Redesign of Social Science Curricula

Multiversity is committed to radical changes in the organization of curricula and in learning and research methodologies as well. A good curriculum will get waylaid by a poor methodology that merely restricts itself to lectures, note-taking, examinations.

Challenges to curricula on the grounds that such curricula are Eurocentric have been launched by several Afrikan intellectuals, and less by Asian academics. These challenges need to be collated, analysed, disseminated and circulated more widely.

But Multiversity proposes to go beyond a critique of existing academic studies based solely on grounds of Eurocentrism.

It seeks to challenge:

1) the assumptions on which many of these social sciences have been created and their consequent claims to universality;

2) the very need for discrete disciplines, departments or faculties that divide and sub-divide knowledge into compartments, leading to tunnel visions and various other deformities.

In their place, Multiversity seeks to generate agreement on a fresh set of assumptions that actually reflect the human condition in societies like ours (since these may not necessarily agree with the human ideals associated with dominant industrialized societies).

It also seeks to create better, more effective organizing points for the generation of knowledge that would transcend the narrow confines of conventionally organized academic knowledge, especially as reflected in today's social sciences.

Therefore we expect that participants for the "Redesign of Social Science Curricula" will make presentations on one or other of the following aspects of the debate presented above:

1) The ruling assumptions of the specific social sciences they teach in university or college and a critique of these. They should be prepared to either defend or desert the assumptions of the specific social science they teach or research. It will be useful if each prepares a one or two page note on the assumptions of their individual academic discipline, relationship of these with the "white studies" regime, their relevance for societies outside Western culture;

2) Outlines of alternative curricula or actual curricula for the specific social science they teach and that are either completely new, or relate to indigenous intellectual traditions, and which do not in any fundamental way root themselves in either the assumptions or traditions originating from Western sources. Those participants who have worked on such alternate curricula will lead this session.

3) More meaningful methodology and research methods that will not only inspire students and generate useful social knowledge, but also be more humane and less exploitative of human beings. Best practice here could be discussed, for further documentation and dissemination.

Multiversity is committed to recording the workshop proceedings and to ensure they are circulated in print format and on the Internet via www.multiworld.org with selections
available on this site.

Multiversity will circulate work prepared in the three major areas listed above for eventual dissemination to universities across Asia, Africa and South America.

Follow-up Plans:

Howsoever productive our meeting might be, some thought should be given to follow-up plans to ensure that the ideas generated at this meeting do not scatter to the winds. Our discussions would profit if they were confined to university-level courses.

Here are some ideas for us to think about - drawn up by Vinay Lal and others:

1. Papers on disciplines given at this conference should be collected together into a volume and published. For instance, Vinay is doing a paper on history, Roby Rajan on economics, Farid on sociology, Claude on philosophy and so on. For disciplines that are not represented, some endeavor can be made to solicit contributions; or the volume can be designed in such a way that it reflects the politics of knowledge in the broadest sense of the term.

2. There was some discussion at the previous meeting about a set of readers -- for instance, a Reader in International Law, a reader in Cultural Anthropology, etc. I think this idea needs to be pursued more vigorously. These readers should be designed keeping in mind the potential for use in university-level courses.

3. Some systematic attempt should be made to collect syllabi of courses that appear to reflect our interests, or that in any case promise students a very different set of readings and methods of learning and research. With the permission of these instructors, these syllabi can then be posted on the multiversity website.

(Multiversity, in fact, invites proposals from participants willing to work on these projects -- curriculum design and innovative research methodologies -- on a longer term basis.

4. Multiversity needs guidance on how these themes can be brought in for discussion within the formal higher education set-up in different countries, particularly associations of scholars organized under different disciplines. We also need to interact directly with various policy making bodies and think-tanks that regulate and control the teaching of social science in the countries concerned.

5. We propose to keep this group of scholars linked through a network that will further the debate on these issues.

6. There is now a new pamphlet series, edited by Vinay Lal, and published explicitly under the jurisdiction of Multiversity. [See Dissenting Knowledges Pamphlet Series] Some effort needs to be made to bring these pamphlets into the classroom. The same can be said for the pamphlet series edited by Yusef Progler. Apart from the newsletter, these pamphlets represent the first concrete attempt to bring some of the ideas we are playing around to larger audiences.

7. There should be some discussion, followed by a plan, to produce more material in languages other than English.

8. Multiversity also needs to think of initiating collaborations with people working with visual materials, computer technologies, the media, cinema, and so on. This can mean many things. We could have opened up our meeting to at least one very good documentary filmmaker -- not only a dissenting filmmaker, but someone with a keen touch and a nuanced sensibility. We shall have to think about preparing visual aids to teaching, for example, and also about Multiversity's own relationship to the media, media technologies and the Internet.

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