- Convenors:
-
Rakiya Mamman
(National Open University of Nigeria)
M. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (University of Dhaka)
Saadatu Umaru Baba (Kaduna State University)
Zeus Hiram Zamora Guevara (Tecnologico de Monterrey)
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- Chair:
-
Tuesday Gichuki
(Usitawi Consultants Africa Ltd University of Makeni, Sierra Leone)
- Discussants:
-
Oluwakemi Olayinka
(Leipzig University, Germany Addis Ababa University Ethiopia)
Muyiwa Odele (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP))
- Format:
- Paper panel
- Stream:
- Decolonising knowledge, power & practice
Short Abstract
Curricular power: Examining the political economy of standard-setting as Global South institutions navigate North-based academic networks (EADI) and national regulatory demands to forge decolonial futures.
Description
The DSA2026 theme invites a critical reimagining of development by questioning its epistemic limitations and how power relations are reconfigured at institutional scales. This panel focuses on a crucial, yet often-untheorised, site of struggle: the Development Studies curriculum in the Global South. We investigate the tensions that arise when institutions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America assert agency within a global academic landscape still shaped by colonial knowledge hierarchies.
Drawing on anchoring case studies including the pioneering establishment of Development Studies at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) we unpack the political economy of academic standard-setting. We collectively examine: What are the shared and divergent experiences of navigating North-based academic networks (e.g., EADI) versus demands for national relevance and national regulatory compliance (e.g., NUC/CCMAS)? What power asymmetries emerge when institutions must justify their existence using global standards, and what does successful accreditation truly signify for grassroots agency and the redistribution of knowledge power? This dual pressure creates new forms of inequality while simultaneously asserting alternative visions of progress.
We invite papers from scholars and practitioners detailing experiences in establishing, revising, or accrediting Development Studies curricula across the Global South. Contributions should critically examine the influence of global-North networks, the demands of national quality assurance, and how local actors assert agency to redefine knowledge for collective wellbeing in an uncertain world .Format: Paper Panel, with a strong commitment to securing high-quality papers via mandatory pre-conference paper submission (full draft).