On Wednesday, 7 April 2021, from 10:15 to 12:00, Prof. Sujata Patel will hold a virtual inaugural lecture, marking the start of her 2021 Kerstin Hesselgren visiting professorship.

The inaugural lecture, entitled ’Colonialism and Its Knowledges’, addresses 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.

Sujata Patel is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India, former Vice-President of the International Sociological Association (ISA), and author or editor of a dozen of books in the areas of social theory, urban studies, sociology of power and authority, and the sociology of social movements.

As Kerstin Hesselgren visiting professor, Sujata Patel will be hosted by the Department of Sociology, Umeå University, and co-hosted by SASNET as well as the Division of Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO), Linköping University, Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (UCGS), Umeå University, and the Department of Sociology, Uppsala University.

To attend the lecture, please register in advance on Umeå University's website (scroll to the bottom).