Interrogating Australia-Africa academic partnerships: does marginality create space to rethink and innovate practice?

Abstract

This article interrogates contexts for and practices of academic partnership between Australia and Africa. This relationship sits at the margins of scholarship on global North–South dynamics, reflecting relatively limited empirical engagement as well as the ambiguous geopolitical identity of Australia. Africa’s peripheral location in both Australian foreign policy and in the global strategies of most Australian universities creates an opportunity to rethink the practice of academic partnerships in ways that have the potential to innovate and avoid replicating negative historical patterns. The article draws on decoloniality theory and methods to assess the objectives and impacts of Australia-Africa academic partnership initiatives.