The Postcolonial Academy: Knowledge, Memory, and Liberation

In the colonial period, universities did not stand apart from empire, but actively legitimized colonial power through its production of knowledge, training of administrators, and construction of racial and cultural hierarchies. In the post-colonial era, what role does the modern academy in shaping these relationships? Our expert panel will explore the role of the modern university and systems of knowledge production in the postcolonial context.

The discussion will feature Dr. Simukai Chigdu’s upcoming book “Chasing Freedom: Coming of Age at the End of Empire”, a personal memoir that explores the inheritance of violence, of struggle, of African liberation. Copies of the book will be available at the event.

Dr. Simukai Chigudu is Associate Professor of African Politics at the Oxford Department of International Development and Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford University. He is broadly interested in the politics of global health and epidemics, race and identity, citizenship and activist movements, with a regional focus on Africa and the African diaspora. His upcoming book, Chasing Freedom, has been named by Foreign Policy as one of the 30 biggest book releases in foreign affairs, history, and political science in 2026.

Prof. Cathy Elliott is an Associate Professor in Political Science and work on ideas about time, temporality and story-telling in International Relations. She is currently working on a project analysing the political discourses and possibilities in the ‘British new nature writing’. This work builds on ideas about temporality and storytelling in her recent book Democracy Promotion as Foreign Policy: Temporal Othering in International Relations (2017).

Prof. Tariq Jazeel is Professor of Human Geography at UCL. His research explores the spatial constitutions of nation, identity and belonging in South Asian contexts, especially in Sri Lanka, as well as the challenges of engaging non-western contexts. Tariq co-founded and co-directs UCL's Centre for the Study of South Asia and the Indian Ocean World, which is based in the College's Institute of Advanced Studies.

This event will be recorded and the video will be uploaded to our YouTube channel.

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Seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis. We cannot guarantee you a seat, but it is very unusual that we have to turn someone away.

• The corridor outside the lecture theatre(s) is sufficiently wide enough (150cm+) to allow wheelchair users to pass.
• There is step free access into the lecture theatre(s).
• The door opening width(s) is/are 75cm+ for the lecture theatre(s).
• There are designated spaces for wheelchair users within the lecture theatre(s), located at the back.
• There is level access to the designated seating from an entrance.
• There is space for an assistance dog.
• There is a hearing assistance system for the lecture theatre(s).
• There is not a visual fire alarm beacon in the lecture theatre(s).

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2026 is the year in which we celebrate UCL’s Bicentenary, marking 200 years since UCL’s establishment as the first University in London.

UCL Political Science and School of Public Policy are celebrating with a programme of seminars that relate to one of UCL's core research themes: Fairer Futures

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

UCL Institute of Archaeology, lecture theatre G6, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, United Kingdom

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