Decolonising Law and Literature

Decolonising Law and Literature: Perspectives from the Global South

19 June 2026, 11:00am to 5:00pm (BST, UTC+1)

This is a one-day workshop hosted by the LHA that attempts to answer a series of connected questions, namely: What kind of dialogues can happen between decolonising practices, law and literature? How can they help us to illuminate the current challenges at the intersection between law, politics and the humanities at the international level? What are the limitations of certain forms of decolonial theorisation? These are some of the non-exhaustive list of questions we will engage with in this workshop. The workshop brings together academics from Colombia, South Africa, Romania, Brazil and Mexico to engage with these questions.

To register and receive the Teams link for the event please contact Patrick Hanafin.

Programme

Panel 1: 11:00am to 12:30pm

  • Karin Van Marle (University of the Western Cape) ‘Re-reading Zoe Wicomb’
  • Oscar Guardiola-Rivera (Birkbeck) ‘Together, we’re America: From third freedom to stories of survivance and fantastic critique’
  • Jaco Barnard-Naude (University of Capetown) ‘Lucy and the law’

Lunch: 12:30pm to 1:00pm

Panel 2: 1:00pm to 2:30pm

  • Ibtisaam Ahmed (University of Capetown) ‘Domestic jurisdictions: Servant-master relations and the afterlife of colonial law in Nadia David’s Cape Fever’
  • Hugo Uys and Yvonne Oyieke (University of Capetown) ‘The conquest of compassion: Antjie Krog’s post-colonial reckoning with the politics of care’
  • Manuela Boatca (University of Freiburg) ‘Creolizing the nation-state norm: Learning from Anomalies’

Panel 3: 2:45pm to 4:15pm

  • Jose Guadalupe-Gandarilla (UNAM, Mexico) ‘The Trump corollary to the Monroe doctrine and the shaping of the new international system: A decolonial reading’
  • Fernanda Bragata (UFRGS, Brazil) ‘Between Orthodoxy and the periphery: Critical dialogues on the four schools of human rights thought’