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The Bodies that don't count: Understanding the Coloniality of Violence in our Times

Discussion between Swati Parashar (University of Gothenburg)
and Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (University of Bayreuth)
Hosted by Adam Sandor (University of Bayreuth)

In a far from perfect world full of suffering and violence, our theoretical and conceptual understandings need to be constantly reinvented, to remain both relevant and responsive to the challenges of the times. The pandemic and the last few years of unpredictability in global politics have demonstrated the inadequacies of the existing understandings of violence, especially in International Relations. In this conversation, Prof. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (University of Bayreuth) and Prof. Swati Parashar (University of Gothenburg) reflect on the historical continuities, location, transformatory potential, the ethical and moral dilemmas, the body counts, injuries, and coloniality,  discursive absences and silences of violence. They discuss the exclusions and inclusions of violence, when and what bodies maybe outside or inserted within it, how it is significantly gendered, and how we can reframe and reclaim the knowledge about violence in the pursuit of truth and justice.

The event is co-organized by the research networks Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions and Postcolonial Hierarchies, both funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Moreover, it is held within the colloquium series of the Fachgruppe Soziologie and within the Bayreuth PeaceTalks series of the UBT Peace and Conflict research network.

Free, no registration required | Bayreuth PeaceTalks | www.bayreuther-friedensgespraeche.de

(Pictures: Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni by Niklas Reinhart; Swati Parashar private)