An ethnography of “Universiti Alternatif” in Malaysia for (re)imagining higher education otherwise

27,191.70

This project aims to explore alternative approaches to higher education as the sector grapples with global “sustainability” discourses spanning neoliberalism, decolonisation, epistemic injustice and entanglements with environmental and political catastrophes. Utilising a participatory, arts-based ethnography, this project will involve collaboration with students and teachers at Borneo Komrad’s “Universiti Alternatif” initiative in Sabah, Malaysia to document and analyse a grassroots case for (re)imagining sustainable higher education otherwise. Through close attention to the philosophies and aspirations of “Universiti Alternatif” and its community, acts of mutual learning and public dissemination via an ethnographic film, this research project seeks to contribute to decolonial praxis of higher education from the Global South.