Abstract:
Higher education has been strongly contested in recent
times, on the grounds of its role in reproducing epistemic
injustice, leading to calls to ‘decolonise’ institutions,
curricula and teaching practices. Meanwhile, the practice
of epistemic critique also points to potentials for
challenge, learning and change. This article offers critical
reflections in two distinct moments of time: firstly,
reflections on experiences of a cross-site teaching project
(2016) involving three of the authors (Mucha, Pesch and
Wielenga) from the Departments of Political Science at
the Universities of Düsseldorf (Germany) and Pretoria
(South Africa) in an academic virtual collaboration
project using shared classes and video-conferencing
tools to study peace-building, human mobility and
mediation. Secondly, the writing process for this article
has involved a further collaborative author (Khoo) to
comment upon and theorise curriculum-making and
teaching experiences. We look at the different contexts in
each country and how far the curricula and syllabi at both
universities can be supplemented by cross-site teaching
elements to deal with epistemic asymmetries in higher
education reflexively, while leaning towards a more just
knowledge (re)production. Some key challenges and
limitations of the cross-site project are also discussed.
