Philosophies of the South: Decolonizing the Self | An online conversation with Leny Mendoza Strobel & S. Lily Mendoza on Monday 29th June
The Philosophies of the South series creates a platform for scholars, thinkers, activists, and practitioners engaging with intellectual traditions and critical frameworks that challenge the dominance of Western philosophical paradigms. Bringing together work inspired by decolonial thought, Indigenous epistemologies, and other critical traditions, the series explores how philosophy can be reimagined through perspectives that emerge from histories of colonialism, resistance, and alternative ways of knowing. Through conversations across disciplines and practices, the series alms to foster intellectual exchange, expand philosophical inquiry, and contribute to ongoing struggles for epistemic justice.
Decolonizing the Self: Learning Land, Unlearning Empire
In this conversation, Leny Mendoza Strobel and S. Lily Mendoza reflect on their respective journeys from decolonial theory into Indigenous studies and practice. Drawing on their shared work with the Center for Babaylan Studies, a movement for decolonization and indigenization among diasporic Filipinx, they explore how reclaiming Indigenous knowledge systems, ancestral wisdom, and embodied practices can transform understandings of self, community, and belonging. The discussion considers how diasporic Filipinx and other communities grapple with histories of colonial dispossession, work toward accountability to the land (and those land’s original peoples) both in the homeland and in the diaspora, re-learn Indigenous ways of knowing, and re-imagine futures grounded in relationality, wholeness, and collective care.
About the Speakers:
Leny Mendoza Strobel is professor emerita in American Multicultural Studies at Sonoma State University and a Founding Elder at the Center for Babaylan Studies. Her work has focused on the process of decolonization and re-indigenization. Most recently, she facilitates a local place-based cohort with the vision of "repair and reparations" with local indigenous communities.
S. Lily Mendoza is a professor of culture and communication at Oakland University and the Executive Director of the Center for Babaylan Studies. She is known for her path breaking work on the politics of indigeneity and critique of the cultural logic of modernity.
This is an online conversation and audience Q&A presented by the UK-based journal The Philosopher. The event is free, open to the public, and held on Zoom.
You can register for this Monday 29th June event (11am PT/2pm ET/7pm UK) via The Philosopher here (link).
#Philosophy #CriticalTheory #PoliticalPhilosophy #SocialPhilosophy #Ethics #Politics #Postcolonialism #Epistemology #Indigenous
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About The Philosopher (https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/):
The Philosopher is the longest-running public philosophy journal in the UK (founded in 1923). It is published by the The Philosophical Society of England (http://www.philsoceng.uk/), a registered charity founded ten years earlier than the journal in 1913, and still running regular groups, workshops, and conferences around the UK. As of 2018, The Philosopher is edited by Newcastle-based philosopher Anthony Morgan and is published quarterly, both in print and digitally.
The journal aims to represent contemporary philosophy in all its many and constantly evolving forms, both within academia and beyond. Contributors over the years have ranged from John Dewey and G.K. Chesterton to contemporary thinkers like Christine Korsgaard, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Elizabeth Anderson, Martin Hägglund, Cary Wolfe, Avital Ronell, and Adam Kotsko.
