Postcolonial studies explores the economic, socio-political, and discursive legacies of the colonial worldview and how these legacies persist in today's world. However, the field is currently facing criticism from multiple quarters. It has been described as anti-Enlightenment, Eurocentric, and even antisemitic.

In Nikita Dawan's talk, she will examine how postcolonial studies contributes to rethinking the nature and scope of critical thought by addressing these serious concerns. She will demonstrate that such characterizations often stem from misunderstandings of the project of decolonization and argue that criticizing the Enlightenment and its legacies does not necessarily entail rejecting them, nor does engaging with Enlightenment principles mean endorsing them unconditionally.

Dawan will also focus on the "missed encounters" and "unfinished conversations" between postcolonial studies and Holocaust studies. Her central thesis is this: Unlike the decolonial approach, which views decolonization as an "epistemic delinking" from modernity, and in contrast to post-Adornian Frankfurt School Critical Theorists, who argue that criticism of the Enlightenment automatically leads to normative nihilism, I contend that it is indeed possible to "employ the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house" (Lorde).

about

Nikita Dhawan holds the Chair in Political Theory and History of Ideas at the Technical University Dresden. Her research and teaching focuses on global justice, human rights, democracy and decolonization. She received the Käthe Leichter Award in 2017 for outstanding achievements in the pursuit of women’s and gender studies and in support of the women’s movement and the achievement of gender equality. Selected publications include: Impossible Speech: On the Politics of Silence and Violence (2007); Decolonizing Enlightenment: Transnational Justice, Human Rights and Democracy in a Postcolonial World (ed., 2014); Reimagining the State: Theoretical Challenges and Transformative Possibilities (ed., 2019); and Rescuing the Enlightenment from the Europeans: Critical Theories of Decolonization (forthcoming). In 2023, she was awarded the Gerda-Henkel-Visiting Professorship at Stanford University and the Thomas Mann Fellowship.