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Short abstract:

We introduce transformative dialogues as a methodology to face our complicity and responsibilities in reproducing neocolonial power dynamics within academic North-South collaborations. The proposed methodology invites to engage with alterity in a way that goes beyond self-reflexive confessions.

Long abstract:

This paper introduces an approach to transform North-South academic collaborations. Critiquing entrenched dynamics in inter-university collaborations, we offer a testimonial contribution of a methodology to unlearning colonial modes of thinking and relating. Introducing transformative dialogues, the paper illustrates how researchers can engage in a joint process of self-reflection and mutual accountability to challenge established norms in academia. Through autoethnographic vignettes, we demonstrate the complexities and possibilities of unsettling power dynamics and fostering collective coexistence across difference.

Transformative dialogues provide an opportunity to transform interpersonal relations and individual’s subjectivities by creating a space for tuning in with each other. They help (1) to reflect on our past and present experiences, (2) to change the way we perceive some of our work relations, and (3) to confront us with our complicity in reproducing neocolonial power dynamics in academia. As such, transformative dialogues turn a self-centric understanding of subject-formation founded on self-reflexivity in academia into a relational and dialogical process of exchange among peers across the North-South divide. This, so we hope, can form the basis of a profound transformation of the way we think and work in academic collaborations.