Announcement on a webinar: Toward Epistemic Emancipation: Research Universities and Academic Renaissance in the Global South

You are invited to an exciting BDI webinar featuring Professor Syed Saad Andaleeb, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Marketing, Pennsylvania  State University, 3rd Vice-chancellor of BRAC University 

Toward Epistemic Emancipation: Research Universities and Academic Renaissance in the Global South Moderator: Prof. Munir Quddus 

Saturday, August 22, 2026 10:00 am USA (Central); 9:00 pm Dhaka, Bangladesh, 

via Zoom: https://american.zoom.us/j/7905913249?omn=93091477184  

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“Bangladesh lacks visibility as a scholarly society…[with] a relatively disjointed and poorly institutionalized field of knowledge production” (Van Schendel, 2019). This searing observation ought to awaken all Bangladeshis in the academic world. Where China was once at par with Bangladesh on academic metrics in the 1960s, it has overtaken the United States today in research production, both in total scientific output and in top-tier, high-impact publications. Tsinghua University and Peking University have breached the enclave of the top-20 in academic rankings.  

Nations today are competing for knowledge supremacy with an intensity comparable to earlier eras of competition for territory, markets, and military power. Unlike those earlier contests, the race for knowledge is quieter and more diffuse. Yet, it is far more consequential—because it determines who will shape the future of technology, economy, culture, and global influence.  

Knowledge supremacy is not just about intellectual prestige; it is a strategic endeavor driven by economic, geopolitical, cultural, and existential imperatives. Knowledge supremacy (independence) is not just about being smart, it’s about being sovereign, secure, and future-ready. One might detect a shadow of colonialism, today, in how knowledge is created, valued, controlled, and disseminated. The control of knowledge goes beyond territorial and proxy control to the control of consciousness and reasoning.  

Today our educational institutions have largely adopted Western intellectual paradigms. Consequently they suffer from suppressed traditions, delegitimized histories, borrowed knowledge, and externally validated scholarship. In other words, they continue to operate within intellectual traditions and frameworks that are not our own. Such paradigms have become entrenched as the primary means of interpreting the modern world: its science, education, governance, development, social organization, culture, and laws. These frameworks, often presented as universal, marginalize alternative ways of interpreting, thinking, and knowing. They also shape and encourage a particular strain of thinking which, in their subtlety, create dependence. This, in essence, is epistemic colonization.  

Prof. Andaleeb’s recently published book, Research Universities and Academic Renaissance in the Global South: Lessons from Bangladesh, engages this very issue. He goes on to offer a lens through which to understand how higher education systems in postcolonial contexts in the Global South remain tethered to colonial structures of thought and practice that create asymmetries and dependencies to perpetuate the West’s colonial aspirations, enabling it to exert influence and exact a heavy price. In summarizing the book, its essence boils down to a call for epistemic emancipation—for intellectual independence through the deliberate construction of research-intensive spaces, i.e., universities, that adopt and adapt local knowledge that serve local needs—followed by epistemic integration. 

The webinar explores the need to transform thinking in the universities of the South through research, continuous innovation, and solving challenging problems. It promises limitless opportunities to individuals, institutions, and nations that possess locally developed knowledge. Prof. Andaleeb contends that the Global South must develop its own countervailing knowledge assets, best expressed through establishing a few high-quality research universities at the outset, with political support, significantly enhanced funding for research, attracting top talent, and promoting a strong research culture that values curiosity, creativity and commitment. The state of Bangladesh’s universities provides a canvas to examine the challenges facing research in the region that developing nations can address imaginatively to expedite building a knowledge edifice for self-reliance and national pride.  

About Prof. Syed Saad Andaleeb    

Dr. Syed Saad Andaleeb, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Pennsylvania State University, has nearly 50 years of experience in higher education in the U.S. and Bangladesh. A former Vice Chancellor of BRAC University, he holds a PhD in Marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research has appeared in leading journals such as the Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Social Science & Medicine, and Studies in Higher Education among others. His recent books include Research Universities and Academic Renaissance in the Global South (Brill, 2025), Reimaging the University: Best Practices for Higher Education in Bangladesh (edited, UPL 2026), and Strategic Marketing Management in Asia (second edition, Emerald, 2026). He is the founding editor of the Journal of Bangladesh Studies. A Fulbright Scholar, he contributed to strengthening academic excellence and institutional capacity at BRAC University, East West University, and Independent University. He articulated the chapter on Research for the University Grants Commission’s Strategic Plan for Higher Education 2018-2030 and served on the 22-member panel for the Planning Commission Bangladesh for the  8th Five Year Plan, July 2020-June 2025. 

About Bangladesh Development Initiative

 Bangladesh Development Initiative (BDI) is a research think-tank based in the United States. Its members include scholars and professionals committed to supporting development initiatives in Bangladesh aimed at improving the quality of life for all its citizens. BDI engages in and facilitates scholarly exchange between Bangladesh and overseas scholars through educational programs, an academic peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Bangladesh Studies, and a book publication program. BDI also regularly organizes conferences to promote new and relevant research on Bangladesh and provide a forum for debating policy alternatives pertaining to Bangladesh. For more information on BDI, please visit the BDI homepage.