FAR Night School: What does ‘decolonization’ mean to you?
Lecture by Dr Leonardo Custódio
Decolonization has become a buzzword in academic and activist conversations in Finland and abroad. However, the debate about what it means in relation to individual, collective, institutional and structural changes in academia and society remains under-discussed. Inspired by Tuck and Yang’s article “Decolonization is not a metaphor” (2012), Dr Leonardo Custódio – descendent of enslaved people in Brazil, the largest former Portuguese colony – reflects on his own relationship with coloniality and what “to decolonize” means in his own personal, scholarly and activist trajectory. This jargon-free talk aims at provoking the audience to reflect about their own epistemological choices, activist attitudes, and power positions in unequal and hierarchical social relations in the university, activism and society.
Dr Leonardo Custódio is a researcher (Tampere University/Åbo Akademi) and co-coordinator of the Anti-Racism Media Activist Alliance (ARMA, Kone Foundation). He is also co-coordinator of the Activist Research Network. Custódio’s work focuses on how people who suffer from racism use media and communication for respect, justice, rights and change.
FAR Night School is excited to bring Dr Custodio's well received lecture and discussion, first organised in Tampere University in October 2019, to a non-academic environment in Helsinki. As in all of our sessions, you are free to join for all or part of the session, and participate in ways that feel best for you. There is no compulsion to actively speak and participate, and silent observing is an equally welcome way of taking part in our collective learning process. We do ask all our participants to follow safer space guidelines that we will share at the beginning of the event. We will also have a dedicated person responsible for ensuring everyone enjoys a discrimination free experience.
FAR Night School sessions in autumn 2019 are realised in collaboration with Museum of Impossible Forms, as part of “In Practice”, a series focusing on practical feminist, anti-racist and class confrontational ways of being in different situations.
All sessions are free and open to everyone without prior registration. Sessions are independent, and attendance in other sessions is not required for participation.
Museum of Impossible Forms is a cultural space, located in Kontula, Helsinki. It is a contested Space and it represents a contact zone, a space of unlearning, formulating identity constructs, norm-critical consciousness and critical thinking. Impossible Forms are those that erase and facilitate the process of transgressing the boundaries/borders between art, politics, practice, theory, the artist and the spectator. For 2019-2020, the Museum operates under the curatorial theme of ‘The Atlas of Lost Beliefs (For Insurgents, Citizens and Untitled Bodies)’
Museum of Impossible Formsis a safer space. It follows safer space policies to create a welcoming, inclusive, awesome environment.
Events at the Museum of Impossible Forms are completely free and accessible without prior booking.
Museum of Impossible Forms is accessible by lift with thresholds up to 4cm on the way. The toilet has no thresholds but is not spacious enough to meet accessibility standards. The nearest accessible toilet is located at Kontula metro station.
For directions, please refer to this Map.