Decolonizing at ASU's New College

The School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies in ASU’s New College asks its professor to decolonize their curriculum and class syllabi. There is a committee in the School for Decolonizing the Curriculum. Professors were asked to take part in decolonizing their syllabi and in a workshop that would teach how to do this. Special guest speakers were paid to come to the School and teach about the decolonizing philosophy. Professors were asked questions such as:

“Have you experienced violence in academia? Have you experienced interlocking systems of domination, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and colonialism in academia? If so, what forms of violence (racial, gendered, epistemic, other) and discrimination (racism, sexism, homophobia, colonialism, other) have you experienced?”

The decolonizing political opinion was presented as fact, and no alternative perspectives were allowed to be offered. When asked if there could be an open discussion about the assumptions behind the decolonizing movement, the then-director of the School said “no.”

The students in classes where the syllabus has been “decolonized” are taught that this is the correct way to understand history and our own setting. They are not alerted to its assumptions or offered alternatives. Any dissent is labeled a “phobia.”

As seen in the quote above, and as made explicit by many of the political philosophers pushing “decolonizing,” this is a Marxist religion that teaches history is to be understood in terms of a dialectic between oppressors and oppressed. Race, gender, class, and nationality are organized into these two categories. The student who falls into an oppressive class is told they must confess their privilege and how they have benefited through oppression. The student who falls into an oppressed class is told they are owed reparations from the oppressors.