[Video] Interview Zwijgen is Geen Optie

** now with English and Dutch subtitles** (massive thanks to Sam de Vocht). In September 2019 I was blessed to sit down with Anthony Bosschem and Tom Mahy from Zwijgen is geen optie (‘Not speaking up is not an option’) – I forgot how gratifying it is to sit across from people who actually want to…

E-IR Black History Month Interviews

28 October 2019 — To celebrate Black History Month e-IR.info asked several scholars about race and IR: Do you think the discipline of IR has made important strides to equally incorporate the research, ideas and histories of People of Colour, both conceptually and institutionally? What could be done better? Below is the interview edited by…

On Babies and Bathwater – full TEXT

On December 7th 2017 I gave a Sussex Development Lecture in which I offer a conversation between personal experiences, reflections and decolonial scholarship to reflect on the fundamental, practical, institutional and epistemological implications of recognising the coloniality in the international development project. When we seek to part with the coloniality but not with the desire…

[Video] On Babies and Bathwater: Decolonising Development Studies

In this Sussex Development Lecture (7 December 2017), I offer a conversation between personal experiences, reflections and decolonial scholarship to reflect on the fundamental, practical, institutional and epistemological implications of recognising the coloniality in the international development project. When we seek to part with the coloniality but not with the desire and imperative of global…

Letter from my student. Why #DecolonisingEducation matters.

This is a letter I received from one of my graduating undergrad students in International Development Studies this July 21, 2017 at the University of Portsmouth. However deeply flattering (as well as resonating so much with my own journey) these words are to me personally, this ain’t no bragging exercise. I share my student’s words…

Het bruingemaakte vrouwenlijf: intiem kruispunt van geweld

(This essay was first published online on March 1st 2017 on MO*.be and written for the Spring print edition of MO* Magazine.) Er is een bijna obsessionele aandacht voor “de bevrijding van moslimvrouwen” in Europa, maar tegelijk lijkt men vaak niet geïnteresseerd in de vraag of al die aandacht islamitische en gekleurde vrouwen echt vooruithelpt….

Migration and the Need to Decolonize (Hegemonic Thought)

(This short piece was written in the Summer of 2016 for the Global Dialogues publication of the Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg, Germany during my visiting Fellowship there. You find the full publication here.) Looking at the world from and in Europe today, the old continent seems to be grappling with…

[MO* Essay] De erfenis van #BlackLivesMatter

(first published on August 10th 2015 on MO*.be) Dr. Olivia Rutazibwa bekijkt de erfenis van #BlackLivesMatter en wat we hieruit kunnen leren in België en de rest van Europa. ‘De idee dat niet-Europeanen niets bijdragen of hebben bijgedragen en nu simpelweg aanspoelen om te komen profiteren, openbaart zich als een gevaarlijke absurditeit die enkel haat, uitsluiting en…