Once you see it, you cannot unsee it: the contradictions of ‘decolonising’ in the UK university

I, a Chilean academic working in a UK university, have often felt that the institutionally supported call to “decolonise” has a contradiction at its heart that is rarely explored. In this paper, from a killjoy (Ahmed) perspective, I call attention to the often obscured (neo)colonial and (neo)liberal dynamics that continue to grant advantages to Global North countries, including placing their universities as preferred destinations for Global South students. Focusing on the UK, and to a lesser extent on the US and Australia, I visibilise the effects of “decolonising” as a primarily epistemic and cultural endeavour, such as comforting critical academics whilst increasing the universities′ marketability. We engage in what I call inconsistent decolonising when our initiatives are politically and economically entangled with neo-colonial and neoliberal practices. Staying with the discomfort of acknowledging this inconsistency and inadequacy in our decolonial efforts might encourage the further work needed for decolonial futures.