Description
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Decolonisation has gained traction as a critical agenda in higher education, research, and public health, particularly in debates on epistemic justice and equity. While existing scholarship critiques colonial legacies in knowledge production and documents, there are still inequalities in global health responses to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola, COVID-19, and Mpox; these debates often proceed in parallel. Few studies have explicitly examined how decolonising teaching and research can strengthen epidemiological preparedness and response to infectious disease threats.
Design/Methodology/Approach: This article adopted a desktop approach and literature review. To collect data, the study selected articles from databases and search engines, including EBSCO, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Sabinet. This synthesised previous work to provide knowledge on the topic.
Findings: The papers showed that reforming curricula to embed indigenous knowledge systems, restructuring research partnerships toward equity, and centring communities in outbreak preparedness are not only moral imperatives but pragmatic strategies for improving public health outcomes in the Global South.
Originality/Value: This paper showed that situating decolonisation as a pathway for building inclusive, contextually grounded, and effective epidemiological practices. By foregrounding the intersections between decolonisation and epidemiological discourse, this paper advances a novel framework that links epistemic transformation to the capacity to respond to twenty-first-century health threats.
Keywords: Decolonisation, Teaching, Research, Infectious Disease, Global South
