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- Convenors:
-
Helina Shebeshe
(SOAS University of London)
Althea-Maria Rivas (SOAS University of London)
Angela Haynes (University of Sussex)
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- Chair:
-
Althea-Maria Rivas
(SOAS University of London)
- Format:
- Experimental format
- Stream:
- Decolonisation and development
- Location:
- B305, 3rd floor Brunei Gallery
- Sessions:
- Friday 28 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This is an experimental workshop for researchers of African descent, or, working on race and development, that interrogates what means to research, teach, study and implement development initiatives as a person of African descent or when we take race seriously. Non-traditional presentations welcome.
Long Abstract:
There is a dearth of Black academics in the UK. The HESA report (2020) showed that less than 1% of UK professors are Black, dispelling the myth of a colour-blind meritocracy. In development studies and practice Black scholars and professionals have often found their views marginalised in an environment where a commitment to social justice and lately decolonising is professed. The House of Commons report into racism in the aid sector (2022), concluded 'racism manifests in the very structure of international aid'. The UN Decade for People of African Descent, BLM and the murder of George Floyd have contributed to a period of self-reflection about the manifestations and impact of racism globally. But now at the end of the UN Decade (2024) what does it mean to research, teach, study and implement development initiatives? This workshop will examine these issues from the perspective of scholars whose positionality is Black, or those researching race and development. It will be a safe space to discuss experiences and strategies for navigating the development space while Black and/ centring race. Examples of key questions are:
-How do Black researchers and development practitioners experience the development sector or discipline?
-How does a commitment to social justice within development teaching, research and practice manifest when taking race seriously?
-What is the relationship between reparations, restitution, and development?
-Why isn't my professor Black?
This experimental fireside workshop welcomes traditional presentations and creative works, poetry, spoken word, personal reflections, etc. Early career researchers are particularly encouraged to participate.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 28 June, 2024, -Paper short abstract:
Black researchers in the UK face stories of race, class, colonisation, social justice, poverty, religion, ethnicity and identity that can impact their emotions. This paper reflects on the challenges and emotions I experienced within academia during my PhD research journey.
Paper long abstract:
Understanding how a researcher’s positionality and emotions impact knowledge production is important in the social sciences. Black researchers in the UK face stories of race, class, colonisation, social justice, poverty, religion, ethnicity and identity that can impact their emotions. This paper reflects on the challenges and emotions I experienced within academia during my PhD research journey. My PhD was about Identity, transnational, translocal Activities and Intergenerational Relationships for Young Zimbabweans in the UK. I argue that the difficulties black women face is a ‘survival’ attitude navigating academia and activism, let alone being made to feel like outsiders. They also have to work hard in the UK academic spaces as activists on race and social justice issues to promote and decolonise knowledge while at the same time, they are expected to achieve excellence in their research work. It is also to recognise the power dynamics of whiteness in educational spaces in the UK and that there are also few black female geographers in my discipline, marking lesser representation in academia. I address this by looking at if there is a ‘We’ in feminism and activism. Suppose there was a ‘WE’ as women academics who address gender inequalities. Why are black students and black women in UK universities struggling with racism and discrimination continuing to be entrenched in systems within higher education?
Paper short abstract:
An autoethnographic account of how positionality in my research has hindered the quality of interviews during field data collection.
Paper long abstract:
South Africa is often referred to as the Rainbow Nation, a term coined by the revered Archbishop Tutu. The term was an attempt at rebranding the country after the dark past of Apartheid. Policies, such as Black Economic Empowerment were implemented to encourage more diversity in industries such as agriculture. While analysis of food systems in South Africa debate the outcomes of these policies (McEwan and Bek, 2009; Visser and Ferrer, 2015), it remains a white dominated field and the research participants for my work on south african value chains are not a rainbow selection - among the 7 interviews conducted only 2 were women and only one person of color. Conducting the research as a black Zimbabwean women, meant positionality, defined as when the researcher and the researched hold different unequal positions of power and privilege, class, ethnicity (Charmaz, Thornberg and Keane, 2018) had an effect throughout the field collection.
While there are many impacts this has on the research, a reoccurring phenomena was that research participants felt that the interviewer did not have sufficient technical agricultural knowledge or empathy with their experiences. In an attempt to minimize this impact a trained technical observer was present, however, this resulted in instances where the observer and the participant would speak in Afrikaans and without the skills to translate, the researcher was left to be an outsider. Turning to my white supervisory team, I often blush with embarrassment at how I may be to black to hold the research light.
Paper short abstract:
As a mid-career African academic in the UK in the discipline of development studies, I want to reflect on the "triple hurdles" I face. The hurdles are epistemic orientation, language, and passport positionality
Paper long abstract:
The challenges associated with epistemic orientations emanate from the hegemony of Eurocentric epistemologies in development studies. The universalist claim of Europe-centred knowledge frameworks, theories and concepts contributes to disregarding and discrediting ways of knowing and interpretations of the world I have been exposed to growing up in Ethiopia. I would like to share my experience of bringing non-Eurocentric epistemic orientations into my teaching and research. The second hurdle about language concerns normalising English as the only language for producing academic output recognised and valued in evaluating my academic success and achievements. The incentives to produce academic outputs in languages other than English are almost nonexistent. As a result, aspiring academics like me are discouraged from producing knowledge outputs easily accessible by most people from whom the empirical data is gathered and about whom most research in development studies is apparently concerned. The third hurdle is an outcome of systemic inequality that academics from the global south are experiencing because of their nationality/passport which restricts their social and physical mobility. In addition to the challenges associated with immigration policies in the UK (vast sums of money paid in the process of renewing visas, including their families), most academics from the global south invest lots of money, time, and psychological resources when they plan to travel for academic activities (Visa applications). I want to reflect on how the implications of these “triple hurdles” can be further explored within the context of pursuing social and epistemic justice within the field of development studies.
Paper short abstract:
I plan to highlight the manifestation of notions of race based on my academic research findings on African diaspora development activities and arising from my 25+ years of experience as a Black development practitioner in the 'mainstream' of the development industry.
Paper long abstract:
The longstanding silence on issues of 'race' within the development sector has been deafening. I will look at:
- Assumptions about the lack of racialisation in the sector's recruitment and staffing processes; the behaviour of the staff; and the activities carried out by development organisations;
- the marginalisation of African diaspora organisations as development actors which has been masked by the use of apparently positive responses which function as smokescreens that explain the lack of engagement between mainstream and diaspora development organisations while masking the racialised reality;
- the teaching of development which allows for the discussion of 'white saviourism' and encouragement of self-reflection of all students, coexisting alongside the substitution of euphemistic terms such as 'the West', and 'westerners' and avoiding dilutes the relevance
Mode of delivery: oral presentation