Decolonising Sexualities and Queering Decolonisation

About this webinar

Do you struggle with anti-colonial and decolonial efforts? How do individuals with non-hegemonic sexualities negotiate dominant heteronormative ideas of culture, honour, morality, and citizenship.

"Queer" is not only a fixed identity that is non-heterosexual but a continuing process that challenges heteronormative-patriarchal discourses and practices. Using auto-ethnography, Professor Anand will put forward a conception of queering that necessitates querying exclusionary and dehumanising notions of collective identity categories such as that of the nation and coloniality. However, decolonising sexualities is not sufficient in itself; the process of decolonisation itself must be queered. That is, simplistic notions of decolonisation, 'West'/'East', culture, religion, community, and so on need to be challenged.

About the speaker

Professor Dibyesh Anand is the Head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Westminster. He has been elected as the nominee for Staff Governor by academic colleagues (2020-23), and is the author off monographs "Geopolitical Exotica: Tibet in Western Imagination” and “Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear”.

Professor Anand has spoken about and published work on various topics including Tibet, China-India border dispute, Hindu nationalism, Islamophobia, conflict in Kashmir, and race and diversity in academia. He is the co-chair of the University of Westminister's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee and the BME Network.

Professor Anand identifies as queer in personal and political terms and is passionate about challenging the divide between academia and activism and believes in embedding equality, diversity, and inclusion in every aspect of life.