Reparative Futures of Education project presented at Global Forum Against Racism and Discrimination
Professor Arathi Sriprakash was invited to speak at UNESCO’s Global Forum Against Racism and Discrimination held in São Paulo, Brazil, from 29 November to 1 December 2023. The Global Forum focused on the importance of placing race at the centre of socioeconomic development. Government officials, including ministers, policymakers, practitioners, academics and members of civil society and artistic communities, were be invited to discuss effective strategies to address systemic racism across the world.
Professor Sriprakash presented her research on Reparative Futures of Education alongside other experts in education, anti-racism and transitional justice. Their panel, entitled ‘Unlearning hate: how do we confront racism, hate speech and violent pasts through education?’, explored the importance of anti-racist curricula and pedagogy, and discussed how education is a powerful tool for addressing past and present state violence.
Professor Sriprakash said: “The idea of reparative futures recognises that past injustices will endure in peoples lives and in our institutions unless they are consciously and carefully addressed. We propose that any imagination of the future needs to be reparative – such that it does not carry with it the harms and injustices of the past and present. For education, this means fostering processes of dialogue, listening and remembering that offer new resources for interpreting and collectively working through histories of injustice and inequality. It requires us to move beyond identity politics or fixed ‘us and them’ ideas. Instead, in understanding that our histories are entangled and connected, we can develop a capacious humanism that at its heart has a politics of solidarity. In this way education can be incredibly powerful in undoing racial thinking and racial hierarchy.”
The Reparative Futures of Education (REPAIR-ED) research project is awarding two fully-funded doctoral scholarships based within our Department. For more information and instructions for how to apply, see our DPhil in Education pages.
