De-colonizing media and cultural studies theory

Pr. Tarik Sabry

Professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Westminster London

May 7, 2024

The African Studies Centre is pleased to welcome on Tuesday 7 May, Mr. Tarik Sabry, Professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Westminster London, as part of the seminar program “The world seen from Africa: the multiple processes of decolonization” directed and presented by Prof. Ali BENMAKHLOUF, for the academic year 2023-2024.

This lecture critiques discourses of ‘knowledge decolonization’ in media studies and argues for a double critique strategy that submits both local and imported media theory to an epistemic manoeuvre of territorialization and de-territorialisation. Giving examples from the contexts of Africa, China and the Middle East, this lecture argues against the facile binaries between East/West, Global North/Global South and enunciates a critical media theory that is both contextual (historically and epistemologically) but also and always open the thought of the other.