Breathing spaces of fearlessness and generosity in the Anglophone/Western university

Abstract

AbstractHow can dreams for just futures take flight in universities with colonial legacies that celebrate diversity but silence academics of colour who seek to be more than “institutional ornaments” and “quiet achievers?” Emerging research on decolonising the university focuses on the struggle that hypervisible Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, and minority ethnic/ethno‐religious academics of colour engage in to negotiate the subtleties of institutional racism. In Australia, academics of colour who struggle to gain entry feel less vulnerable when they retreat to a place of quiet achievement and focus on advancing their careers. But such “quiet” places, which open up through White recognition and White responsibility, fail to unsettle brutal practices and a bitter politics of survival. This article therefore argues for geographies of fearlessness and generosity from sites of vulnerability in the Anglophone/Western university. It is inspired by feminist, Indigenous, and Black politics; personal experiences in Australian universities; and ethnographic research with ethnic/ethno‐religious minority migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and Indigenous peoples in Paris and Detroit, among other locations. The findings are significant in showing how the multiply situated “we” in the university learn how to “stay with the trouble” and see the shimmer of decolonial horizons of possibility.