DIN is organizing a reading group on the book Decolonizing The Mind – A Guide to Decolonial Theory and Practice by Sandew Hira. You can order the book here. For twelve years Sandew Hira has been working on this book. Now there is a 600 page publication with detailed theories and facts that require time and discussion to digest, criticize and develop. Information about Hira’s interaction with academics and activist can be followed here.
Pursuant to the book’s publication, DIN now invites the readers, in progress or completed, and interested readers to come together in a web-based forum to discuss the book’s contents. Our aim is stimulating people as individuals or in groups to further develop the narrative and its specificities worldwide and in their locality, leading to an educational framework for decolonization theory, with its own formalization and course work. Our hope is that this forum will promote critical thinking and literacy giving rise to new ways of thinking about the human condition and society.
For an effective group discussion, we anticipate 5-8 members in each group. Larger enrolments will be accommodated in two or more groups. The groups will meet twice a month (first and last week) and discuss the book’s contents in one segment per each session. Every segment is 50 pages, more or less. The preliminary segmentation of the book can be arranged as follows, but can also be revised on recommendations
No. | SEGMENT | PAGES |
1 | Introduction; Background; Eurocentric Philosophies of Liberation | 12-68 |
2 | Mental Slavery; Colonization & Mechanisms | 70-123 |
3 | Epistemology; Knowledge Production | 123-166 |
4 | Theory of Racism | 167-224 |
5 | Decolonization: Mathematics & Natural Sciences | 224-253 |
6 | Decolonization: World History | 253-285 |
7 | Decolonization: Economic Theory | 285-339 |
8 | Decolonization: Social Theory & Political Theory | 339-408 |
10 | Decolonization: Political Theory | 408-473 |
11 | A New World Civilization | 473-522 |
The individual members of the group are invited to select two segments that they will present (20 minutes each) to the group, before group discussion for the remainder of the hour. The discussion will be facilitated by Raj Mathur. Dr. Raj Mathur is a retired materials scientist & engineer whose career has involved patented innovations in the aerospace, automotive, electronics and chemical industrial sectors. Born in India and a citizen of the USA, he is now retired and lives with his wife in the Netherlands.
Mathur will also post a summary and the highlights of each session online, as well as mailing it to individual members of the group for critical review. Finally, the facilitator will submit the group’s activity and summary to the author and invite the author to interact with the group in a final session. Adding up the sessions, it will be a six-month long commitment and exploration of decolonization.
Click here to register for the reading.