Social justice in times of racial saturation with Gaspard Rey
Online reading group via Teams
Wednesday 18 September 2024, 16:00 - 17:30 (BST)
RegisterAbstract
Drawing from political theory and psychosocial studies, this presentation interrogates how antiracist projects organising against the reification of race are used by whiteness and neoliberal capitalism to reinforce social investments into colonial forms of white innocence. Working with anecdotes from activist and cultural spaces, I problematise how racialised understandings of the critiques of the individualisation of antiracist politics end up circumscribing responsibility for individualisation to people resisting racist violence. Consequently, I argue that pedagogical work is needed to short-circuit readings of antiracism and social struggles which tend to push social energies to reinvest into racialising logics of competition and consumption aligned with the State.
Reading
The central text for discussion is:
⇓Noémi Michel (2022) ‘Do you consent to our care?’ From Racial Burden to Black Feminist Dreams. (click to download)
Bio
Gaspard holds a Masters in political theory from the University of Geneva (Switzerland) where he also previously taught. He is currently doing his doctoral research between the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) and the Centre for Race Education and Decoloniality at Leeds Beckett University (UK). He has worked in and out of academia, including in the role of programmer for the Spoutnik Cinema Collective.
From subjects to authors: Reclaiming agency in refugee research and building a publishing praxis with Kirandeep Kaur
Online reading group via Teams
Wednesday 9 October 2024, 18:00 - 19:30 (BST)
RegisterAbstract
This presentation examines the special issue of Displaced Voices which employs a collaborative approach to academic publishing through participatory action research (PAR) with refugee women in Kuala Lumpur. In my PhD research, where I co-wrote narratives examining the lived legal lives of refugees, I referred to this form of co-production in writing as disruptive writing. This issue challenges traditional and colonial research practices that otherwise marginalise the voices of co-researchers like those within my doctoral research. In the special issue, I co-wrote to varying degrees with co-researchers to explain elements of their lives and how their agency challenged certain borders or boundaries. By foregrounding the narratives of refugee women leaders, the issue seeks to dismantle the hierarchical structures of knowledge production. The work hopes to embody how inclusive, co-created research can serve as a form of resistance against epistemic injustice, empowering refugee women to reclaim their stories and assert their agency. The presentation will explore how this collaborative process could support broader decolonial efforts in academia, advocating for a transformation in how research is conducted and whose voices are prioritised.
Reading
Please feel free to look over any elements of the Displaced Voices special edition:
⇓Special Issue: In Their Own Voices, Making Visible Lives of Refugee Women In Kuala Lumpur, ISSN: 2633-2396 (click to view)
Bio
Dr Kirandeep Kaur is a dedicated researcher and educator with experience in participatory action research in law and development, borderscapes and community-led agencies. Holding a PhD in Law and Development (cum laude), her work focuses on voice and transdisciplinary approaches to border studies. She describes herself as accidentally decolonial. She has collaborated extensively with forced migrant communities who seek to articulate their rights and lead change for their communities in Kuala Lumpur.
PREVIOUS READING GROUPS
Thinking with the grain of geography: Dust, desert and storytelling with Aya Nassar
Online reading group via Teams
Wednesday 7 August 2024, 16:00 - 17:30 (BST)
Event passed, minutes to come
(Re-)routing as Methodology: Unpacking the Ambivalent Proximities of Eastern European Whiteness with Špela Drnovšek Zorko
Online reading group via Teams
Wednesday 3 July 2024, 10:00 - 11:30 (BST)
EVENT PASSED, CLICK FOR MINUTES
Decoloniality in South African Language Policy: Resisting Marginalisation of African Language Speaking Children with Xolisa Guzula
Online reading group via Teams
Wednesday 5 June 2024, 16:00 - 17:30 (BST)
EVENT PASSED, CLICK FOR MINUTES
Decolonising Critique: Enfleshing Futurities (M)otherwise with Sara C. Motta
Online reading group via Teams
Wednesday 8 May 2024, 9:00 - 10:30 (BST)
EVENT PASSED, CLICK FOR MINUTES
Religion, modernity, coloniality: Thinking through decolonial Judaism with Santiago Slabodsky
Online reading group via Teams
Thursday 7 March 2024, 16:00 - 17:00 (GMT)
EVENT PASSED
Decolonisation as practice: Reflecting on personal and institutional journeys towards change with Asanda Ngoasheng
Online reading group via Teams
Wednesday 21 February 2024, 14:00 - 15:30 (GMT)
EVENT PASSED, CLICK FOR MINUTES
'Afroscenology and British actors?: Mobilising cultural and linguistic resources in performer training'
Wednesday 31 January 2024, 16:30 (GMT) with Samuel Ravengai, University of the Witwatersrand and Claire French, University of Birmingham
EVENT PASSED, CLICK FOR MINUTES
'Postcolonial memory work is wake work'
Wednesday 6 December 2023, 15:00 (GMT) with Sakiru Adebayo, University of British Columbia
EVENT PASSED, CLICK FOR MINUTES
'What is the Relationship between Modernity and Capitalism?: A Decolonial Approach'
Wednesday 4 October 2023, 18:00 (BST) with Ramon Grosfoguel, UC Berkeley
EVENT PASSED, CLICK FOR MINUTES
