Registration is required and will close on May 30. You may register for one, two, or all three sessions at a time. You can register and submit payment for the session(s) on this website.

PLEASE NOTE: The online meeting link will be sent to the email address you provide us. Please do not share the link with anyone.

You may cancel for a full refund before the final registration date of May 30. After this date, we will not be able to provide refunds.

This is a three-part series comprising of two lectures and one workshop, with each session lasting between 1.5 to 2 hours. You may choose to attend any or all three of the sessions.

• Session 1: “Intro to Decolonial Theory” on June 6: We will survey the core texts and theories that have spurred decolonization movements, both in the literal and metaphorical sense.

• Session 2: “On Orientalism” on June 13: We will take a deeper look into Edward Said's theories on Orientalism and discuss the myriad ways it continues to influence how the Global South—particularly the Arab and Muslim world—sees itself in relation to the Global North.

• Session 3: “Re-Worlding Workshop” on June 20: In this session we move from critique to creation— exploring how to decolonize our spaces, institutions, and ways of thinking. Together, we will question inherited norms, confront internalized paradigms, and begin to design small, meaningful interventions rooted in our own traditions and values. Moving beyond colonial and Orientalist frameworks, this session invites participants to create worlds on their own terms—worlds that are authentic, truthful, beneficial, just, and beautiful.

By the end of this series, attendees will be able to:

• Think critically and reflectively on dominant paradigms that often go unquestioned

• Begin to trace the genealogy of those dominant paradigms and the role that colonialism played in advancing them

• Develop a sensitivity and respect for other ways of being, doing, and thinking

• Achieve a familiarity with the major decolonial theorists and describe their foundational theories

• Articulate the relevance of decolonial theory to contemporary social and political issues

• Understand the theory of Orientalism and how it continues to influence institutions today

• Identify the ways that coloniality impacts their own lives, and identify interventions that decolonize spaces in which they exist on the margins

Topics we will be covering in this course:

• The pre-modern multipolar world system

• Principles of modernity and modernity’s link to colonization

• Encounters with the West and reactions to colonial advancement

• Coloniality of knowledge & ways of knowing

• Orientalism: media and the myth of the savage

• Progress, development, and aid

• Colonial theft and extraction

• White saviorism

• Eurocentrism & colonized futures

• Contemporary anti-imperialist and decolonial struggles

• The occupation of Palestine by "Israel" as a contemporary case study of a settler colonial state

Dr. Hajira Qazi is an educator and researcher with a PhD in design from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) School of Design. She has taught both undergraduate and graduate level courses at CMU, including a 7-week course she developed entitled “Decoloniality: Past, Present, and Future.” You can read more about Dr. Qazi’s work here.

Shaan Hameed Khan is a graphic designer and education researcher working at the intersection of design, pedagogy, and the Islamic arts. Her practice is defined by an ongoing, deep-rooted study of the four core disciplines: Arabic calligraphy, sacred geometry, illumination, and manuscript illustration. By blending these classical traditions with contemporary graphic design, Shaan creates visual narratives and educational resources that honor heritage through modern storytelling.