NEWS Sujata Patel is the holder of the 2021 Kerstin Hesselgren Visiting Professorship, funded by the Swedish Research Council. Patel is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India. As Hesselgren Professor, she will be hosted by the Department of Sociology at Umeå University. Last Wednesday she gave her inaugural lecture in digital format.
The event was introduced by Stefan Svallfors, Secretary General at the Swedish Research Council, Umeå University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor Dieter Müller and Per Wisselgren from the Department of Sociology.
Sujata Patel is the holder of the 2021 Kerstin Hesselgren Visiting Professorship.
ImagePrivatThe lecture, entitled ’Colonialism and Its Knowledges’, addressed the ways in which the postcolonial, the decolonial and indigenous theories have contributed to the current sociological imagination. These differing conceptual frameworks have not only decentered contemporary western perspectives on modernity and social theory but reframed many of its key concepts such as class, race, caste, gender and nation; politics and identity; religiosities and ethnicities; culture(s) and languages. As a consequence, these viewpoints have also promoted the need for diverse approaches to the study of global modernities and affirmed the necessity of comprehending these in distinct scales and varied geographies.
An advantage of the digital format was that the lecture could be attended by a large audience, not only in Sweden, but from all over the world.
As Kerstin Hesselgren visiting professor, Sujata Patel will be hosted by the Department of Sociology, Umeå University, and co-hosted by the Division of Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO), Linköping University, Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (UCGS), Umeå University, the Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET), Lund University, and the Department of Sociology, Uppsala University.
7 April 2021