Paper short abstract

The proposal centers on the nature of DS in Nigeria. The findings shows a splintered tradition of teaching DS in traditional Social Sciences and current trend to establish independent DS programmes. I posed a contestation between offering DS in splintered disciplines vs. creating new DS programmes.

Paper long abstract

Development Studies (DS) is a transdisciplinary discipline and became prominent during the late decolonisation period - 1940-1960s. It was established to focus on colonised nations transition to ‘modern states’ based on Western notion of progress and enlightenment and political economy of resource transfer. There is paucity of literature exploring DS curriculum, pedagogies, and the state/nature of DS in various countries. The UK, Australia, and Canada, representing the countries with the earliest DS programmes have contributed more to the available literature. There is only a handful of literature on the state-of-the-field of DS in the Global South, including South Korea, Malaysia, and Ghana. Therefore, this proposal centres on the nature of DS in Nigeria.

Based on a critical qualitative research inquiry and multiple qualitative data, including ethnographic interviews with nineteen development lecturers across eleven universities in Nigeria. The findings showed that DS is mainly offered as Postgraduate specialisations and (splintered) across various Social Science disciplines and the epistemology is usually biased towards the discipline offering the program. The main exception is the recent inclusion of DS as an undergraduate program in Nigeria’s curriculum standards - Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS). The National Open University (NOUN) also offers an undergraduate interdisciplinary DS programme. The findings poses a final question and contestation between offering DS in splintered disciplines (‘Do we need DS to understand Nigeria's developmental challenges?’) and interdisciplinary DS (‘Despite our development challenges, we do not have a state-of-the-art Development school and an undergraduate foundational programme in DS’).

Paper short abstract

Bangladesh’s academia remains epistemically colonial, lacking postcolonial studies. This vacuum sustains Eurocentric curricula, silencing local knowledge. Establishing the field is vital for epistemic justice, decolonising pedagogy and enabling sovereign intellectual futures.

Paper long abstract

The academia of Bangladesh operates within a profound paradox: while politically postcolonial, its knowledge structures remain deeply colonial. The systematic epistemic havoc wrought by British rule—the imposition of English linguistic hegemony, the erasure of indigenous knowledge systems (e.g., textile technology, land tenure), and the fabrication of communal historiography—created a rupture that post-independence education has failed to mend. The lack of a dedicated, critical Postcolonial Studies discipline has resulted in a vacuum where colonial categories and Eurocentric universalism persist as default settings in social sciences, humanities, and curricular design.

This paper contends that establishing Postcolonial Studies is not a mere academic addition but an urgent necessity for epistemic justice and institutional agency. It moves beyond critique to map a concrete framework for integration: (1) Curricular Power: Reforming syllabi to centre Bengali intellectual traditions, subaltern narratives, and hybrid histories of the Bengal region. (2) Overcoming Epistemic Limitation: Creating “counter-archives” from oral histories, folk wisdom, and community praxis to challenge the colonial archive. (3) Exercising Institutional Agency: Building interdisciplinary programs, fostering transborder collaboration with West Bengal (India), and training scholars to decolonise methodology.

Embedding this field is a foundational step for Bangladesh to critically understand its own past, navigate present challenges like climate justice and digital futures, and contest the geopolitics of knowledge. It transforms academia from a site of colonial reproduction to a platform for generating sovereign, pluriversal futures—aligning directly with the panel’s focus on knowledge, power, and institutional agency in the Global South.

Paper short abstract

This paper examines Global South representation in the Digital Services Act (DSA) Council from a Development Studies perspective. The DSA Council, as discussed in Paper 1, coordinates the implementation and enforcement of digital platform regulation within the European Union.

Paper long abstract

Development Studies as a discipline claims a normative commitment to equity, inclusion, and global justice, yet its institutional architectures often reproduce the very epistemic hierarchies it seeks to dismantle. This paper critically examines how representation from the Global South within Development Studies Associations (DSAs) and allied academic councils shapes—and is constrained by—curricular power, knowledge production, and institutional decision-making. Drawing on decolonial theory and critical political economy of knowledge, the paper argues that formal inclusion of Global South representatives does not automatically translate into epistemic authority or curricular transformation.

Using qualitative document analysis of DSA governance structures, council mandates, and curriculum-setting practices, complemented by insights from Global South–based scholars and institutional actors, the paper explores three interrelated dynamics. First, it interrogates how curricula in Development Studies continue to privilege Euro-American epistemologies despite growing calls for decolonisation. Second, it analyses the institutional limitations placed on Global South representatives, including tokenistic inclusion, asymmetrical agenda-setting power, and structural constraints within international academic associations. Third, it highlights sites of institutional agency where Global South actors strategically negotiate, contest, and reshape curricular futures from within these spaces.

The paper contributes to ongoing debates on contested futures in the Global South by demonstrating that epistemic justice in Development Studies requires more than representational diversity; it demands structural reconfiguration of curricular authority and institutional governance. By centring Global South perspectives on institutional agency, the paper offers critical insights for reimagining more equitable, plural, and reflexive futures for Development Studies education and research.

Paper short abstract

In this autoethnographic research, decolonisation interrogates eurocentric knowledge hierarchies and pushing the boundaries of limitations shaping theatre practices in postcolonial Bangladesh, where colonial-era structures often marginalise local epistemologies.

Paper long abstract

The decolonisation of knowledge, power, and practice necessitates dismantling entrenched Eurocentric frameworks that sustain colonial hierarchies within institutional structures (Fanon, 1963; Said, 1978). In this autoethnographic research, decolonisation interrogates eurocentric knowledge hierarchies and pushing the boundaries of limitations shaping theatre practices in postcolonial Bangladesh, where colonial-era structures often marginalise local epistemologies.

As director and designer of Shakespeare Shoptok (2016), adapting seven Shakespeare classics (Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Taming of The Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), the author subverted colonial legacies of theatre presentation. Premiering at the British Council Bangladesh as part of ShakespeareLives (2016), the exhibition-style performance across seven venues in one premise challenged the proscenium arch's colonial dominance (Bhabha, 1994), reconfiguring spaces for local narratives. Dhaka University’s theatre students reclaimed local epistemologies by blending Shakespearean narratives with indigenous performance traditions, asserting institutional agency in crafting contested futures for theatre in the Global South (Spivak, 1988). This interplay destabilised the centre-periphery binary, creating liminal spaces for epistemic reclamation.

This paper examines Shakespeare Shoptok’s negotiation of epistemic limitations, highlighting decolonial practices that reshape knowledge production. Drawing on postcolonial theory, I explore local histories, power dynamics, and institutional contexts, offering insights into curricular transformation and epistemic justice in postcolonial settings. The exhibition’s impact underscores the potential of decolonial theatre to disrupt hegemonic narratives, fostering plural epistemologies.

Keywords: decolonisation, Shakespeare, Bangladesh theatre, epistemic resistance, exhibition theatre

References (APA 7th): tbc due to word count

Paper short abstract

This paper examines the establishment of Nigeria's first BSc Development Studies programme. It interrogates the strategic reliance on North-based standards (EADI) to secure national legitimacy (NUC), framing this not as hypocrisy but as a "structural entanglement" that shapes decolonial agency.

Paper long abstract

The global call to decolonise development studies often overlooks the "infrastructures of legitimacy" that govern academic programme establishment in the Global South. Drawing on the author’s experience as the pioneer Head of Department (2019-2025) who led the accreditation of Nigeria’s first BSc Development Studies programme at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), this paper interrogates the “Accreditation Paradox”. It argues that securing national regulatory approval from the National Universities Commission (NUC) necessitated a tactical reliance on Northern academic networks, specifically the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), to define "quality".

​Rather than viewing this reliance as a decolonial failure, the paper theorises it as a "structural entanglement". Using curriculum matrices and accreditation documents as primary evidence, it reveals how power operates within these administrative gatekeeping technologies. The paper examines the tension within the NUC’s Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS), where the 70% mandated "core" often reproduces Eurocentric lineages, while the 30% institutional space offers a fragile site for epistemic innovation.

​By locating decolonisation within curriculum matrices and regulatory negotiations, the paper reframes the process as institutional, negotiated, and inevitably compromised. It concludes that institutional agency in the Global South is not about rejecting Northern standards in isolation but about navigating their gatekeeping power to carve out spaces for epistemic justice. This "compromised" agency is proposed as a more honest and empirically grounded site for reimagining development futures.

Paper short abstract

This paper explores how Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) sits at the crossroads of gender, sustainability, and institutional development in the Global South. Drawing on three authors’ experience across sectors, it calls for a more integrated and locally grounded approach to evaluation.

