STUDЭNT NETWOЯK
An interdisciplinary student network has already been mobilized in three Greek universities – University of Ioannina, University of Thessaly and University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki. The network initiative, supported by professors in these institutions, was received enthusiastically by students and will begin its actions at the start of the new academic year.
The challenge set is multiple and dynamically (re)defined, focusing, on the one hand, on exchanging knowledge and experience (beyond the conventional curricula) around postcolonial and decolonial theories, activist practices, and on their relevance in understanding the contemporary Greek realities; on the other hand, we aim to encourage the cooperation between students that come from different backgrounds and disciplines, or from different educational institutions.
In the context of this network, we will host online teach-ins, several in situ activities in the universities’ campuses (including reading groups, screenings, etc.), and also public events in the respective cities. In addition, independent student projects will also be hosted, and interventions will be prepared for the ‘Decolonize the University’ general assembly that will be held in the Decolonize Hellas’ symposium (November 2021).
With initiatives and actions by, for and with the students, our network aspires to inscribe itself in the project of decolonizing the Greek university: either in the form of detachment from circumscribed disciplines and hierarchies that are reproduced in our official curricula (advancing distinctions between old and new sciences, science and art, etc.), or by embracing ways of thinking that transcend methodological nationalism.
Through adopting methodologies, practices, and actions that impel us to look for new ways of making social and cultural research and theory converse with collective and activist action, we are striving for ways that will make us more dynamic, more open and participatory, more capable of finding pathways that can lead us to more emancipated futurities.
