Intersections of the Peripheries

How to resist the gap between the demand for justice and the juridical system? How to defend your right to shape the narratives of war experience? How to deal with militarization and military conflicts’ impact on the climate crisis? How to counteract the disintegration of university as a common good?

These questions are fundamental not only for the analysis of the Russian invasion and reconstruction of Ukraine but also for many other countries with colonial oppression experience. That is why the answers should be found at the intersections of the resistance strategies of the oppressed, looking for alternative visions of the future.

In spring 2023 our editorial team initiated a special Dialogues of the Peripheries project. Since then, we have published the voices of many activists and researchers from different regions, from Latin America to East Asia. Now we invite everyone again to our annual conference titled: “Intersections of the Peripheries”. 

The conference will take place online on November 16-17. The program features 4 thematic sections, that will be broadcast on our Facebook-page.

More about the events within the conference:

Violence and justice: Justice in times of war and emergency

November 16th, 15:00 (EET)

The erosion of political institutions in different parts of the world, from the Global South to developed nation-states, provokes new questions about fairness and justice among the citizens, as well as within international institutions. 

Destructive crises - wars, repressions, genocides, hurricanes etc. - almost always demand from national states an implementation of emergency state. That’s when the rights are restrained, and revised, so it gets difficult to distinguish whether it exists or not. Nevertheless, it all happens within wavering international justice mechanisms, when establishing justice depends on the political and economic interests of hegemonic states. 

We invite you to the first panel of our conference to discuss these processes and how to deal with the gap between the demand for justice and justice systems in societies, affected by war and military conflicts.  

Speakers: 

• Gorana Mlinarević, human rights defender, researcher on post-war issues and experiences affecting women, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Elia J. Ayoub, a researcher, writer, journalist, a founder of The Fire These Times podcast as well as co-founder of From The Periphery Media Collective.

• Oksana Pokalchuk, human rights activist, lawyer, former head of international human rights organization Amnesty International Ukraine, Ukraine.

• Kiran Grewal, human rights defender, professor of sociology at Goldsmiths University, India/Sri Lanka.

The discussion will be moderated by a researcher of the Ukrainian Centre of Law and Crime Research and editor of “Commons” Mariia Sokolova.

Registration link

Stolen University: Global Neoliberal Transformation of Higher Education and Academic Labour

November 16th, 18:00 (EET)

The structures, origins and functioning of universities in post-Soviet countries, Latin American countries and other states of the Global South differ significantly. However, there is a global trend towards the precarization of academic work, the commercialization of knowledge and the narrowing of access to higher education. 

During this panel discussion participants will endeavour how to analyze the abovementioned transformations and discover whether the current situation allows for the emergence of a global struggle for the post-capitalist university?

Speakers: 

• Maria Ivancheva, sociologist of higher education and labour. Author of the monograph The Alternative University. Lessons from Bolivarian Venezuela, Bulgaria.

• Nabeel Imtiaz, activist, сo-founder of a Student Union (Estonian Academy of Arts), organizer of political dissent campaigns in Leftist student spheres in Lahore, Pakistan.

• Mykhailo Samsonenko, international law student, coordinator of Socio-legal department of Independent Student Union “Direct Action”, Ukraine. 

• Krystian Szadkowski, researcher of transformations, in particular issues of the public and the common in higher education in Central Eastern Europe, Poland. 

The panel will be moderated by sociologist and editor of “Commons” journal Anastasiia Riabchuk.

Registration link

Violence fast and slow: war, colonialism and climate change

November 17th, 15:00 (EET)

During this panel, we will analyze what are the effects of climate change on places where the legacy of the Soviet colonial project meets the Western capital expansion. We will discuss the environmental consequences of war, how militarization, fossil fuels and climate change are intertwined and how the current political economy impacts these processes.

Speakers: 

• Nikoloz Tsikaridze, paleoanthropologist, environmental activist, researcher of Stone Age archaeology and paleoecology, Sakartvelo.

• Aigerim Kapar, curator, cultural activist, founder of community-based contemporary art platform Artcom, Kazakhstan.

• Iryna Zamuruieva, artist and cultural geographer, researcher of climate adaptation and regional climate policies, Ukraine.

The panel will be moderated by a researcher and editor of “Commons” magazine Yuliia Kishchuk.

Registration link

Knowledge of war: experience, academia, journalism

November 17th, 18:00 (EET)

Knowledge of war experience is passed through personal stories and memories, journalists' reportages, archives, historical books, documentaries and feature films.

But does this knowledge come out of thin air?

The fourth panel of the «Intersections of the Peripheries» conference is framed by structural and political inequalities, that shape the narratives about war experiences: between grassroots activism and political elites, dominant Western academia and local science, media of capitalist centres and stories from “peripheries”. 

Speakers: 

• Dana el Kurd, researcher in political science, working on state-society relations in the Arab world with topics like authoritarianism and international intervention, Palestine.

• Eylaf Bader Eddin, researcher, author of When They Cried ‘Forever’: The Language of the Syrian Revolution in 2018, Syria.

• Darya Tsymbaliuk, artist, researcher of the intersection of environmental humanities and decoloniality, as well as imperial heritage, Ukraine.

• Johana Kotišová, journalist, sociologist, author of “Crisis Reporters, Emotions, and Technology: An Ethnography”, Czech Republic.

The discussion will be moderated by social anthropologist Volodymyr Artiukh.

Registration link

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All panel discussions will happen online and be broadcasted in Zoom rooms, on our Facebook page, and on our YouTube channel.

Those who pre-register for the event will have an access to simultaneous interpretation into Ukrainian and English.

Registration links and details for each panel will be posted on Facebook Events.