Unsettling Knowledges: Reflexivity and Decolonial Thinking: exploring the links, an ECR roundtable

This webinar focuses on the practice of reflexivity in relation to decolonial thinking and what that means for us as ‘early career researchers’ – remaining aware of all the tensions that come with that label and the power dynamics it reproduces. In positioning ‘unsettling knowledges’ as a process of resisting colonial and positivist tendencies to simplify the complexity of the research process, our intention is to offer a starting point for a bigger conversation on issues of positionality, reflexivity, dialogue, collaboration, discomfort, paralysis, and resistance in relation to the research process and our everyday experiences. In relation to this, we ask, what is the link between reflexivity and decolonial thinking? What can/does critical reflexivity offer in the journey towards decolonisation? What role critical reflexivity may have in the process of unsettling knowledges? What happens when we hold onto and confront the discomfort and messiness in our conversations and experiences? And how does this process unfold for early career researchers navigating entrenched hierarchical systems in academia?