Decoloniality, Spanish and Latin American studies in Australian universities: ¿es un mundo ch’ixi posible?

Abstract

Course descriptions from Spanish and Latin American studies departments in Australian universities operate as both curriculum documents and promotional materials. As a result, these departments face difficulties in promoting the ideals of social justice and equity often associated with language education. This paper analyses these course descriptions for examples of themes that visibilise other ways of knowing/doing/being from a decolonial perspective in response to the neoliberal ethic inherent to the genre. Using a critical discourse analytic approach from a Latin American perspective, this paper analyses several key themes of decoloniality present in the course descriptions including historical acceptance, language diversity, and gender and sexuality. These themes offer examples of how Spanish and Latin American studies departments in Australia are disrupting dominant ethics, ontologies and epistemologies within institutional constraints to work towards un mundo ch’ixi: a world of contentious but complementary opposites.