Decoloniality in Research Methods: practical considerations

New

This module consists of three two-hour long workshops in which we will deepen and apply the insights gained during the Michaelmas Term module 'Decoloniality in Research Methods: an Introduction'. We will grapple with the main aspects of social scientific research – ethics, data collection & analysis, research dissemination – from a decolonial perspective. We will ask questions such as: What does a decolonial research design look like? What are decolonial ethics? What do we owe research participants? How might the nature and purpose of research be reimagined from a decolonial perspective? Each session will have taught and hands-on elements; participants will be asked to work in groups, participate in discussions and reflect privately.

• Postgraduate students and staff
• Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here

Participation requirements: anyone can participate. Participation in the Michaelmas Term module 'Decoloniality in Research Methods: an Introduction' is not a requirement for participation in this module. Doing some of the readings is essential for effective participation in discussion.

1. Ethics and reflexivity from a decolonial perspective (20 February 2026)

Session description:

We will begin this module by discussing the foundation of all research: ethics. We will pair our discussion of ethics with a discussion of reflexivity, a key concept in critical social scientific research. In particular, we will ask and explore what decolonial ethics and reflexivity might look like conceptually and in practice. In this session, you will be asked to reflect on your position in the world and in the field (both academically and empirically).

Required reading:

Alatas, S. F. (2025). The decolonization of research: structures of inquiry and theory. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 28(6), 759–776. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2025.2569262

Boer Cueva, A.R. et al. (2023) ‘A decolonial feminist politics of fieldwork: Centering Community, reflexivity, and loving accountability’, International Studies Review, 26(1). doi:10.1093/isr/viae003

Moosavi, L. (2025). The false promise of decolonial research: the complexities and limitations of decolonising methods and methodologies. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 28(6), 651–673. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2025.2569256

Rhee, J. E. (2025). Toward decolonial healing knowledge: intersectional reading of road signs as a gift. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 28(6), 675–688. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2025.2569257

Smith, C.A., Williams, E.L., Wadud, I.A., Pirtle, W.N.L. and The Cite Black Women Collective (2021), Cite Black Women: A Critical Praxis (A Statement). Feminist Anthropology, 2: 10-17. https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.12040

Further reading:

Bosch, T. (2025). Decolonisation is not a vibe: On anti-capitalist praxis, citation politics and epistemic refusal. Media, Culture & Society, 47(8), 1714-1724. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437251360382

Collins, Patricia Hill (1991), 'Learning from the Outsider Within: the Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought', in Beyond Methodology. Feminist Research as Lived Research, eds M. M. Fonow and J. A. Cook, Indiana University Press, Bloornington.

Connell, R. (2013). Using southern theory: Decolonizing social thought in theory, research and application. Planning Theory, 13(2), 210-223.

Dei, G. S., & Lloyd-Henry, P. (2025). “The possibilities of an Indigenist anti-colonial research praxis: a response to “the false promise of decolonial research: the complexities and limitations of Decolonizing methods and methodologies” by Leon Moosavi. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 28(6), 709–724. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2025.2569259

Denscombe, M. (2024). Decolonial research methodology: an assessment of the challenge to established practice. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 28(2), 231–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2024.2357558

Dion ML, Sumner JL, Mitchell SM. Gendered Citation Patterns across Political Science and Social Science Methodology Fields. Political Analysis. 2018;26(3):312-327. doi:10.1017/pan.2018.12

Eriksen, K. G. (2022). Decolonial methodology and reflexive wrestles of whiteness. Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.4666

Mott, C., & Cockayne, D. (2017). Citation matters: mobilizing the politics of citation toward a practice of ‘conscientious engagement.’ Gender, Place & Culture, 24(7), 954–973. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2017.1339022

Pillow, W. (2003) ‘Confession, catharsis, or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research’, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(2): 175-196. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839032000060635

SMITH, C.A. (2022), CITATION, ERASURE, AND VIOLENCE: A Memoir. Cultural Anthropology, 37: 206-213. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca37.2.05

Weatherill, C. (2025). Vulnerable research: Reflexivity, decolonisation, and climate politics. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 27(2), 573-587. https://doi.org/10.1177/13691481251321343

Participation requirements: Read and be prepared to discuss the required reading. If you don’t have a lot of time, make sure to at least read: Alatas, S. F. (2025). The decolonization of research: structures of inquiry and theory. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 28(6), 759–776. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2025.2569262.

2. Research design: decolonial considerations (26 February 2026)

Session description: This session will address research design, from formulating research questions to conducting analyses. We will ask what it means to formulate decolonial research questions and we will explore the potential traps of research, even when well-intentioned. We will also reflect on data, encountering the concepts ‘data sovereignty’ and ‘extractivism’. We will contemplate what decolonial data analyses might look like. In the workshop part of this session, we will look at already existing research and consider the issues explored in the reading.

Required reading:

Kouritzin, S. and Nakagawa, S. (2018): ‘Toward a nonextractive research ethics for transcultural, translingual research: perspectives from the coloniser and the colonised’ Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2018.1427755

Tuck, E. (2009). Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review, 79(3), 409–427. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.3.n0016675661t3n15

Wynter, S. (1994). No humans involved: an open letter to my colleagues. Knowledge on Trial, 1 (1), 42-71.

