Questioning Normativity: Decoloniality in EAP and Language Education
- Date: Friday 12 December 2025, 09:15 – 17:00
- Location: Esther Simpson Building
- Cost: Free
Registration is now closed
Programme of Events
09.15-09.45 Registration, Welcome Coffee and Pastries, Location: SR 1.08
09.45-10.00 Housekeeping Welcome to Symposium – Dr Kate Spowage, Location: SR 2.09
10.00.10.50 Opening Plenary: Paul Breen, UCL Breaking Down Borders: Intersections of Language, Identity and Power, Location: SR 2.09
11.00-11.55 Parallel Papers
Panel 1 Epistemic Justice and Pluriverse Knowledges – Location: SR 2.09
- Dr Geoffrey W. Nsanja - “We do not have that in our language”: – EAP, (de)colonial beings and epistemic disobedience
- Professor Hayat Al-Khatib - From Epistemic Rupture to Pluriversal Dialogue: Rethinking Global Conflict through Decolonial Language Praxis
- Siying Shen - To Motivate or not to Motivate? Exploring 留白 as a Decolonial Pedagogical Space in Culturally Diverse Language Classrooms
Panel 2 – Multilingualism, belonging and identify Location: SR 2.12.
- Kashmir Kaur & Dr Olive Nabukeera - One Language, Many Silences Uncovering Decoloniality in EAP
- Dr Melike Bulut Albaba - Language as an asset for multilingual learners in higher education: The case of an MA TESOL module
- Yaxin Zhang - "My Voice Doesn't Matter": Reframing Chinese Students' Provisional Academic Writer Identity Through a Decolonial Lens
12.00-12.55 Parallel Papers
Panel 3 Ethics and linguistic justice in higher education – Location: SR 2.09
- Wil Hardman - From resistance to transformation: EAP practitioners’ perspectives on linguistic justice approaches
in EAP - Thomas Kral - “We are not suitable to speak English”: Stories of (dis)empowerment and decoloniality at a women’s
college in India - Aleks Palanac - Lessons from Gaza: The need for a Critical Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in ELT for Refugee
Panel 4 Policy, assessment and institutional coloniality– Location: SR (2.12)
- Alex Black - De/Coloniality in the New Mexican School: A proposal for rights analysis
- Nada Alageeli - Reconstructing curricula: Decolonising pedagogies taught to university students
- Joseph Orme-Dawson - UKHEl's Language entry requirements - the CEFR & Geopolitical influences
13.00-14.00 Lunch – SR 2.12
14.00-14.55 Panel 5 Linguistic diversity and decolonial contexts – Location: SR (2.09)
- Bettina Hermoso-Gómez - Incorporating Decolonising Practices teaching Spanish language
- Dr María Seijo-Richart - The Challenge of Teaching Galician Cinema: a Multi-perspective Approach
- Sofia Martinho - COIL pedagogy as a tool to decolonise (Portuguese) language education
15.00-15.45 Roundtable 1 Decolonising belonging & multilingual praxis – Location: SR 2.09
- Dr Ally Shepherd - Decolonising ESOL with adults seeking sanctuary in the North of England
- Victoria Odeniyi et al. - Spaces of Reflection: Challenging colonial legacies through multilingual praxis – learning from community engagement
15.00-15.45 Roundtable 2 – Location SR 2.12
- Rowan Murray - Values and Norms in UK Higher Education:
EAP student voices - Dr Milada Walková & Dr Ramzi Merabet - Decolonisation:
Common Assumptions, Uncommon Responses
15.45-16.00 Coffee/Tea – SR 2.12
16.00-16.45 Closing Plenary
Prof. Suresh Canagarajah, Pennsylvania State University Controversies in Decolonising EAP Location: SR 2.09