**A Decolonized Approach to Scholarly Communication: Foundations, Challenges, and Perspectives in Practice and Research** ======================================================================== Instructor: Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou, Queen Elizabeth II Scholar at University of Ottawa, Canada, DOAJ Ambassador; and President, Association for the Promotion of Open Science in Haiti and Africa (APSOHA); https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9678-7765 . ---------- Description: ------------ Openness and the fast growth of information technology have contributed to reducing many injustices in knowledge diffusion. However, due to the immaterial nature of information, benign threats are still present in practices, research, infrastructure, and policies in academia. That means, once you are dealing with scholarly communication, whether you are a librarian, a researcher, a funder, a policymaker, or a software designer, what you are doing has impact everywhere across the world. But if you are not aware of soft domination, exclusion, and inequities led by knowledge, this impact can be negative. That is why it is so important to learn how to identify and avoid such bad effects. Postcolonial theory seems to offer a good framework to tackle these threats and educate people involved in scholarly communication. That is the raison d’être of this course: to teach how to identify and avoid colonial practices in scholarly communication. The first day of the course is more theoretical and aims to provide participants with basics on postcolonial theory. We will present and discuss some texts previously shared with participants. The second day is based on practical activities to scan the landscape of scholarly communication under the lens of postcolonial theory. Then we will focus on best practices we need to adopt to avoid an unconscious colonial impact in scholarly communication. **Level:** All levels **Intended audience**: This course is suitable for all involved in scholarly communication, including researchers, librarians, publishers, policymakers, infrastructure designers, and funders. **Requirements**: No technical skills or prerequisites are needed other than familiarity with activities related to scholarly communication. The course will require a laptop and an internet connection. **Course Learning Objectives**: At the end of this course, participants will be able to: - Identify the risk factors of coloniality of knowledge; - Describe forms of colonisation in scholarly communication; - Propose scholarly communication decolonial practices; - Plan long-term decolonisation strategies according to contexts and situations. **Course Topics**: This course will be presented over two days for 01 hour each (if necessary a third day will be scheduled) and will cover these topics: - Coloniality of knowledge; - Contextualisation of openness; - Cognitive decolonisation; - Decolonial writing and design ---------- Course Schedule --------------- [**Session 1 (Aug.5, 2020)**: Basics on coloniality][1] [**Session 2 (Aug.10, 2020)** : Coloniality in scholarly communication][2] [**Session 3 (Aug.12, 2020)**: Decolonial practices in scholarly communication][3] **Session 4 (optional, Aug.17, 2020)** ---------- Course Materials and Supplies Required -------------------------------------- Participants will need a laptop with internet connection or other device for note-taking. [1]: https://osf.io/bgm56/wiki/Session%201:%20%20Basics%20on%20Coloniality/ [2]: https://osf.io/bgm56/wiki/Session%202:%20Coloniality%20in%20Scholarly%20Communication/ [3]: https://osf.io/bgm56/wiki/Session%203:%20Decoloniality%20in%20practice/