The term ‘colourism’ was coined by Alice Walker in 1982. Walker used the term to refer to forms of light-skin... read more
Maria Sylvia de Carvalho Franco (1930-) is a Brazilian sociologist and philosopher. She was a member of a research group... read more
‘Several generations of Marxists have received a great part of their political education from R. Palme Dutt. He is, as... read more
Aníbal Quijano was a Peruvian sociologist whose body of work contributed, in original ways, to dependency theory in the 1960s... read more
Julius Nyerere was a philosopher, anti-colonial agitator, and teacher who led Tanganyika to independence from Britain in 1961. Endearingly called... read more
“The total configuration of human experience requires other forms” (Black Marxism, 1983, p. 167). Cedric J. Robinson was a... read more
Beatriz Nascimento (1942-1995) was a Black Brazilian theorist, writer and political militant. Her ideas about the symbolic relationship between quilombos... read more
The ‘premature deindustrialization’ thesis advanced by economist Dani Rodrik (2016), de-centres former sites of Fordist manufacturing in the Global North... read more
Over the last decade or so, the term racial neoliberalism has been used in an effort to determine the relationship... read more
For Foucault, the self is discursively produced over time by being subjected to the regulatory power relations of the discourses... read more
The question of subalternity emerges in relation to subordinate social groups and individuals whose historical activity is repressed, neglected, misinterpreted... read more
It is thought that the term ‘racial capitalism’ was first used in a pamphlet published by the anti-Apartheid movement in... read more
The Combahee River Collective (CRC) was a Black feminist lesbian organization active in Boston, United States, from 1974 to 1980.... read more
‘Intercultural translation’, developed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos, refers to the bringing together of different knowledges in different epistemes without... read more
Indigenous research ethics is a collective and diverse set of responses to the way in which research has historically been,... read more
At its most basic, the social contract is an agreement pertaining to the political and moral obligations between the state... read more
The longstanding neglect of colonialism in mainstream criminology has resulted in ahistorical and decontextualised accounts of crime and criminal justice... read more
Can a story about Slavdom and about Poland be told from a postcolonial critique? (Janion 2006:10) Maria Janion (1926-2020)... read more
Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917) was an Indian scholar, merchant, and politician who was a founding member of the Indian National Congress.... read more
Mia Couto (1955-present) is a contemporary African novelist. His work is fertile for its engagement with Mozambican orality, garnering its... read more
José Eduardo Agualusa (1960-present) is an Angolan writer, acclaimed for his novels and journalism. His work is noteworthy for the... read more
The groundwork for the concept of luso-tropicalism was developed by the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre (1900–1987) in a trilogy of... read more
Gilberto Freyre (1900–1987) was born in 1900 in Recife, the principal city in Pernambuco, the oldest region of colonial Brazil.... read more
Madina Tlostanova works through the decolonial modernity/(de)coloniality group’s theorisation and the study of race and gender in Europe and Asia,... read more
Zhang Yiwu is a postcolonial scholar from the People’s Republic of China, who seeks to develop a theoretical language to... read more
The term ‘hip hop feminism’ is associated with performances of feminism within hip hop culture, but also with feminist texts... read more
Pramoedya Ananta Toer is an Indonesian novelist, historian (noted for his works on Indonesian Chinese ethnicity and the history of... read more
Abdullah Öcalan, also known as “Apo,” is a person whose name is at the heart of a controversy, globally, and... read more
Teresia Teaiwa (1968-2017) was an I-Kiribati and African-American South Pacific Studies scholar and poet. As well as a writer, Teaiwa... read more
Epeli Hau’ofa (1939–2009) was a Tongan and Fijian writer and anthropologist. As a writer, Hau’ofa fully took advantage of postmodernism’s... read more
Amartya Kumar Sen is an economist and philosopher who has made a distinctive contribution to the study of political economy,... read more
Romila Thapar (30 Nov 1931-) is an eminent historian with a particular expertise on ancient India. A long-time professor at... read more
Satnam Virdee’s (pictured) ‘racialized outsider’ thesis seeks to ‘stretch’ , in the Fanonian sense, Marxist accounts of capitalism and class,... read more
