Racism, Imperialism and Decolonization in International Relations

When: Monday 26 October 2020, 6.30-8.00pm
Where:  Online via Zoom or live streamed on Facebook

The panel will address four key questions related to International Relations as a mainstream academic discipline and racialised politics. Why might Black Lives Matter be a subject for scholars of IR or world politics? Has the discipline acknowledged its original sin in terms of erasing non-Western history in helping to shape international society? Has IR taken seriously the colonial histories that were constitutive of the formation of modern states? How can IR be democratised without wrestling with the history of racialised international political analysis and racism in general?

Speakers:
Nivi Manchanda, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in International Politics at the School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary, University of London

Olivia Umurerwa Rutazibwa, Senior Lecturer in European and International Development Studies, University of Portsmouth

Musab Younis, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary, University of London

Christopher Murray, Lecturer in War and Conflict Studies at the Baltic Defence College, Tartu, Estonia

Chair: Karen E Smith, Professor of International Relations, LSE

This online public event is free and open to all but pre-registration is required (after 10am via Zoom on Monday 12 October).

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Martin Wight Memorial Lecture 2020
The Decolonial Project of Europe: From Colonial Histories to Postcolonial Reparations

When: Wednesday 11 November 2020, 3.30-4.30pm
Where:  Online via Zoom
Speaker: Gurminder K Bhambra is Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex

This event is part of an ongoing series of Martin Wight Memorial Lectures hosted in turn by LSE, University of Sussex and Chatham House. This year the lecture is being hosted by the University of Sussex.

Professor Bhambra will set out the ‘varieties of colonialism’ at the heart of the European project and asks what a decolonial project of Europe would look like. She argues it would be one that makes the colonial histories of Europe central to our understandings of its present and which seeks redress of the injustices associated with that history through postcolonial reparative action.

More information and register to attend via Zoom

The Pandemic as a Portal: mobilization, activism and opportunities for structural change following crisis and upheaval

When: Thursday 19 November 2020 6:30pm to 8:00pm
Where: Online via Zoom or live streamed on Facebook

A burgeoning body of scholarship shows that activists can exploit opportunities created by war, upheaval, and economic collapse to leverage transformative social change. Precisely because they are so destructive, moments of crisis can upend existing social and political hierarchies and create new spaces for mobilization and structural change. How can activists leverage this moment to advance the representation and inclusion of communities most marginalized by status quo politics?

Speakers:

Nonhlanhla Makuyana, a facilitator, organiser and artist with a passion for reclaiming erased histories of marginalised peoples as central to transformative social change.

Natalya Naqvi, assistant professor in International Political Economy at LSE. 

Sakina Sheikh, climate activist and Lewisham councillor.

Chardine Taylor Stone, award winning cultural producer, writer and feminist activist. 

Chair: Milli Lake, assistant professor of International Relations in the Department of International Relations. She co-directs the Women's Rights After War project

This online public event is free and open to all but pre-registration is required (after 10am via Zoom on Thursday 5 November).

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