how and why decolonisation has become such an important touchstone for diagnosing contemporary social, economic, ecological, political, and cultural problems. As such, it will contextualize how normative and dominant forms of knowledge production are embedded within, and reproduce, modern structures of exclusion, hierarchy, and power. Second, we will work, within the unit, to develop strategies for unlearning these often-harmful structures and processes, and so open feeling, knowledge, politics, and ethics to other ways of knowing, being, and becoming.
Overall, then, the unit will explore how postcolonial and decolonial geographies are renewing the discipline to meet the theoretical and empirical demands of our precarious planetary present. It will do so within the need for new analytical questions, methodologies, and representational strategies that draw from diverse interdisciplinary approaches to the society and the environment, including from: political ecology; indigenous studies; posthumanisms; anthropology; material studies; agro-ecology; social movement studies; cultural and historical geographies; critical political economy; feminist studies; and many more cognate influences.
At the completion of this unit, students will able to:
The unit will be taught through a combination of:
Reflective Letter (20%). Here we provide a means for students to reflect critically on their learning thus far in the unit; to provide a means to contribute feedback to students before the more heavily weighted assignments are due; to encourage students to reflect upon their learning and its application; to encourage clear and direct communication of that learning in an imaginative, ‘less academic format’. (the letter is not meant to be a research paper).
3500-word research essay (60%). Students may choose to examine either: an object or text through which engage key topics and concepts within the unit via a creative/productive means; or, examine a self-chosen topic on a subject of their interest arising from the unit. Guidance will be provided on an individual basis for each student, and students will be supported in their development of ideas and design of the research papers.
Seminar Participation (20%): As part of the participation mark, each student will present in one seminar on that seminar's assigned readings for about fifteen minutes in length. Each presentation summarises central themes in the reading for that week and poses issues for discussion. A copy of the presentation will be distributed to the class at the beginning of the two-hour seminar. Feedback will be given to the students within one week of their presentation. Other marks for participation will include weekly contributions, class-room facilitation, discussion contribution, etc. Rubrics for participation will be circulated at the beginning of the unit.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. GEOGM0070).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
