The two exercises aim to encourage collective reflection and analysis on the role of racism, colonialism and discrimination in institutions of higher education. Drawing from decolonial feminist perspectives, the aim is to understand what mechanisms contribute to the perpetuation of Western colonial power in specific socio-historical contexts. Collectively constructing theoretical and political positions allows us to understand how certain types of knowledge or ways of knowing are legitimized, as well as the ways in which dominant teaching practices reproduce visible and invisible hierarchies. 

These exercises also address tensions over the importance of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the transformation of unequal societies. Feminist decolonial perspectives can contribute to the deconstruction of meanings and practices that reproduce oppression, as well as to the creation of knowledge and pedagogies capable of creating horizons of emancipation and social change. However, these efforts must seriously address the question of how universities, which are historical sites of colonial knowledge production, can engage with the counter-hegemonic knowledge proposed from critical strands.

Participants are divided into two groups. Each group will develop one of the exercises and produce a virtual collage (in Canvas or Miro) that summarises their reflections. An overall group discussion is held in a common access space to reflect conjointly over the different elements that each group reflected upon.