Exploring epistemic plurality at Beyond the Western Lens Conference
CoE MultiBEING Justice researchers Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, Outi Kaarina Laiti and Sini Korja, together with our visiting professor Carl Mika, will participate in the Beyond the Western Lens: Pathways to Decolonising Higher Education Conference at the University of Helsinki on 25 September.
Event description
The Beyond the Western Lens: Pathways to Decolonising Higher Education Conference is grounded in a decolonial approach that examines how the legacy of colonialism continues to shape what is recognised as legitimate knowledge, whose voices are heard within academia, and how universities may reproduce existing power structures.
By encouraging critical reflection on the dominance of Western epistemologies and valuing a wider range of knowledge traditions, the conference addresses questions that are highly relevant to MultiBEING’s research on Indigenous legal traditions, knowledge pluralism and environmental governance. Across our diverse projects, researchers explore the coexistence of diverse knowledge systems, legal traditions and worldviews, and their potential to contribute to more just and sustainable futures.
CoE MultiBEING Justice researchers will participate in Panel C4 Roundtable: Creating Space for Indigenous Knowledge in Academia on Friday 25 September 2026.
Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen (University of Helsinki): Reconfiguring Epistemic Plurality through Indigenous Studies in Helsinki
Outi Kaarina Laiti (University of Helsinki): Relational Pedagogies in an AI-Mediated Academy
Sini Korja (University of Helsinki): How Has Universidad Nacional de Colombia’s Amazon Campus Sought to Integrate Indigenous Knowledge and Methodologies into University Teaching?
Carl Mika (University of Canterbury): Mātauranga Māori and Science
The conference offers an important opportunity for dialogue and exchange among researchers working on decolonisation, Indigenous rights, knowledge diversity and transformative approaches to higher education. We look forward to the discussions and insights that MultiBEING researchers will bring back from the event.
Further information on the conference is available here.
Photo: Beyond Western Lens Conference, Official Conference Image, University of Helsinki.
