Welcome to the 2023 Decolonial ‘Summer’* School on ‘Decolonising Freedom’

The ideal of freedom has occupied people since the earliest times. Liberal, marxist, feminist, anarchist, anti-colonial, queer and other critical radical thinkers and activists have all explored the meaning and practice of freedom. Among other questions they have considered:

- its individual versus collective dimensions;

- its material and symbolic content;

- its relationship to identity, humanism, justice, equality, imperialism, the nation and other structures of power…

 This year’s summer school we will look at some of these debates in light of the current social, political and economic context: both global and local. In an era of economic, environmental and political crisis, what does ‘freedom’ mean to us? What is its importance in our lives? How might we achieve it? And what would be required for us to maintain it?

 This is a week of critical reading, reflection, debate and collective learning. We explore concepts and case studies that help us understand the possibilities and praxis of freedom in the contemporary moment.