Professor Candace M. Moore, a Clinical Professor at the University of Maryland, USA, has called for urgent and sweeping reforms in global higher education with a view to decolonising academic practices and knowledge production.
Delivering a public lecture at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), on Thursday, June 26, Prof. Moore urged academics, policymakers, and institutions worldwide to challenge entrenched Western ideologies.
She further encouraged the adoption of Black liberatory practices that promote culturally grounded, inclusive approaches to teaching and learning.
The lecture themed “Using Black Liberatory Practices to Advance International Collaborations” attracted a wide array of scholars, students, and educational stakeholders.
Prof. Moore stressed that the decolonisation of learning is not just necessary but overdue.
“Black liberation for me holds three anchors: freedom, collectivism, and ancestral knowing,” she said, adding that these values compel societies to “actively engage in dismantling oppressive laws, practices, and ways of knowing and being.”
Central to her message was the concept of “restorying” – a transformative process of reclaiming and retelling history from African perspectives.
Drawing from decolonial theory and her ongoing Fulbright research in Ghana, Prof. Moore highlighted how culturally conscious pedagogy is taking root among Ghanaian faculty and practitioners.
She referenced collaborative efforts such as study-abroad initiatives and a transnational classroom project between the University of Maryland and Ghanaian universities.
UPSA’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation, and Knowledge Transfer, Professor Samuel Antwi, described the lecture as a “timely academic engagement”.
He commended Prof. Moore for her insights, emphasising the need for African institutions to affirm the cultural foundations of knowledge and support inclusive pedagogical reforms.
Prof Antwi reinforced the urgency to decolonise education and create global systems that honour diverse histories, voices, and ways of knowing.
The public lecture was organised by the UPSA Research and Consultancy Centre. It formed part of Prof. Moore’s broader Fulbright research collaboration with Ghanaian and American scholars, aimed at exploring how faculty in Ghana are integrating culturally conscious practices in higher education.
