Unlearning emotional imperialism in education: political, theoretical and pedagogical implications

This paper emerges from a set of questions about what it means pedagogically to undertake the paradoxical and difficult task of unlearning the emotional experience of imperialism. The analysis discusses the notion of 'emotional imperialism' and the various forms in might take; to do so, the author draws on concepts from affect theory (Reddy's notion of 'emotional regimes') and decolonial theory (Fanon's concept of 'affective ankylosis') to shed light on what emotional imperialism might involve in social and political life, including education. The analysis concludes with a discussion of the political, theoretical and pedagogical implications of 'unlearning emotional imperialism' in educational settings. It is argued that calls for undoing and unlearning emotional imperialism in education are an inseparable part of new onto-epistemological, affective and political imaginaries that aim to transform colonial violence into nonimperial ways of living in our common world.