Book Review: Schildermans, Hans. Experiments in Decolonizing the University: Towards an Ecology of Study. Radical Politics and Education Series. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.

Abstract

Time and place matter when we think about decolonization. Reading Hans Schildermans’ thought-provoking book, Experiments in Decolonizing the University: Towards an Ecology of Study, as a Pākehā (white) academic in Aotearoa New Zealand oriented me in a surprisingly obdurate way. He offers two divergent cases of decolonization. One is the plight of contemporary Palestinians displaced into refugee camps by the 1948 Nakba. The other is the ubiquitous predicament of present-day inhabitants of universities in Europe and America (and Australasia, I might add) who experience the occupation of their institutions, their work, their imagined selves, by “capitalist logics and mentalities” (Schildermans, 2021, p. 12). Both stand in contrast to my orientation towards decolonization as a movement to undo the racist legacy of 19th century (or so) imperialism over indigenous peoples, an attachment that tethers my thought to certain questions that are only addressed elliptically in Schildermans’ chapters. Despite (or even maybe because of) this ongoing disorientation, I found the book a rich and rewarding read and I discovered that many threads of his thought speak to my questions. Generally, Schildermans offers plenty of food for thinking about how to inhabit the university differently, or how the university might inhabit places outside institutional walls. As indicated in the book’s title, he pays particular attention to the ecology – the “interrelatedness of habits and habitats” (p. 113) – of study practices, a focus I find especially engaging, perhaps because of my earlier life as an academic study skills advisor. In this review, after describing the arc of Schildermans’ thinking in Experiments, I show how his thought is helpful for making sense of a troubling decolonization event that shared the time and place of my reading.