8th December 2023

12:00 – 13:30 (South African time)

Recent events have brought home again how structures of racism shape people’s wellbeing, participation and epistemic and everyday agency, including in our own Association. Melanie Walker, speaking at the 2023 annual HDCA conference, highlighted how the field of international education and development has often neglected or even erased discussions of racism. In response, we have decided to convene this first webinar to initiate a critical discussion in the HDCA about structures of racism and the effects on our research choices, our everyday praxis, and our collective and individual lives in development. In this webinar, Professor Crain Soudien, Emeritus Professor at the University of Cape Town and a long-standing researcher in the field of racism and education will take us through some of the conceptual issues in thinking about racism. Following his presentation, we will hear reflections from Mikateko Mathebula, Faith Mkwananzi, Oliver Mutanga, Daizy Nalwamba, and Melanie Walker. Their insights will contribute to our understanding of the complex ways in which systemic racism influences our work.