Confronting Hierarchies: A Podcast on Decoloniality, Peace, and Conflict

In Episode 3, we will explore what it means to challenge (post)colonial hierarchies in the classroom together with Amya Agarwal and Swati Parashar. The classroom is a space which can serve to promote critical thinking, a space that not only provides the possibility of reimagining the fundamentals of academic disciplines but that also allows for critical  students and radical scholarship to emerge and thrive. Bios: Amya Agarwal is a lecturer of International Relations at the University of Sheffield, UK. Prior to moving to the UK, she was a senior researcher at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, Freiburg, Germany (2021–2023) and a postdoctoral fellow in Duisburg, Germany (2019–2021). She received her PhD from the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, India in 2017. In the past, she has held teaching positions in the University of Delhi, South Asian University, University of Freiburg and University College Freiburg. Amya's research lies at the intersection of gender, conflict and security. In particular, she studies and writes about masculinities, motherhood, art and aesthetics in times of violence and resistance.   Swati Parashar is a Professor of Peace and Development at the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University, Sweden. Her teaching and research have led to academic appointments and fellowships in India, Singapore, the UK, the US, Ireland, Australia, and Sweden. She has also taught at the University of Rwanda in Kigali and at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. Swati is a member of the Swedish Development Research Network and has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of SIDA. Her research interests include feminism, postcolonialism, research methodologies, gender-based violence, famines, and development in South Asia and East Africa. She has published numerous journal special issues, articles, policy papers, and popular media pieces. In 2025, she will be honored as the Distinguished Scholar of the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section at the ISA Convention in Chicago. Further Information and readings: bell hooks (1994): Teaching to transgress: education as the practice of freedom. New York and London. Routledge. [https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-to-Transgress-Education-as-the-Practice-of-Freedom/hooks/p/book/9780415908085?srsltid=AfmBOoooEwd5Z0-DfV5eHdu_bXrSiV9dh3gVDNP86ahNakE87m1Dmsog] Jenny Edkins: “Global Politics” [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781315099118/global-politics-jenny-edkins-maja-zehfuss] as basis of Professor Parashar’s seminar Audre Lorde (1984): “Uses of the Erotic [https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/11881_Chapter_5.pdf]” Audre Lorde and bell hooks as central Black feminist scholars [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-feminism] Swati Parashar (2016): “Feminism and Postcolonialism: (En)gendering Encounters” [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/13688790.2016.1317388?needAccess=true] Swati Parashar (2017): “Feminism Meets Postcolonialism: Rethinking Gender, State and Political Violence” [https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cpcs20/19/4] Conversation with J. Ann Tickner and Phillip Darby (2017) on “Feminism and Postcolonialism: The Twain Shall Meet” [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688790.2016.1317583], edited by Swati Parashar; Video of the conversation [https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=vv-wWhPlsvE&ab_channel=SwatiParashar] Katherine Mayo (1927): “Mother India” [https://press.umich.edu/Books/M/Mother-India2] as an instrument of Indian control and policing bodies Women Peace and Security Agenda (UN) [https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n00/720/18/pdf/n0072018.pdf?OpenElement] promoting the idea of responsibility of Global North to save women. Adopted through Resolution 1325 by the UN Security Council in 2000. 1 in 5 Australian women face intimate partner violence: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Report on Personal Safety [https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/personal-safety-australia/latest-release#cohabiting-partner-violence-emotional-abuse-and-economic-abuse] (2023) Chandra Talpade Mohanty [https://artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/people/faculty/mohanty-chandra-talpade/] and L. H. M. "Lily" Ling [https://thedisorderofthings.com/2018/10/05/lily-ling-a-life-of-courage-and-compassion/] as postcolonial feminists Swati Parashar’s lecture on the coloniality and violence of famines in the Global South [https://www.postcolonial-hierarchies.net/swati-parashar-rethinking-the-coloniality-and-violence-of-famines-in-the-global-south/] Peace Adzo Medie [https://www.peacemedie.com/about]: a feminist and postcolonial scholar who discussed the question of why the burden of decolonising academics lies with non-Whites

