In this talk, Professor Khoja-Moolji reflects on the complexities as well as the promises of enacting a decolonial praxis in the context of teacher professional development. Focusing on a specific case of teacher professional development workshops in Pakistan, and drawing on the methodology of narrative inquiry, she will outline some of the pedagogical (re)encounters that she created to reclaim local knowledge ecologies. It entailed examining the current moment of coloniality; an active reengagement with local landscapes, intellectual productions, and teacher selves; and becoming hunarmand (skillful) in taking up, twisting, and molding dominant pedagogical models toward anti- and decolonial ends.
Dr. Shenila Khoja-Moolji is Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Bowdoin College. She is an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersections of feminist theory, cultural studies, and Islamic studies. Her research interests include, Muslim girlhood(s),masculinities and sovereignty, and Ismaili Muslim women’s history. She investigates these topics empirically in relation to Muslims in Pakistan, the United States, and Canada. Dr. Khoja-Moolji is the author of award-winning book, Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia (2018) and her latest book, Sovereign Attachments: Masculinity, Muslimness, and Affective Politics in Pakistan, was published in June 2021.
