ONCURATING

How is Swiss society colonial? And does it affect our daily life? Which kind of practices can decolonize Zurich? We will tackle these question through the discussion of the following texts:

Michel, Noemi: Sheepology: the postcolonial politics of raceless racism in Switzerland
Purtschert, Patricia: Mehr als ein Schlagwort. Dekolonisieren (in) der postkoloniale Schweiz
Purtschert, Patricia: Swiss Identity Formation at the Moment of Decolonization

Afterwards, we will put our reflections into action and criticize objects, institutions or processes embedded in colonial meaning, trying to develop ways of decolonization for our everyday life.

We have limited spots. Register on www.decolonizezuri.ch/action and you will get the texts.

The number of the audience may be limited and we kindly ask all attendees to wear a mask.

Patricia Purtschert is philosopher and cultural researcher. She is co-head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Bern. She is the autor of „Kolonialität und Geschlecht im 20. Jahrhundert. Eine Geschichte der weissen Schweiz“ (2009) and co-editor of the volumes „Postkoloniale Schweiz. Formen und Folgen eines Kolonialismus ohne Kolonien (2012), Colonial Switzerland. Rethinking Colonialism from the Margins (2015) and Racial Profiling. Struktureller Rassismus und antirassistischer Widerstand (2019).

Decolonize Zurich is a reading and action-oriented group aiming at the decolonisation of Zurich. It seeks to question and overcome these asymmetrical constellations. Developing possible actions that could rectify and reduce the social, political and cultural grievances. To this end, it takes postcolonial theories as the starting point of our reflection on action to patterns of thought and expanding the canon of knowledge.