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Paper short abstract:

This paper argues for decolonizing the gender and sexuality curriculum at Western Sydney University by reflecting on my lived experience as a feminist academic of colour living and teaching in a neoliberal institution of a settler colonial country

Paper long abstract:

The current aggression of the Western Imperial knowledge system in global universities is concerning because these universities being run by Western neoliberal logic of business principles treat education as a marketable product, rated, bought, and sold by standard units, measured and counted by impersonal, mechanical tests with limited opportunities for Indigenous and postcolonial knowledge(Connell 2016, 2018b; Mbembe 2016; Bhambra 2014). Contemporary academic activism must work to decolonize the curriculum in neoliberal universities, ensuring democratic access to higher education and the free pursuit of knowledge. Nevertheless, the study of sex and gender has historically been dominated by Western academia and Eurocentric perspectives, often erasing the diversity of experiences and Indigenous understandings of sex and gender This paper, therefore addresses these knowledge gaps and argues for decolonizing the gender and sexuality curriculum in a second-year core Culture and Society unit titled ‘Politics of Sex and Gender’ at Western Sydney University, a white, neoliberal institution. In doing so, I reflect on my lived experience as a feminist academic and activist of colour within a white institution in a settler-colonial country. This paper examines the shift from a previously whitewashed curriculum to a new one that highlights Indigenous and decolonial feminist interpretations of sex and gender. Drawing on positive student feedback from two consecutive semesters of this unit, this paper underscores the need to amplify the voices of often erased and marginalized scholars within a white, Eurocentric university.