Paper long abstract

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is often treated as a technical tool, but in practice, it is a complex and contested space shaped by diverse disciplines, power relations, and real-world challenges. This paper brings together three co-authors working in the fields of sustainability, peace and conflict studies, and evaluation practice to explore M&E as a deeply interdisciplinary space within Development Studies.

We reflect on field experiences from country portfolio evaluations, postgraduate studies in gender and global conflict, and leadership roles in environmental education. Each perspective shows how M&E often pulls from multiple knowledge systems—public policy, sociology, environmental science, and peacebuilding—but lacks frameworks that integrate them meaningfully.

The paper examines three key tensions: (1) how donor-driven frameworks often override local priorities; (2) how disciplinary silos prevent holistic learning in evaluation practice; and (3) how academic and institutional settings in the Global South are rarely equipped to train development professionals in this blended reality.

Using grounded examples from Nigeria and Ethiopia, we call for a rethinking of how M&E is taught, practised, and embedded into Development Studies curricula. We argue that M&E should be positioned not only as a reporting requirement but also as a space for learning, co-creation, and critical reflection.

In line with the DSA 2026 theme, we propose a shift towards more inclusive and interdisciplinary evaluation practices, ones that reflect the complexity of development challenges and elevate Southern agency in knowledge production and accountability.

Paper short abstract

This study argues that early 20th-century Caodaism as a form of "institutional agency" and as a religion "The Third Era of Redemption" challenged French colonial hegemony through epistemic resistance by upholding indigenous elements and syncretic framework.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the rise of Caodaism in early 20th-century Vietnam as a sophisticated manifestation of "institutional agency" that challenged the colonial monopoly on both political and spiritual futures. Rather than viewing Caodaism merely as a religious synthesis, this study argues that its syncretic framework served as a deliberate tool of epistemic resistance. By integrating Eastern philosophies with Western spiritualism, Caodaism dismantled the Eurocentric hierarchy of knowledge that underpinned the French civilizing mission.

The movement’s rapid institutionalization characterized by its own administrative hierarchy, social welfare systems, and territorial autonomy in Tây Ninh; represented a radical reclamation of subaltern agency. This paper analyzes how the Caodaist "Holy See" functioned as a counterinstitution that bypassed colonial structures to provide a distinct vision of a decolonized future. Through a critical lens of development studies and colonial history, the research demonstrates how Caodaism contested the colonial present by constructing a "Third Era of Redemption" that prioritized local sovereignty and spiritual pluralism. Ultimately, this case study offers a provocative critique of the "epistemic limitations" within traditional development narratives, highlighting how indigenous-led spiritual movements can provide robust blueprints for post-colonial governance and identity.

Paper short abstract

The paper maps out the meaning of Afro-centric enlightenment. It establishes its content. It argues that such an enlightenment will derive from Africans’ vision of the world, their values and expectations as beings-in-the world.

Paper long abstract

This paper argues that 18th-century Enlightenment, though universalist in tone, was Eurocentric in substance, and inadequate for Africa’s development. It proposes an Afrocentric enlightenment rooted in African worldviews as a necessary path toward epistemic and developmental transformation. It offers a critical interrogation of the 18th-century European Enlightenment, challenging its assumed universality and tracing its instrumentalisation through colonialism as a vehicle for Eurocentric values. While European Enlightenment ideals spurred tremendous change in Europe, their transplantation to Africa through colonial and postcolonial institutions often conflicted with indigenous value systems. The result, this paper argues, has been epistemic dissonance where Africa’s frameworks for understanding the world were marginalised, leading to cultural erasure and underdevelopment. The paper explores the possibility of an Afrocentric Enlightenment one that draws from Africans' vision of the world and their values, as beings-in-the-world. It asks: Can there be an African Enlightenment? What are its foundations? And how might it serve as a transformative vehicle for the continent’s development? By mapping out its meaning and content, the paper proposes that such an enlightenment would serve not only as an epistemic corrective but as a developmental imperative.In the context of debates on decolonising knowledge and curricular reform, this paper contributes to reimagining development by advocating for epistemic sovereignty. It aligns with ongoing calls to reclaim African agency in shaping the intellectual futures of the continent through philosophy, education, and development discourse.