In Episode 1, part 2 we discuss the Postcolonial Hierarchies Competence Network (which this podcast is a part of)  and the network’s project of confronting coloniality/modernity dynamics in peace and conflict studies with.... Siddharth Tripathi - Senior Research Fellow at University of Erfurt. As part of his research at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels, he has conducted extensive fieldwork in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Berlin and Brussels. He edited the Rowman and Littlefield Handbook on Peace and Conflict Studies: Perspectives from the Global South (s) which is a collaborative endeavour of scholars from the Global North and the Global South ...and Susanne Buckley-Zistel - Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Executive Director of the Center for Conflict Studies at the Philipps University Marburg. Her main interests lie in (transitional) justice, memory, gender, space and post-colonialism. Links: Achille Mbembe in Decolonizing Knowledge and the Question of the Archive https://wiser.wits.ac.za/system/files/Achille%20Mbembe%20-%20Decolonizing%20Knowledge%20and%20the%20Question%20of%20the%20Archive.pdf [https://wiser.wits.ac.za/system/files/Achille%20Mbembe%20-%20Decolonizing%20Knowledge%20and%20the%20Question%20of%20the%20Archive.pdf]  Agenda of Peace by Boutros Boutros Ghali (1992) as the foundation of the understanding of liberal peace (and development etc.) An agenda for peace : (un.org) [https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/145749] Johan Galtung’s concepts of structural, cultural, and direct violence Short video of Johann Galtung explaining his concepts of violence - YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPugNKYwAAc] Stuart Hall: West/Rest-Dichotomy https://globalsocialtheory.org/thinkers/hall-stuart/ [https://globalsocialtheory.org/thinkers/hall-stuart/] Stuart Hall (1992): The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power hal1995-westa (wordpress.com) [https://analepsis.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/hall-west-the-rest.pdf] Edward W. Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Homi Bhaba as scholars of Postcolonialism Postcolonialism – GLOBAL SOCIAL THEORY [https://globalsocialtheory.org/topics/postcolonialism/] World Systems and Dependency Theory Development theory - Dependency, World Systems, Theories | Britannica Money [https://www.britannica.com/money/topic/development-theory/Dependency-and-world-systems-theories] Aníbal Quijano, Maria Lugones and Walter D. Mignolo as scholars of Decoloniality Decoloniality – GLOBAL SOCIAL THEORY [https://globalsocialtheory.org/topics/decoloniality/] Gurminder Bhambra (2011) (Gurminder K Bhambra – Gurminder K Bhambra (gkbhambra.net) [https://gkbhambra.net/]) on postcolonial and decolonial dialogues Full article: Postcolonial and decolonial dialogues (tandfonline.com) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688790.2014.966414] “Theory is always for someone and for some purpose” - Robert W. Cox: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03058298810100020501 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03058298810100020501]  “Dealing with the Past and Reconciliation (Transitional Justice)” (2019)  https://transitionaljusticehub.org/glhimages/content/Interministerial-Strategy.pdf [https://transitionaljusticehub.org/glhimages/content/Interministerial-Strategy.pdf]  Prof. Cori Wielenga from university of Pretoria who is working on an archive by female mediators Prof Cori Wielenga | University of Pretoria (up.ac.za) [https://www.up.ac.za/political-sciences/article/1820230/dr-cori-wielpolitical-sciencesga] Paulo Freire on everybody’s responsibility to create a more just world Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Zinn Education Project (zinnedproject.org) [https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed/] Paulo Freire (1970), Pedagogy of the Oppressed  [Paulo_Freire]_Pedagogy_of_the_Oppressed(BookFi.org).pdf (amu.edu.et) [https://ds.amu.edu.et/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/12957/%5BPaulo_Freire%5D_Pedagogy_of_the_Oppressed%28BookFi.org%29.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y] Paulo Freire (1992), Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Paulo Freire · Pedagogy of Hope · Pedagogy for Change (pedagogy4change.org) [https://www.pedagogy4change.org/paulo-freire-pedagogy-of-hope/]+ Gloria Anzaldúa as a theorist of hope ANZALDÚA, Gloria E. – GLOBAL SOCIAL THEORY [https://globalsocialtheory.org/thinkers/anzaldua-gloria-evangelina/] The episode was moderated by Abdul Karim Ibrahim  [https://gh.linkedin.com/in/abdul-karim-ibrahim-85914018b] from the institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. We also want to thank our team behind the scenes for the collaboration and contributions. We want to thank Abdul Karim Ibrahim for the introduction to this episode, Aurelio Cossar for the illustration of the cover and Harry and Tom Parfitt for the Jingle. It was inspired by Sheriff Ghale’s piece called “Nni Yeli” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-6BBERzF_8&ab_channel=SheriffGhale].  For the preparation and recording of the podcast, we want to thank Miriam Bartelmann and Harry Parfitt. Furthermore we want to express our gratitude for the assistance on this podcast to Nora Wolf. The equipment was provided by the media center of the University library in Freiburg, while Florian Laurösch from Radio Dreyeckland postproduced the podcast - thank you for the help and collaboration.

