Keeping the Fire: Oxford-UNISA Decolonising Research Methodologies (2021)

This is a trailer for the 30-minute film, Keeping the Fire. The film follows the experience of educators and students over a 7-week period, when they came together during a postgraduate online course, 'Decolonising Research Methodologies'. The course was a collaboration between Dr. Amber Murrey (Geography, Oxford), Dr. Steve Puttick (Education, Oxford) and Dr. Nokuthula Hlabangane (Anthropology, the University of South Africa/ UNISA).

In this experimental course, educators sought to foster an interactive and collaborative digital space to build, challenge, and practice ways of knowing offered by the rich scholarship on decolonising research methods in the social sciences. Recognising the significance of trust within collectives thinking against coloniality and colonial violence, guided and immersive sessions helped the group work towards the creation of a different kind of digital classroom. Educators emphasised the importance of the cultivation of collective commitments, including our shared responsibility to 'keep the fire', as encouraged by the South African spiritual healer, Mmatshilo Motsei, during the course.

Underpinning this course is the long-standing need for students and educators to think critically about the dominance of epistemic and methodological forms of coloniality. The collective hopes that the course will help to reaffirm the creative actions taken by university communities and students in Oxford and beyond urging intellectuals to (re)think pedagogical approaches, even in the face of generation-shifting events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The course was funded by an Oxford’s Teaching Development & Enhancement Award. For further information: https://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/study/gradu...