JONATHAN EVERSHED

I was drawn to DISCs because I passionately believe that Higher Education should be force for progressive social change, and that the University classroom is a place in which entrenched patterns of power and discrimination can and should be interrogated. I have been inspired by movements such as Rhodes Must Fall to think about the decolonisation of education. The aims, histories and politics of these movements are highly relevant to my research, which focuses on violent conflict and its roots in the history and legacies of colonialism (particularly in Northern Ireland, but also globally); memory and the politics of decoloniality; and the post-colonial melancholia at the heart of the Brexit process. I would be keen to examine further how these research interests might be most actively and engagingly translated into my practice as both a teacher and an advocate of social justice.

As a DISCs Project Advocate, I am keen to explore and experiment with what a decolonised and socially just education in might look like in an Irish University setting. This is a question of emerging significance as Ireland begins to confront the growth (such as it is) of the kinds of populist political forces (Irexit, anti-vaxxers and other political groups on the far right) that gave rise to the Trump presidency and to Brexit. I am also keen to develop responses to what I have experienced as students’ increased (and worrying) proclivity to engage uncritically with the ‘fake news’ and other unreliable sources which support and bolster these movements.