CGHR Michaelmas 2021 Events

With a hybrid approach to the new academic year, our events will still be taking place online. Hopefully, that allows for many of you far and wide to stay connected. These events will take place on Zoom and require pre-registration via the links below. 

Book Launch: Searching for a New Kenya: Politics and Social Media on the Streets of Mombasa, Stephanie Diepeveen
Wednesday 10 November - 17:00

• From the electoral surprises of 2016 to COVID-19, democracy appears to be in crisis. The digitalisation of politics poses a particular challenge to democracy, as misinformation abounds and citizens are swept up in conspiracies. In Searching for a New Kenya, Stephanie Diepeveen asks, “What happens to the democratic public sphere as it shifts from in-person to online channels?” Drawing from ethnographic study of popular politics on the street and on social media in Kenya, Dr Diepeveen finds that while pessimism about digital democracy is premature, some critical aspects of public debate are sacrificed in the shift online. Through a critical revision of Hannah Arendt's ideas about action and power, this book explores the limitations and possibilities of using the Western canon to interrogate politics elsewhere. In so doing, this book raises important questions about both how we study politics, and what is lost and gained as public discussion moves online.

At the Crossroads: The Digital Rights Movement in Times of Data Coloniality, Sebastián Lehuedé
Wednesday 24 November 17:00

• In recent years, researchers and activists have denounced the complicity of data-intensive technologies with the asymmetries that emerged in parallel with European colonialism. Dynamics of economic dispossession and the undermining of alternative ways of thinking are part of the phenomenon of ‘data coloniality’. Sebastián’s talk addresses relevant questions regarding resistance under data coloniality, asking who should carry out this process and how.

CANCELLED The Rights of People with Disabilities in the Climate Crisis,  Sébastien Jodoin
Wednesday 1 December - 17:00

• Although they form 15% of the world’s population, people with disabilities continue to be neglected in the world’s efforts to combat the climate crisis. Institutional, economic, and social barriers engender and exacerbate the vulnerability of disabled people to the impacts of climate change unfolding around the world. Policies to reduce carbon emissions may in of themselves create or reinforce barriers for disabled people, such as the construction of inaccessible mass transit systems or bans on single-use plastics. However, under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, states are obliged to respect, protect, and fulfil the rights of persons with disabilities when taking action on climate change. In this talk, Dr. Jodoin will discuss what states should do to design and implement disability-inclusive climate policies.