#209 [Roundtable] Decolonizing Knowledge Production: Feminist Perspectives from Latin America and the Caribbean
Natalia Ruiz Cuartas, PhD student & researcher, University of Guelph
+ 4 additional participants

#191 [Roundtable] Development Studies & Practice in a Changing Global Landscape
Steffi Hamann, Assistant Professor, York University
Sharlene Mollett, Professor, University of Toronto
Sophia Carodenuto, Researcher, University of Victoria
Joshua Ramisch, Professor, University of Ottawa
+ 1 additional participant

This lecture argues that Africa was never “waiting” to be developed. Drawing on historical cases from Mapungubwe, Benin, Idoha, Ogidi, and Ezira/Ochima, it demonstrates that development has consistently encountered complex, functioning systems of governance and knowledge, only to misrecognize, rename, and reorganize them. Rather than addressing absence, development produces it—through the systematic refusal to recognize African authority, particularly that of women. Reframing development as a structure of epistemic and material violence, the lecture calls for a fundamental shift in how knowledge, power, and recognition are understood.

Location: Korean Canadian Cultural Centre