Futures of the Global University looks to bring together collaborations between Cambridge and universities in the Global South to build capacity, recognise expertise beyond the Global North, and foster innovative approaches to shared questions. This research strand critically engages with the history of universities, while imagining new futures for these institutions.
The Simón Bolívar Chair in Latin American Studies was established in 1968 with a grant from the Venezuelan government for the purpose of bringing a distinguished Latin American scholar or intellectual each year to Cambridge, and its holders have included two Nobel Laureates and professors from Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela.
The Centre of African Studies and Centre of South Asian Studies have also hosted workshops and talks around decolonising the university, formed collaborations with universities in Africa and South Asia and established visiting fellows programmes. The Centre of South Asian Studies has recently embarked on a project to collect ‘archives of everyday’ through an outreach project with the South Asian diaspora in the United Kingdom. The Centre of African Studies is beginning an initiative engaging with the oral history of African universities in the twentieth century.
Opportunities to support work in this area:
Endowing funding for faculty exchange will help scholars from the Global South continue to access time and networks in Cambridge as well as enabling Cambridge scholars to spend time at universities in the Global South, ensuring that the knowledge exchange flows both ways. Funding for the Futures of the Global University will bring together COGS leadership in reimagining the collaboration between university partners, exploring centres of knowledge production, and re-centring Global South institutions and languages in discussions of decolonising the university.