Misryoum reports on Istanbul’s World Decolonization Forum, cultural events, and film screenings connecting global debates on knowledge and power.
Istanbul is set to become a focal point for global debates on power and knowledge, as the World Decolonization Forum takes place on May 11–12.
The event will bring together academics. intellectuals. and activists from across Africa. South Asia. Latin America. the Middle East. and Western critical traditions.. According to Misryoum. the forum is designed to spark cross-disciplinary dialogue around how societies understand history. culture. and the systems that shape them.
A forum of this scale matters because it moves decolonization from a purely academic idea into a wider public conversation, where institutions, cultural narratives, and everyday power relations are all open to questioning.
The World Decolonization Forum will be held at the Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM).. Misryoum notes that the program will include more than 70 academic papers and runs alongside decolonial art exhibitions. with cultural programming meant to complement the intellectual discussions rather than sit apart from them.
For those looking to engage through another medium. Misryoum says the Decolonization Film Festival will also be held during the same week at Atlas Sineması.. The film screenings are intended to extend themes from the forum. offering participants and audiences a different way to examine culture. memory. and influence.
In this context, pairing research sessions with art and film reflects a key challenge at the heart of many decolonization conversations: how ideas travel, who gets to narrate them, and what forms of expression help communities contest dominant accounts.
Organizers say the combined events aim to create a rare and candid space for dialogue on global knowledge systems. culture. and power.. Misryoum reports that Esra Albayrak. chair of the NÛN Foundation for Education and Culture. said the invitation extends to anyone who believes human heritage should not be reduced to a single narrative.
Albayrak’s analysis. shared in connection with the forum. argues that colonialism has not disappeared since the 1960s and that postcolonial studies have not yet fully mapped how colonial structures persist in today’s global order.. She also raises concerns about the trajectory of human rights discourse. describing it as sometimes trapped in frameworks tied to domination. and critiques the concentration of intellectual authority that can shape meaning from a single center.. In her view. leading universities and international legal institutions should be examined for how they contribute to ongoing crises and hegemonic systems of knowledge.
This matters beyond Istanbul because it underscores a broader question many communities are asking worldwide: when global systems claim to represent universal values, who defines the terms, and whose perspectives get sidelined.
For more updates, Misryoum will continue to follow developments around the forum and related programming in the city.