Further reading:

Archibald, J., Xiiem, Q.Q., Lee-Morgan, J.B.J., De Santolo, J. (Eds). (2022). Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology. Bloomsbury. (chapters that appeal to you)

Andersen, C., & Walter, M. (2013). Indigenous Statistics: A Quantitative Research Methodology (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315426570

Gorman, J. (2024). Beyond Extractivism in Research with Communities and Movements. Commons Library: https://commonslibrary.org/beyond-extractivism-in-research-with-communities-and-movements/#Designing_Anti-extractivist_Research

Gupta, Akhil, and Jessie Stoolman. 2022. Decolonizing US anthropology. American Anthropologist 124: 778–799. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13775

Madhok, S. (2021). Extractivism and the Coloniality of Knowledge Production. LSE Blogs: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/gender/2022/02/21/extractivism-and-the-coloniality-of-knowledge-production/

Paris, D., & Winn, M. T. (Eds). (2013). Humanizing Research: Decolonizing Qualitative Inquiry With Youth and Communities. Sage. (chapters that appeal to you)

Kapoor, D., & Jordan, S. (Eds). (2021). Research, Political Engagement and Dispossession: Indigenous, Peasant and Urban Poor Activisms in the Americas and Asia. Bloomsbury. (chapters that appeal to you)

Kukutai, T., & Taylor, J. (2016). Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Toward an agenda. Australia National University Press. http://doi.org/10.22459/CAEPR38.11.2016

Matlala, B., & Runciman, C. (2026). Critical reflections on designing an online survey in a decolonial research project. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2025.2608154

Niang, S. M. (2024). In defence of what’s there: notes on scavenging as methodology. Feminist Review, 136(1), 52-66. https://doi.org/10.1177/01417789231222606

Shahjahan, R. A., Estera, A. L., Surla, K. L., & Edwards, K. T. (2021). “Decolonizing” Curriculum and Pedagogy: A Comparative Review Across Disciplines and Global Higher Education Contexts. Review of Educational Research, 92(1), 73-113. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543211042423

Smith, L.T. (2021). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 3rd Edition. Bloomsbury (ch 9, 10).

Thambinathan, V., & Kinsella, E. A. (2021). Decolonizing Methodologies in Qualitative Research: Creating Spaces for Transformative Praxis. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 20. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069211014766

Participation requirements: Read and be prepared to discuss the required reading. If you don’t have a lot of time, make sure to at least read: Tuck, E. (2009). Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review, 79(3), 409–427. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.3.n0016675661t3n15

3. The politics of representation and dissemination (03 March 2026)

Session description: In this session, we will address how research makes meaning and lives in the world: through representations. We will explore the politics of representation and ask what the role of research is. In the workshop part of this session, we will look at already existing research from the vantage point of the issues discussed in the readings. We will also discuss the question: must decolonial research translate into political action?.

Required reading:

Hall, S. (2025). The work of representation. In: Hall, S., Nixon, S., & Evans, J. (Eds). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Third Edition: Sage.

Pickering, L., & Kara, H. (2017). Presenting and representing others: towards an ethics of engagement. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(3), 299–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2017.1287875

Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. Penguin.

Spivak, G.C. (1988). “Can the Subaltern Speak?” in Nelson, C & Grossberg, L (Eds). Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, pp. 271-313, Macmillan Education: Basingstoke.

Further reading:

Abu-Lughod, Lila. (2025). From the Politics of Representation to the Ethics of Decolonization: What mena Social Research Can Learn from the “Indigenous Turn”. Daedalus 2025; 154 (2): 189–203. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_02147

Anand, D. (2007) ‘Western Colonial Representations of the Other: The Case of Exotica Tibet,’ New Political Science, 29(1): 23–42

Archibald, J., Xiiem, Q.Q., Lee-Morgan, J.B.J., De Santolo, J. (2022). Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology. Bloomsbury. (chapters that appeal to you)

Chao, Sophie. 2024. “To write or not to write?” American Ethnologist 51: 63–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.13240

Cusicanqui, S. (2020). Ch'ixinakax utxiwa: On Decolonising Practices and Discourses. Polity.

Hall, S., Nixon, S., & Evans, J. (Eds). (2025). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Third Edition: Sage.

Hall, S. (2018). "The West and the Rest:Discourse and Power [1992]". In: Hall, S., & Morley, D. (Eds). Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity and Diaspora. Duke University Press.

Held, M. B. E. (2020) ‘Research ethics in decolonizing research with Inuit communities in Nunavut: the challenge of translating knowledge into action’, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19: 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920949803

Kapoor, D., & Jordan, S. (Eds). (2021). Research, Political Engagement and Dispossession: Indigenous, Peasant and Urban Poor Activisms in the Americas and Asia. Bloomsbury. (chapters that appeal to you)

Smith, L.T. (2021). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 3rd Edition. Bloomsbury (ch 11, 12)

Participation requirements: Read and be prepared to discuss the required reading. If you don’t have a lot of time, make sure to at least read: Hall, S. (2025). The work of representation. In: Hall, S., Nixon, S., & Evans, J. (Eds). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Third Edition: Sage.

The module will consist of three workshops of two hours each - in person only

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