Decolonizing Cambridge University

Bibliographic Data

ID4380198
AuthorsKeith Hart (0000-0002-8978-0191, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume36
Issue2
Pages92-106
Publication date2018-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Cambridge Journal of Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0305-7674 • E-ISSN: 2047-7716
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/cja.2018.360208
OpenAlexW2899761450
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

I dwell here on my own experience of working at Cambridge University for methodological reasons. Anthropologists could make more of the humanities tradition of going deeply into particular personalities, places, events and relations in search of wider truths. Ethnography exemplifies this, but the discipline's assimilation into the social sciences and academic bureaucracy counteract this impulse. I draw selectively on my anthropological education and academic work to interrogate the political relationship between western societies and their former colonies. Cambridge University is reactionary for sure, but its decentralized organization makes room for a minority sometimes to change the world. The historical example of the abolition movement illustrates this. Anthropology ought to be a way of rethinking the world, and I conclude with how and why I introduced students to the anti-colonial intellectuals who did just that when they led the liberation (not 'decolonization') movements that overthrew European empires

Bureaucracy · Colonialism · Decolonization · Ethnography · Eurocentrism · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Reactionary · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Law · Race, History, and American Society · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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