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This essay addresses decolonization as a praxis involving "thinking and doing" (Mignolo, 2011) aimed at the critical education goals of representation, equity and social justice in the higher education context (Mbembe, 2016). It starts with an exposition of the notion (Amin, 1990; Ngugi, 1996), drawing principally on the work of Latin American theorist Walter Mignolo (2007, 2009, 2011) as well as African theorists (Amin, 1990; Mudimbe, 1988; Ngugi, 1996). It then explores the deployment of decolonization in contestations over environmental education (Tuck, McKenzie & McCoy, 2014) and central notions such as "science," "objectivity" and "the environment"; the positioning of Indigeneity, both in terms of representation within traditional (i.e. hegemonic, Eurocentric passing as universal) higher education (Windchief & Joseph, 2015) and the articulation of Indigenous alternative higher education institutions , including Indigenous thought, extramural work and the diversification of epistemology. Finally, taking as guide the crucial assertion that "decolonization is not a metaphor," (Tuck & Yang, 2012) and what we are distinguishing as "decolonization light" and "true decolonization," the essay turns to the prospects of decolonization of the university in a specific context, namely South Africa, as an example. We conclude that rather than a self-contained, self-sufficient discourse and praxis, decoloniality ought to be (re)conceptualized as necessarily opening up additional issues which need to be addressed for its fulfilment as concrete and fully viable representation, equity and social justice oriented education. ; peer-reviewed

"The essays in Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy make visible the submerged stories of Black life in academia. They offer fresh historical, social, and cultural insights into what it means to teach, learn, research, and work while Black. In daring to shift from margin to centre, the book's contributors confront two overlapping themes. First, they resist a singular construction of Blackness that masks the nuances and multiplicity of what it means to be and experience the academy as a Black body. Second, they challenge the stubborn durability of anti-Black tropes, the dehumanization of Blackness, persistent deficit ideology, and the tyranny of low expectations that permeate the dominant idea of Blackness in the White colonial imagination. Operating at the intersections of discourse and experience, contributors reflect on how Blackness shapes academic pathways, ignites complicated and often difficult conversations, and re-imagines Black pasts, presents, and futures. This unique collection contributes to the articulation of more nuanced understandings of the ways in which Blackness is made, unmade, and remade in the academy and the implications for interrelated dynamics across and within post-secondary education, Black communities in Canada, and global Black diasporas."--