The first double lecture event on February 16th, 2021, within the Decolonizing Area Studies initiative, hosting two experts in the field, Drs. Ervin Malakaj and Terry Osborn, was featured in the Daily Campus edition from February 17th, 2021: “CLAS anti-racist education initiative hosts double lecture on the decolonization of language and culture studies.” Lucie Turkle emphasized statements from each speaker:

“Dr. Malakaj referred to the book “The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study” by Stefano Harney and Fred Moten throughout his talk. According to Dr. Malakaj, Harney and Moten theorized that “the undercommons” of a university is seen as a place “beneath” or separate from the university infrastructure. Those that are seen as being outside of the academic norm have to rely on the undercommons for protection and socialization rather than the university itself. “

“WHEN SYSTEMS FAIL, MUTUAL AID NETWORKS EMERGE.”

and “In elementary and secondary education, language speakers in classroom examples never face moral dilemmas or deal with significant emotional issues, thus leaving out a lot of the human experience when teaching languages, Dr. Osborn said. A possible alternative to teaching world languages, he continued, is to use a secondary language to teach about social justice. “

“TEACHING WORLD LANGUAGES WITH SOCIAL JUSTICES COMBINES INQUIRY WITH OTHERS IN OUR COMMUNITY.”

Read the entire article here.