“BE NOT WISE IN YOUR OWN CONCEITS”: IS DECOLONIZING ACADEMIC HUMANITARIAN STUDIES POSSIBLE IN BELARUS? (a historian’s perspective)

Abstract

Abstract. This article reflects on the possibilities of decolonizing academic research in Belarus. The text is built on the discussions held during the conference The Decolonization of Education and Research in Belarus and Ukraine: Theoretical Challenges and Practical Tasks in Vilnius (September 2023), as well as the analysis of academic research and the author’s work experience of more than ten years in a state university. The author discusses the impact of initial and technical-procedural factors on the success of decolonization of Belarusian studies. The situation of the memory war, attacks on history, and the current Belarusian academic environment are referred to the former group of factors, while an ambivalent receptivity of Belarusian scholars and lecturers to new ideas, as well as the uncertainty about the the foundations for a new postcolonial discourse make up the latter group. The paper concludes that positive changes are possible subject to the success of the following processes: the staff of state universities and academic institutions overcomes their habit to uncritically follow orders from “above”, the lustration of personnel is carried out, a common language is found that facilitates dialogue with the public, and new research topics are explored (filling in the “knowledge gaps”). Otherwise, decolonial ideas could be quickly discredited and limited to a narrow intellectual sect while also preserving the foundations of the old system.
Keywords: Academic Research, Belarus, Decolonization, Memory War, Self-colonizing, Reforms