Postcolonial Seminar: Thinking with Spirits: decolonial approaches to historical agency
A seminar exploring decolonial methods that take spirits seriously in history.
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About the event
Postcolonial Seminar: Thinking with Spirits: decolonial approaches to historical agency
We invite you to a postcolonial seminar, where we will host Prof. Diana Jeater (University of Liverpool).
Thinking with Spirits: decolonial approaches to historical agency
This presentation will explore how and why the British Academy funded Spirits of Peace project carried out research into the historical role of spirits in peace and justice systems in Zimbabwe. The project examined what happened when researchers took the agency of spirits seriously in studying the past, moving beyond a phenomenological approach ("people believe that spirits did this") toward an ontological perspective aligned with the communities' worldview ("spirits did this"). The presentation describes the context for that decision and some of its consequences for the academy and the communities involved.
Diana Jeater is Professor of African History at the University of Liverpool. For the past forty years she has worked on Zimbabwean history, challenging Global North narratives and representing the past in terms true to Zimbabwean perspectives. She has published on sex and sexuality, religion and belief, language and translation, law and jurisprudence, health and healing, spirits and reconciliation, citizenship and rights, witchcraft and politics. She is currently working on a collaborative project about the role of spirits in grassroots reconciliation practices.
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Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Warsaw, Żurawia 4, room 13.
Photo: One of the spirit mediums who closely cooperates with the researchers. Author: D. Jeater
