Racism in development: How much do Black lives matter in global development

The public 25 May killing of George Floyd by white police galvanised mass action and protests in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. It acted as a catalyst for an urgent re-examination of the legacy of colonial and imperial history. Civil society activists are now intensifying calls for the systemic racism that is a legacy of colonial and imperial history to be unpacked, exposed and confronted. As part of our work for social justice and equity, we invite you to join the conversation as we ask ‘How much do Black lives matter in Global Development?’

This event is free and open to all. It will be chaired by LIDC’s Director, Professor Claire Heffernan, and there will be time for Q+A with the discussants following their presentations

Speakers:

Dr Kalpana Wilson (Birkbeck University)

Kalpana Wilson is a Lecturer in Geography and her research explores questions of race/gender, labour, neoliberalism, and reproductive rights and justice, with a particular focus on South Asia and its diasporas. She is the author of ‘Race, Racism and Development: Interrogating History, Discourse and Practice’ (Zed Books, 2012) and has published widely on race, gender, international development, women’s agency and rural labour movements.

Dr Rivas focuses on exploring the politics of development, conflict, humanitarian intervention and peace through the lens of the everyday. Her work goes beyond traditional state-centric investigations into development, peace and security and links the local to the global by interrogating everyday relationships, affect and identity. A central theme in her work is intersectionality, specifically the racialised and gendered nature of processes of aid, post-conflict reconstruction and social justice. Her insights are the resuls of extensive fieldwork areas in affected by conflict and international intervention. Consequently, she has developed an academic interest in research ethics and methodologies. Some of which are explored in Fieldwork Interrupted: Experiences with Violent Research and Researching Violence (2018).

Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey (Oxford University)

Dr. Robtel Neajai Pailey is a Liberian academic, activist and author of the forthcoming monograph Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia (Cambridge University Press, 2021). With more than 15 years of combined personal and professional experiences at the intersection of scholarship, policy and practice in Africa, Europe and North America, she has expertise in the political economy of development, migration, conflict, post-war recovery and governance. Previously an Ibrahim Leadership Fellow at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Robtel currently serves as Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of International Development (ODID) in Oxford, UK, where she conducts research on race, citizenship, ‘South-South’ migration and development cooperation in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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