Join us for the third session of the Decolonise Sociology Committee on Friday 22 November @ 1pm in Room E (17 Mill Lane)
In the first half of this session, we will discuss the recent occupation of Kashmir, and the links between the occupation, (neo)colonialism and climate crisis.
In the second half of the session, the different working groups will be encouraged to report back on their activity this term and present their plans for next term.
Required reading:
- Ripple, W. J. et al. 2019. World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency (4 pages).
- Bhan, Mona. 2018. Jinn, Floods, and Resistant Ecological Imaginaries in Kashmir (8 pages).
Bhan is a Kashmiri feminist who describes the connections between the occupation of Kashmir, gender and ecological disaster. In particular, Bhan considers the role of the occupation and the link that caused floods in the regions through dams that ruined the livelihood of many Kashmiris.
Recommended viewing:
- The Kashmir conflict, explained. A video that explains the origin and history of the conflict and occupation in Kashmir (8 mins).
Second Session (Friday 1 November 2019)
This university was more bothered about covering the incident up to maintain a “spotless” reputation, than it was about tackling racism, sexism, or homophobia.
Racial harassment in higher education: our inquiry (EHRC)
In 2018, Dr Mónica Moreno Figueroa and Dr Ella McPherson launched the “End Everyday Racism” project with two aims in mind. The first was to generate knowledge about how everyday racism works in a higher education institution, specifically the University of Cambridge. The second was to inform the work of student and staff antiracist activism in the University pushing the agenda for institutional change and test reporting technology for advocacy research.
In this meeting, we will continue the discussion on the role of sociology in addressing the climate crisis through the recent work of Bruno Latour.
We’ll also consider responses to embedded and institutional racism in relation to the new report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and Dr Mónica Moreno Figueroa will introduce the “End Everday Racism” project.
Required reading: Bruno Latour. “Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime” (pages 1-39). You can find a review of the book here.
Futher resources: EHRC Report Summary “Universities oblivious to scale of racial abuse on campus” (5 mins) and Runneymede Report “Aiming Higher: Race, Inequality and Diversity in the Academy” (summary video below)
First session (Friday 11 October 2019)
Required reading: “The role of Sociology in the Climate Crisis: Our Teaching” (5 mins)
Think especially about the “starting points for discussion” and how we can raise the visibility of the problem of climate change and what the Department and the discipline can do to develop solutions.
Recommended viewing: “I want you to panic: Greta Thunberg issues climate warning at Davos” (3 mins) and “Wake up, Freak Out – then get a grip” (12 mins).
After the meeting we will go to the book panel with the authours of “A FLY Girl’s Guide to University: Being a women of colour at Cambridge and other intitutions of power and elitism”. Read the event details at: https://www.sociology.cam.ac.uk/fly-girls-book-panel
The next meetings of the Decolonise Sociology Committee will be on Friday 1 November and Friday 22 November, also at 1pm in Room E, 17 Mill Lane.
Decolonise Sociology @ Cambridge 