Alanna Lockward (1961-2019) was a theorist, novelist, curator and documentary filmmaker. She was born in Santo Domingo in 1961, attended... read more
One of a handful of women from Jamaica who enrolled in postgraduate study at the London School of Economics (1926-1931)... read more
Feminist methodologies and epistemologies have not only expanded but also redefined the parameters of the social sciences. These provide a... read more
True reproductive freedom requires a living wage, universal health care, and the abolition of prisons. Black women see the police... read more
Jawaharlal Nehru was independent India’s first Prime Minister (1947 to 1964) and a towering figure of twentieth century world politics.... read more
Ambalavaner Sivanandan was a scholar-activist and novelist who lived between 20 December 1923 and 3 January 2018. Sivanandan made a... read more
Un feminismo que no es antiracista es racista Un feminismo que no es anticlasista es clasista Un feminismo que no... read more
Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui is an Aymara/Bolivian feminist sociologist/historian/activist. She is one of the best known ‘decolonial’ thinkers in Latin America... read more
Gopal Guru pioneered new dimensions in the re-thinking of Dalit discourse with the introduction of critical theory in understanding questions... read more
In her relatively short but highly accomplished academic career, anthropologist Saba Mahmood established herself as a scholar who challenged the... read more
The panoramic work of Achille Mbembe defies categorisation, engaging in subjects as wide-ranging as (post-)modernity, statehood, violence, death, slavery, capital,... read more
Image by Jane Handel bell hooks (*1952) is the pen name used by the American public intellectual, author and activist... read more
Utsa Patnaik challenges orthodox economic histories of Britain’s industrial transition and the relationship between Britain and colonised India. Central to... read more
Born in Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago to lower middle-class black parents one generation removed from emancipation, C. L. R. James... read more
Rita Segato is an Argentinian anthropologist who has written extensively on gender, violence, the gender system in the Yoruba tradition, race,... read more
Decolonial speculative fiction and fantasy is a sub-genre of SFF that emerged in the late 1960s alongside decolonial movements across... read more
Robert D. Bullard (*1946) is a sociologist and environmental justice campaigner, whose work has had a profound impact on theory... read more
Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964) graduated from the Sorbonne in 1925, aged 67, becoming only the fourth African American woman to... read more
Jasbir Puar (*1967) is a queer theorist who primarily works on the intersection of sexuality, race and geopolitics. In particular,... read more
Thomas Sankara (1949-1987) was unique among late 20th century presidents in Africa and beyond. His political leadership was guided by... read more
‘Methodological whiteness’, Bhambra argues, is a way of reflecting on the world that fails to acknowledge the role played by... read more
Chela Sandoval (*1956) is a postcolonial and third world feminist theorist. Her work is concerned with methods of opposition to... read more
The new materialisms are a range of contemporary perspectives in the arts, humanities and social sciences that have in common... read more
Critical race theory refers to a broad social scientific approach to the study of race, racism, and society. Kimberlé Crenshaw... read more
“We can benefit from the enlarged and varied imagination that literature, films, and other cultural products afford us to start... read more
Hortense Spillers is a black feminist theorist, and literary and cultural critic, who is especially known for having written several... read more
Racial formation was coined by sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant in the first edition of their book Racial Formation... read more
In the social sciences, materialism signifies a preoccupation with materiality and material processes, and how these contribute to forming the... read more
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) was an Italian theorist, politician, journalist, and movement organizer whose work is generally linked to Marxist theoretical... read more
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva is a proponent of contemporary critical race theory. Central to his work is the idea that racism is... read more
‘I’d rather believe in the falsity of post-war democracy than the actuality of the Empire of Japan’ Maruyama Masao... read more
Denise Ferreira Da Silva is a critical race scholar whose work emphasises the centrality of race to modern thought. An... read more
