Books published by Counterpress

As part of the aim to amplify those otherwise silenced voices, particularly the range of experiences of students of colour in the academy, this collection is ground breaking in embodying what has been an ostensible and deliberate collaboration and co-production of knowledge between students and academics of colour. It was inspired by an institutionally funded research project in 2018-2019 'Decolonise the Curriculum', at the University of Kent and presents a Kaleidoscope for Decolonising a university. It operationalises conceptual thinking, fed into expressions of national and international student-led movements as well as others in the UK and elsewhere including: Why is my curriculum White?; Decolonise SOAS; Reclaim Harvard Law School (RHLS); #LeopoldMustFallQM; and Why isn't my professor Black? What they have in common is that they seek to unveil colonialism, racism, sexism, ageism and its intersectional inequalities with other (protected) characteristics, whilst also doing the structural labour towards the utopia of dismantling white supremacy in the academy. The success of this project lies in the unearthing of different formations of inequality in the academy. The perspectives presented in this book all share a common theme of decolonisation of the university. These are some of the reverberations that concern us. Our sincere hope is that it will inspire students to enact change no matter how small or large as part of their empowerment including hold their institutions to account to eliminate inequality and injustice in all formats.

Rethinking the University: Structure, Critique, Vocation is an attempt to escape the discursive ruts that characterize debates over higher education in the United Kingdom. It explores three distinct perspectives inspired by Kojin Karatani's 'triad of concepts'-instrumentalism, idealism, and community-which the author further develops trans-genealogically to open the way to a heterodox reading of the post-war British university. To deal with the co-existence of these three perspectives, this book focuses on the idea of vocation and concludes with a plea for a university oriented towards the future, engaged in the present, and grounded in an appreciation of the past.

Decolonizing Sexualities: Transnational Perspectives, Critical Interventions contributes to the critical field of queer decolonial studies by demonstrating how sexuality, race, gender and religion intersect transnationally. The volume maps some of the specifically local issues as well as the common ones affecting queer/trans people of colour (qtpoc). The contributions are not delimited by traditional academic style but rather draw on creative inspiration to produce knowledge and insight through various styles and formats, including poetry, essays, statements, manifestos, as well as academic mash-ups. Queering coloniality and the epistemic categories that classify people means to disobey and delink from the coloniality of knowledge and of being. At this intersection, decolonial queerness is necessary not only to resist coloniality but, above all, to re-exist and re-emerge decolonially."The volume is more than timely. First, it contributes to the field of decolonial queer theory, second it offers a transnational approach, third it never seeks to fix categories, and finally, and more importantly, it centred on narratives of solidarity and alliance which are so important today in a world under the assault of financial capitalism, new politics of dispossession and colonization, and new politics of division and fragmentation." - Françoise Verges (Chair Global South(s), College d'études mondiales, Paris)"The brave and thoughtful pieces in this book span across 'intellectual' and 'artistic' categorisations, and together make an important contribution not only to the field of sexuality/queer studies, but also to the ongoing battle to keep such studies from racist cooptation." - Dr Sarah Keenan, Lecturer in Law, Birkbeck, University of London."The range and depth of these contributions make this an invaluable resource for students and researchers alike. Above all, these essays highlight the fact that we can no longer assume or theorize an LGBT identity or politics that is constituted outside of racialization, coloniality, place and time." - Momin Rahman (Professor of Sociology, Trent University, Canada)"In a world in which colonialism and neocolonialism make their marks on sexuality as well as race and class, this rich volume shows that decolonial thinking and doing cannot be done without an attention to queer politics." - Roderick A. Ferguson, Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique