Pedagogy after the Decolonial Turn: An Introduction to the Special Issue

What are the implications for our pedagogical practices of successive waves of postcolonial, anti-colonial, and decolonial critiques of "the canon" in particular and of Euro-American forms of knowledge production in general?What are the forces arrayed "for" and "against" decolonizing the liberal arts curriculum and what does this entail in practice?How do we proceed if we accept Toni Morrison's contention that canon-building is empire building and that, by extension, all modern disciplinary formations and categories of analysis are imbricated in imperial epistemologies that continue to shape our present materially and ideologically?How have scholars in different disciplines and at distinct political moments negotiated the impasses and conundrums that invariably arise in the process of interrogating the canon?With these questions in mind, this introduction offers an overview of key debates and interventions in a constantly evolving intellectual landscape, as a way to contextualize the four essays included in this Special Issue of Contingencies.