“If ever there was a life of lived Pan Africanism, it was that of Amy Ashwood Garvey” (Adi and Sherwood... read more
Maria Lugones is a sociologist and feminist philosopher who is part of the modernity / coloniality school of thought. She... read more
Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ greatest contribution to social theory is in recognising plural epistemologies, systems and ways of knowing. Graduating... read more
“Tell no lies. (…) Claim no easy victories” (Amilcar Cabral, 1965) If there was ever such a thing... read more
Syed Farid Alatas (June 1961-) is a contemporary Malaysian sociologist and associate professor of sociology at the National University of... read more
Gayatri C. Spivak first came to international renown with her 1976 translation of Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology and, more specifically,... read more
According to Eurocentric narratives the concept of cosmopolitanism has a rich lineage beginning its life with Diogenes’ (c. 412 BC... read more
A very large segment of Shari’ati’s work is concerned with Marxism, thought in the ‘loosest sense’ (Connell 2007: 128) of... read more
Maurice Bishop (21 May 1943 – 19 October 1983) was the charismatic and revolutionary leader of the New Jewel Movement... read more
Food Sovereignty is a term that refers to both a movement and an idea (Wittman et al., 2010) however, as... read more
Food security is an essentially contested concept, recently receiving renewed attention in news articles, TV programmes, radio broadcasts and parliamentary... read more
Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (1942-2004) was a scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory and queer theory. Her works include the... read more
Critical constructivism extends and adjusts constructivism, which opposes positivism and asserts that nothing represents an objective, neutral perspective. Merging constructivist... read more
The coloniality of gender builds upon the coloniality of power, as developed by leading theorists in the decoloniality group, Aníbal... read more
Many of Watsuji Tetsurō’s (1889–1960) reflections on the nature of being human were developed in the context of a dialogue... read more
Maryse Condé (*1937) is a francophone writer from Guadeloupe who can be described as a novelist-theorist. In her historical fiction... read more
Edouard Glissant (1928 – 2011) was a Martinican poet, novelist and theorist. He is especially known for his “Poetics of... read more
Attempts to create a ‘postcolonial sociology’ are likely to fail to the extent that it remains purely academic and without... read more
Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a Kenyan novelist, playwright and literary critic. His novels include Weep Not, Child (1964), The River... read more
Audre Lorde, the daughter of immigrants from the West Indies, was an American poet and writer. Lorde’s work can be... read more
Paulo Freire was a Brazilian educationalist and philosopher whose radical ideas about pedagogy, learning and knowledge led to the establishment... read more
Transnationalism refers to the diffusion and extension of social, political, economic processes in between and beyond the sovereign jurisdictional boundaries... read more
If this farm had not been ravaged I could have become an olive tree or a geography teacher or an... read more
Postmodernism is a late twentieth century intellectual and artistic movement that is associated with a range of conflicting interpretations. No... read more
Settler colonialism is a distinct type of colonialism that functions through the replacement of indigenous populations with an invasive settler... read more
Patrick Wolfe is an Australian anthropologist and ethnographer whose work sparked a surge in studies of settler colonial societies. Wolfe... read more
A while ago, I crowd-sourced suggestions for films to show alongside a module I will be teaching next year on... read more
Enrique Dussel (b. 1934) has made innovative contributions to a number of fields, including the philosophy of liberation, ethics, political... read more
Sheila Sen Jasanoff (*1944) is a foundational figure in Science and Technology Studies (STS). The STS wiki project regards her... read more
Vandana Shiva (*1952) is an Indian philosopher of science, physicist and an environmental activist. She is most known for her... read more
The life of Paul Celan (1920-1970), born Paul Antschel, was marked by tragedies that would come to have a decisive... read more
This post highlights recent articles that seek to understand the Greek debt crisis in global perspective. If you have suggestions... read more
Neoliberalism defies a singular definition, in large part because of its broad application across a variety of disciplines, and as... read more
“I wish you could know what it means to be me, then you’d see, you’d agree, everybody should be... read more