Seeking Anticolonial Synergies The Promises and Paradoxes of Decolonizing Higher Education

How can universities meaningfully confront their colonial legacies without reproducing new divisions or empty gestures? This book offers a timely and original response by rethinking decolonization in higher education through the lens of anticolonial synergy, relational ethics, and coalitional politics. Bringing critical traditions into dialogue – such as decolonial theory, intersectionality, and critical social thought – Michalinos Zembylas shows how tensions around land, knowledge, identity, and justice can become productive rather than paralyzing. Structured in two parts, it first develops a conceptual framework for working across difference and then applies it through close engagement with influential anticolonial thinkers including Frantz Fanon, Amílcar Cabral, Enrique Dussel, and María Lugones. Grounded in real-world examples from universities in Europe, North America, and beyond, the text combines theoretical depth with practical relevance. It is essential reading for scholars, educators, students, and university leaders, seeking more just, solidaristic, and politically grounded futures for higher education.