Over the years, more researchers from peripheral geographical locations have received education in universities in Europe and North America, often reproducing the Western modes of analysis and knowledge production. Yet, can global academia benefit from more localised approaches? Also, while studying our home countries, how can we overcome the positional insider-outsider dichotomy?
We invite Dr Noella Binda Niati for this QUALIFIE session to open discussion about critical reflexive approaches to our studies, urging researchers to delink from Western modes of analysis and foster more collaborative, decolonial academic communities. We will think about a more nuanced understanding of scholarly identity, urging a dissolution of binaries of "West and the rest" in academia, and ultimately aiming for a more inclusive and objective research paradigm.
About the speaker:
Noella Binda Niati is an Assistant Professor of Education and International Development at the University of Cambridge. She obtained her PhD from the University of South Carolina in 2020, and until January 2024 she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Humboldt-Universität Berlin. She focuses on international development and the rule of law, and her current research projects sit at the intersection of Hip-Hop pedagogy, youth engagement, migration, and policy in West and Central Africa. She explores these themes through examinations of epistemic disobedience, the socio-cultural context of language, the role of the state in structuring access to social services, and the socio-political history of Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. She is skilled in both quantitative and qualitative methods and has an extensive background in teaching and research evaluation through her work with the Rule of Law Collaborative and the Research, Evaluation, and Measurement Center at the University of South Carolina.
The Zoom link will be shared upon registration.