An Anti-Genocide University

Creating an autonomous space to support intellectual interchange to collectively engage in the study of colonial violence, experiences of war and genocide, across historical and geographical contexts.

This project sought to create a space within the university to host and support intellectual interchange, creative collaborative research, and knowledge production that addresses colonial violence, experiences of war, and the ongoing repercussions of genocide. The project team engaged in the collective study of genocide across multiple historical and geographical contexts: Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. By foregrounding relations, shared struggles, and solidarities against multiple forms of atrocity, the project sought to build a collective imagination of how a university might operate as a bulwark against colonial violence. 

Funded activities focused on a series of events during spring and summer 2025, addressing situations in Palestine, Mexico, Congo, Syria, India, and Sudan, spanning past, present, and future perspectives. The team used alternative pedagogies and experimental modes of thinking, culminating in events such as a ‘wikithon’, percussion workshop, storytelling session, film screening and foraging walk. The events fostered community both within and beyond the university.  

Participants contributed testimonials reflecting on “how a university could be”, as a space of resistance to colonial violence and as a site of learning through collective exchange and togetherness. Findings were presented at an interactive workshop to postgraduate students, exploring the role of universities and discussing what an anti-genocide university should look like. International audiences contacted the team to explore ways to take forward and repeat the initiative.  

The funding for this initiative was from January 2025 to July 2025. 

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