Advancing Global Interdisciplinary Studies at UMass Amherst

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The World Studies Interdisciplinary Project (WSIP) at UMass Amherst is celebrating two milestone achievements during a conference titled Decolonial Reconstellations at the UMass Amherst Old Chapel on Friday, April 18 and Saturday, April 19, 2025. The event is free and open to the public. A schedule and program information are available at the conference website.

The conference marks the publication of the new three-volume collection subtitled Decolonial Reconstellations, a product of the WSIP collective and edited by Laura Doyle (Professor Emerita of English, UMass Amherst), Mwangi wa Gĩthĩnji (Associate Professor of Economics, UMass Amherst), and Simon Gikandi (Professor of English, Princeton University). The Decolonial Reconstellations volumes are based on the observation that we cannot fully imagine more ethical visions of planetary community without understanding the deeper histories of places and peoples that shape the present day. Accordingly, the volumes gather social scientists and humanists, Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, and intersectional and materialist thinkers who consider historical factors over the long term. Uncovering pasts that are as complex and dynamic as the present, the contributors indicate pathways toward collaboration and change.

The April conference also celebrates the launch of the first-in-the-nation Decolonial Global Studies Graduate Certificate (DGS). Supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation, the DGS offers graduate students an opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary courses across the Social Sciences, Humanities and the School of Environmental Studies at UMass Amherst through team-taught courses from faculty across these colleges. In addition, the grant has provided several fellowships for UMass PhD students, including Liaison Fellowships with non-academic partners, which introduce them to alternative forms of employment; dissertation completion fellowships; and six year-long fellowships for students who participated in the design of the DGS Certificate.

Conference sessions will include a keynote panel on Emergent Frameworks with Mishuana Goeman (Chair of Indigenous Studies, University of Buffalo), Arturo Escobar (Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Political Ecology, University of North Carolina), James Ogude (Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria), and Shu-mei Shih (Professor of Comparative Literature, Asian Languages and Cultures, and Asian American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles); a panel of UMass PhD alums and current DGS students reflecting on decolonial interdisciplinarity; and two authors' discussions of the Decolonial Reconstellations edited collection featuring a number of eminent global scholars. 

An RSVP for meals and receptions was open through 3pm on Thursday, April 10, but no pre-registration is required to attend the conference’s panels and keynote sessions.