Join us on 15 and 17 October for the COLUMN project’s launch event on Universities’ Colonial Legacies
17 September 2025
Heritage Working Group
The Horizon Europe-funded scientific project “Colonial Legacies of Universities: Materialities and New Collaborations – COLUMN” will officially launch on Wednesday, 15 October 2025, from 14:30-17:00 at the Hall of Patriots in the Rectorate Building of Charles University, Prague (Ovocný trh 560/5, Prague 1)
The event will feature a presentation of the project by Gertjan Plets, principal investigator and Associate Professor of Cultural History and Heritage at Utrecht University, as well as a keynote by Loretta Feris, Vice-Principal of the University of Pretoria, with the title Education in Displacement: Universities as Sites of Memory and Change.
In this lecture, Prof. Feris will examine the university as a site of memory, one where colonial legacies persist in curricula, governance structures, and institutional cultures. Far from being neutral institutions, they have historically reinforced hierarchies of power, privilege, and exclusion, even as they presented themselves as engines of progress. Yet she will also consider the university as a site of change, with the potential to reimagine itself in ways that advance fairness, equity, and inclusion. Such transformation requires grappling with tensions among diverse stakeholders—students demanding justice, staff navigating structural constraints, alumni invested in institutional prestige, and donors shaping agendas. By interrogating the university’s complicity in displacement while foregrounding its capacity for renewal, this address will argue for a critical reorientation of higher education: one that is historically attentive, ethically grounded, and committed to reshaping futures in contexts still scarred by colonialism.
João Ramalhos-Santos, Coimbra Group Executive Board Member, will join Věra Jourová, Vice-Rector for the Development of Human Resources and New Technologies at Charles University, in welcoming the audience with opening remarks.
The launch event is open to academics and students interested in cultural history, heritage studies and postcolonial studies. Registration is mandatory via this link. Around 100 participants are expected.
On Friday, 17 October 2025, from 16:30-17:30, you are invited for the screening of the UnRest, a documentary film directed by Professor Siona O’Connell from the University of Pretoria. The documentary examines the aftermath of human remains discovered at Prestwich Street in Green Point, Cape Town during apartment construction nearly two decades ago.
Created as part of the COLUMN project, the film documents the debates that erupted between academic archaeologists asserting expertise and a coalition of memory practitioners, historians, and descendants who demanded these remains be treated as ancestors rather than artifacts. After the screening of the movie, discussion will ensue, moderated by Jan Bělíček, literary critic and commentator.
The screening will take place at the “Chapel” in the Charles University building in Voršilská 1, Prague 1, 5th floor. Registration is mandatory via this link. Around 50 participants are expected.
About COLUMN:
The project addresses the colonial heritage of universities in Europe and beyond. By developing new curatorial practices and artistic collaborations around anthropological collections, botanical gardens, campus spaces, and intangible legacies, COLUMN places academic heritage at the centre of Europe’s decolonisation efforts. Universities, designers, and artists from both Europe and former colonies will collaboratively lead work packages and heritage interventions.
COLUMN builds on the Coimbra Group’s Heritage Working Group activities in this area. The project is coordinated by Utrecht University, with full participation from Coimbra Group members Aarhus, Bologna, Geneva, Graz, and Charles University, and an associated partner, the University of Edinburgh. The consortium is completed by the University of Pretoria, Anton de Kom University of Suriname and STUDIO LOUTER BV.
For more information, visit the project website: https://column-horizon.eu
