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Decolonizing the Global North university: Host-guest dynamics and the limits of hospitality

Lau, Lisa; Mendes, Ana Cristina

Authors

Ana Cristina Mendes



Abstract

This article critically assesses the hospitality premise on which the project-practice of decolonizing the curriculum rests, investigating the texture and limitations of the hospitality that Global North universities seem willing to offer their many Others, including students, staff, and stakeholders, particularly in the form of knowledges and pedagogies. It investigates how the guests-strangers are treated within the Global North Universities, their knowledges posited as a separate category within the epistemic system rather than integrated into being a part of the system; guests relegated to unpaid servants when obliged to shoulder the lion's share of the work in addressing the unfair, racist systems which devalue them and their knowledges. Embedding the discourse of decolonizing the university in and with postcolonial concepts, the article highlights the profoundly unequal power relationships between hosts and guests that continue to inform even the best-intentioned Global North higher education institutions, self-declaredly dedicated to decolonization efforts. It argues for pressing need on the part of the Global North universities to deepen their awareness of the historical legacies of coloniality and its matrix of power, and consequently reflect on the treatment of Global South guests and knowledges. This long, hard look at their role of host is necessary for a true committment to decolonising the university spaces and rendering them genuinely hospitable, and to transforming the unequal power dynamics and the impacts on guests-stranger Others.

Citation

Lau, L., & Mendes, A. C. (2024). Decolonizing the Global North university: Host-guest dynamics and the limits of hospitality. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222241251729

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 1, 2024
Online Publication Date May 28, 2024
Publication Date May 28, 2024
Deposit Date Jun 11, 2024
Print ISSN 1474-0222
Electronic ISSN 1741-265X
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222241251729
Keywords Hospitality, decolonizing the university, Global North-Global South, host-guest dynamics
Public URL https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/848652
Publisher URL https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14740222241251729