In Episode 1, part 1 of our podcast, we focus on coloniality and knowledge production with Manuela Boatcă - Professor of Sociology and Head of the Global Studies Programme at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Manuela has published widely on world-systems analysis, decolonial perspectives on global inequalities, gender and citizenship in modernity/coloniality, and the geopolitics of knowledge in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Her co-authored book, with Anca Parvulescu, titled “Creolizing the Modern. Transylvania Across Empires” was published last year. It has received different international awards and will be available not only in English, but soon also in German, and Romanian. Links: Marx & Engels (1848): Manifesto of the Communist Party Communist Manifesto - Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung (rosalux.de) [https://www.rosalux.de/en/publication/id/50092/communist-manifesto] Migration, slavery and colonialism as the underside of modernity – Enrique Dussel (1998): The Underside of Modernity 332.2002_ingl.pdf (enriquedussel.com) [https://enriquedussel.com/txt/Textos_Articulos/332.2002_ingl.pdf] Credits: The episode was moderated by Abdul Karim Ibrahim  [https://gh.linkedin.com/in/abdul-karim-ibrahim-85914018b] from the institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. We also want to thank our team behind the scenes for the collaboration and contributions. We want to thank Abdul Karim Ibrahim for the introduction to this episode, Aurelio Cossar for the illustration of the cover and Harry and Tom Parfitt for the Jingle. It was inspired by Sheriff Ghale’s piece called “Nni Yeli” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-6BBERzF_8&ab_channel=SheriffGhale].  For the preparation and recording of the podcast, we want to thank Miriam Bartelmann and Harry Parfitt. Furthermore we want to express our gratitude for the assistance on this podcast to Nora Wolf. The equipment was provided by the media center of the University library in Freiburg, while Florian Laurösch from Radio Dreyeckland postproduced the podcast - thank you for the help and collaboration.

In Episode 2, we discuss the "big buzzwords" of postcolonial theory and decolonial thought: what they mean, why and when to use them, and the plurality and diversity within their origins. The guests for this episode were Layla Brown & Filiberto Penados. Bios.: Layla D. Brown is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology & Africana Studies and affiliate faculty in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Layla’s research focuses on Pan-African, Socialist, and Feminist social movements in Venezuela, the US, and the broader African Diaspora. She is working on completing her first book manuscript entitled An Anthropology of Pan-Africanism in the 21st Century, an ethnographic exploration of the rise of Pan-African/Feminist activism and social movements in Venezuela and the United States.  Layla is also the co-host of a new podcast, “Life. Study. Revolution [https://www.youtube.com/@LifeStudyRevolution/featured].” with Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly. Dr. Filiberto Penados is a Co-Founder of CELA Belize and a Maya scholar whose work focuses on indigenous education and development. Dr. Penados has a long history of engaged scholarship with indigenous and local communities in Belize and a wealth of experience leveraging this involvement to create unique learning experiences. Dr Penados has served as a professor at the University of Manitoba, University of Toronto, Galen University, and the University of Belize. He teaches courses on Sustainable Development, Natural Resource Management, and Education, and related fields. He also loves to play the guitar. Links: Postcolonialism as desire, anticolonial as struggle, decolonial as just fancy words – Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui:  CUSICANQUI, Silvia Rivera – GLOBAL SOCIAL THEORY [https://globalsocialtheory.org/thinkers/cusicanqui-silvia-rivera/]   Decoloniality: coloniality and modernity as two sides of the same coin: See e.g. Walter Mignolo: MIGNOLO, Walter – GLOBAL SOCIAL THEORY [https://globalsocialtheory.org/thinkers/mignolo-walter/]   Filliberto Penado’s interview on Belizean TV: Belize National Indigenous Council – Maya in South Belize – YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW_9wvUrhXY]   Juliet Hooker on racism and indigeneity: Juliet Hooker: “The closer you are to being indigenous, to being black, the lower you are in the racial hierarchy” – Nicaraguan Perspectives (nicaperspectives.org) [https://nicaperspectives.org/2020/06/juliet-hooker-the-closer-you-are-to-being-indigenous-to-being-black-the-lower-you-are-in-the-racial-hierarchy/]   Lebohang Pheko on Feminist Economics: L [https://www.ted.com/talks/lebohang_pheko_feminist_economics_is_everything_the_revolution_is_now]ebohang Pheko: Feminist economics is everything. The revolution is now! | TED Talk [https://www.ted.com/talks/lebohang_pheko_feminist_economics_is_everything_the_revolution_is_now]   An interview with Robin D.G. Kelley on universities: The [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/q-and-a/the-meaning-of-african-american-studies] Meaning of African American Studies | The New Yorker [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/q-and-a/the-meaning-of-african-american-studies]   Fernando Sarango on pluriversities: Prof. Dr. Fernando Sarango Macas — Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies – FRIAS (uni-freiburg.de) [https://www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/de/personen/fellows/aktuelle-fellows/sarango-macas] Credits The episode was moderated by Abdul Karim Ibrahim  [https://gh.linkedin.com/in/abdul-karim-ibrahim-85914018b] from the institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. We also want to thank our team behind the scenes for the collaboration and contributions. We want to thank Abdul Karim Ibrahim for the introduction to this episode, Aurelio Cossar for the illustration of the cover and Harry and Tom Parfitt for the Jingle. It was inspired by Sheriff Ghale’s piece called “Nni Yeli” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-6BBERzF_8&ab_channel=SheriffGhale].  For the preparation and recording of the podcast, we want to thank Rebecca Schmidt, Kristine Dünkelsbühler and Miriam Bartelmann. Furthermore we want to express our gratitude for the assistance on this podcast to Adrién Francoise and Johanna Unewisse. The equipment was provided by the media center of the University library in Freiburg, who also postproduced the podcast – thank you for the help and collaboration.