The decolonisation of the mind and history as an academic discipline

Bibliographic Data

ID3665699
AuthorsIrina Filatova (0000-0001-5449-4980, University of Cape Town, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume49
Issue2
Pages313-331
Publication date2023-05-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Dynamics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0253-3952 • E-ISSN: 1940-7874
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02533952.2023.2232626
OpenAlexW4384156165
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

History as an academic discipline is going through a methodological crisis, caused by the decolonising revolution in historiography. Having emerged in the 1980s–2000s, the present-day decolonial theories have created a new dominant paradigm in the public consciousness and in a whole complex of academic disciplines. The aim of the decolonisation of the mind is to liberate these disciplines, first of all the humanities, from any vestiges of Eurocentrism. However, decolonialists operate in the realm of ideas and methodologies some of which are incompatible with the existence of history as an academic discipline, and which have long been rejected by researchers. A comparison of decolonising ideas in Africa with similar ideas in Russia helps to understand their origins and the detrimental effect that their uncritical acceptance may have on history as an academic discipline and on popular consciousness and politics

Consciousness · Decolonization · Discipline · Epistemology · Eurocentrism · Historiography · Intellectual history · Political science · Politics · Realm · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Law · Philosophy · World Systems and Global Transformations