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IR4592   Decolonising Knowledge: Debates in the Social Sciences

Academic year(s): 2025-2026

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 2

Availability restrictions: The School has a 'cap' on enrolments for all its Honours level modules.

Planned timetable: Tues 12 - 2pm or 4 - 6pm

This module critically examines categories of the social sciences and humanities that are usually simply presupposed and ‘applied’, and which, despite their Western or European origins, are assumed to be ‘universal’. It does this by closely examining some of the most important theoretical writings of the post-WWII period, spanning a number of disciplines (including history, anthropology, moral philosophy and the history of science), and focusing on books and debates which had repercussions far beyond their immediate disciplinary boundaries (including works by Kuhn, MacIntyre, Foucault, Said and Chakrabarty). Students explore the claim(s) that far from being objective and universal, our knowledge is shaped by culture, history and politics, and thus that the knowledge produced and disseminated in university may need to be ‘decolonised’. The module invites students not simply to advance their knowledge of politics, but to explore the politics of knowledge.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass IR2006

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 2 hour seminar x 11 weeks

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework = 65% Exam = 35%


Re-assessment: Exam = 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Professor S Seth
Module teaching staff: Prof Sanjay Seth
Module coordinator email ss544@st-andrews.ac.uk

Intended learning outcomes

  • engage with and evaluate diverse arguments which, however, all pertain to the way in which knowledge is shaped by power and politics
  • provide a lucid account of the main issues in question in recent theoretical debates
  • critically evaluate the assumption that modern knowledge is universal
  • provide a coherent account of how social and political changes have affected intellectual developments
  • critically evaluate claims to truth and certainty in the human sciences