Universities and Society at the End of Empire and Beyond

Based upon an academic partnership between the Universities of Birmingham and Leiden in the Netherlands, through co-leads Berny Sèbe (UoB) and Anne-Isabelle Richard (Leiden), Universities and Society at the End of Empire and Beyond (UniSoc) uses these two global seats of learning as a starting point to examine the role of universities in the transition from colonial to postcolonial and multicultural societies over the past century. Both institutions have started to reflect critically on this legacy. Building on these initiatives, and on the emerging scholarship on universities in (post) colonial contexts, UniSoc asks how the remit and modus operandi of European universities evolved in the aftermath of empire, opening a neglected entry-point into the wider question of the interplay between the colonial past and the post-colonial present.

The field of decolonisation studies has been remarkably dynamic in the twenty-first century, structured in particular by the ‘Decolonization Seminar’ held at the Library of Congress in Washington over ten years (2005-2015), and enriched by the multiple opportunities for cross-fertilization between empirical history and the theoretical perspectives underpinning postcolonial studies. Yet, one aspect which deserves further elaboration relates to the very places where these conversations have taken place: the universities, notably in the Western world. UniSoc seeks to uncover how institutions of higher education navigated the decolonisation process, both in the former metropoles and the former colonies.

Scholarship has shown how, in the late colonial period, universities both trained students that would become colonial civil servants, as well as more and more students from the colonies – with the inequalities undergirding colonialism as a result increasingly discussed and challenged. Understanding decolonization as a process, Unisoc takes the work on the role of universities in the period after formal decolonization further and examine how universities also played a role in the transition towards the post-colonial order, sending their researchers to newly-independent states, embracing the development paradigm and sometimes accompanying the development of burgeoning academic life in countries that were still in the making. Whilst it was crucial at the time, this role in helping set up an academic framework – sometimes from scratch – can also be seen as a form of acculturation.

Back in the metropoles, universities were at the heart of intellectual efforts to conceptualize the new world that was emerging out of decolonisation, from global power relations to migratory patterns, and what this meant for local societies. At the same time, the student body also changed significantly, further questioning the unspoken assumptions of these institutions. Universities continue to play a key role in conversations about the future of nations that have to re-invent their place in the world, whilst facing significant change in sociological and ethnic dynamics as a direct legacy of their imperial trajectories.

The first event of this new research programme will take the shape of a workshop in Birmingham on 23 and 24 June 2026, which will include a lecture by Prof. Priyamvada Gopal (University of Cambridge) and twenty papers by UK and overseas scholars at various stages in their careers. You are very welcome to attend the workshop, just please let the organisers know or register via Eventbrite for organisational purposes.

* * * *

For further information, please contact the organisers Berny Sèbe in Birmingham (b.c.sebe@bham.ac.uk) and Anne-Isabelle Richard in Leiden (a.i.richard@hum.leidenuniv.nl) and/or register in the dedicated Eventbrite page.