A Grounding Meditation

A grounding meditation to seal the relation we have built between us.  

In this episode we discuss language, writing together and healing with compañeras, Rosa Itandehui Olivera Chávez and Paulina Trejo Mendez. We talk about the ways in which we are unseen by dominant logics, discussing whether this violence ever touches our soul and how spirituality is central to decolonizing the self.      Paulina Trejo Mendez is an artist, independent researcher and teacher at the University of Bonn in Germany. Their research and artistic work centers on the politics of knowledge, particularly resistance to the entwined violence of coloniality, epistemicide and feminicide;. You can find their work on their English blog decolonize and in Spanish on the feminist blog La Catártica. Paulina is also the co-founder of Comalli Collective working together on artistic projects centered on healing.  Rosa Itandehui Olivera Chávez is an indigenous economist specializing in monitoring and evaluation systems. She holds a Masters in International Development Studies with a focus on Children and Youth, and  Women and Gender Studies. Itandehui is also a poet and storyteller whose writing reflects a deep connection to her indigenous roots, whilst also questioning patriarchal and colonial structures of power. Decolonize Blog (Eng): https://encounteringdecoloniality.wordpress.com/ La Catártica Blog (Sp): https://lacatartica.wordpress.com/ Comalli Collective (Eng): https://comallicollective.wordpress.com/  Music for the podcast is produced and performed by Ntomb'Yelanga, whose work is aimed at the preservation, promotion and creation of indigenous instruments and music in South Africa. Her current project, Songs of our Ancestors, explores how ancient sounds ingoma is a language, a memory and a dream we bring to life through intergenerational connections and sound dialogue, where the body is seen as a living archive of these sounds. Makwande sibamba ngazo zombili.http://www.mmaletsatsipro.co.za/ This episode is brought to you by the Civic Innovation Research Initiative, a group of scholar-activists committed to social justice based at the International Institute of Social Studies, in The Hague, Netherlands. https://www.iss.nl/en/research/research-groups/civic-innovation

In this episode we speak with udadewethu from back home Luthando Ngema and Charmika Samara-diwakera Wije-sundara. We discuss the concept of Ubuntu, its philosophy, use in our everyday lives and its appropriating into the canon and the implications of this on our journey of being/becoming. In learning to position ourselves, we talked about unlearning our internalised oppressions and how to be politically in motion with Ubuntu.   Luthando Ngema is an emerging scholar and lecturer based in the Media and Cultural Studies department at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in Durban. Her research interests include urban cultures, critical race theory, gender studies and media and communication. Her current PhD research looks at media constructions of Ethekwini’s Inner City as a social urban space. Charmika Samaradiwakera Wijesundara is a lecturer at the Wits School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg. Her research areas include Jurisprudence, human rights, Critical Race and Gender Theory, African Philosophy, and Decolonisation. Currently she is a PhD candidate on a joint programme with Wits and International Institute of Social Sciences in the Hague. Music for the podcast is produced and performed by Ntomb'Yelanga, whose work is aimed at the preservation, promotion and creation of indigenous instruments and music in South Africa. Her current project, Songs of our Ancestors, explores how ancient sounds ingoma is a language, a memory and a dream we bring to life through intergenerational connections and sound dialogue, where the body is seen as a living archive of these sounds. Makwande sibamba ngazo zombili.http://www.mmaletsatsipro.co.za/ This episode is brought to you by the Civic Innovation Research Initiative, a group of scholar-activists committed to social justice based at the International Institute of Social Studies, in The Hague, Netherlands. https://www.iss.nl/en/research/research-groups/civic-innovation

In this episode we speak with Constance Dupuis and Nanna Kirstine Leets Hansen, both PhD researchers about their journey of unlearning and loving across difference. We discuss whether it's possible to let go of some of the terms in social justice and transformative justice spaces that no longer serve us and what implications that has. We also talk about our lessons in learning to listen and what possibilities are opened up for relational accountability.   Constance Dupuis is a settler Canadian who is working to unlearn the colonial dynamics that mark the history and the present of the place she calls home. She is learning to be relationally accountable by listening deeply. Her PhD research focuses on wellbeing in later life and the intersection of care for generations and care for place. Nanna Kirstine Leets Hansen is an activist, scholar and mujer que lucha. Through her PhD research she questions systemic violence, structural racism and solidarity in relation to deportation camps in Denmark. Through this engagement with antiracist and decolonial movements, she has learned to be in relation in the pursuit of building alternatives. Article mentioned in this episode: https://ma-consultancy.co.uk/blog/language-is-important-why-we-will-no-longer-use-allyship-and-privilege-in-our-work Music for the podcast is produced and performed by Ntomb'Yelanga, whose work is aimed at the preservation, promotion and creation of indigenous instruments and music in South Africa. Her current project, Songs of our Ancestors, explores how ancient sounds ingoma is a language, a memory and a dream we bring to life through intergenerational connections and sound dialogue, where the body is seen as a living archive of these sounds. Makwande sibamba ngazo zombili.http://www.mmaletsatsipro.co.za/ This episode is brought to you by the Civic Innovation Research Initiative, a group of scholar-activists committed to social justice based at the International Institute of Social Studies, in The Hague, Netherlands. https://www.iss.nl/en/research/research-groups/civic-innovation

In this episode we speak with social art-ivist Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen about rhythm, silences and separation. We discuss the co-creation of knowledge that happens during dance and how this changes the performer and observer. We also dive into dominant aesthetics and ideas around purity of practice before listening to the rhythm of Animas ghungroos.  Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen is a social art-ivist, who uses dance and henna art to challenge the exclusion of women of colour in dominate narratives within academic and performance spaces. Through her experience of being of Indo-Caribbean and Dutch descent, Anima’s art encourages us to think, feel and live in-between and beyond dominant narratives. The chum-chum of her ghungroos teaching us that we can communicate with more than just words. https://www.animaruissen.com/ Music also Anima.  Music for the podcast is produced and performed by Ntomb'Yelanga, whose work is aimed at the preservation, promotion and creation of indigenous instruments and music in South Africa. Her current project, Songs of our Ancestors, explores how ancient sounds ingoma is a language, a memory and a dream we bring to life through intergenerational connections and sound dialogue, where the body is seen as a living archive of these sounds. Makwande sibamba ngazo zombili.http://www.mmaletsatsipro.co.za/ This episode is brought to you by the Civic Innovation Research Initiative, a group of scholar-activists committed to social justice based at the International Institute of Social Studies, in The Hague, Netherlands. https://www.iss.nl/en/research/research-groups/civic-innovation

In this episode we speak to members of the Erasmus School of colour about self-organising as students whilst coming up against the bureaucracy of the university. We discuss the importance of cultivating safe spaces through friendship, and start to pry open the pandora's box of what it means to decolonize the self and how that is possible whilst facing the violence of double erasure.   Merel Dap, Zouhair Hammana, Melisa Ersoy, Nia Nikoladze, and Alyssa Renfurm are members of the Erasmus School of Colour (ESOC). ESOC is a collective that works towards dismantling racist, patriarchal and ableist structures within and beyond the university. Aiming to establish a safe and accessible, environment for marginalized groups, they organize different small- and large-scale events and host a reading group that is open to everyone and is co-created as a safe, healing and educating space for all who participate.  ESOC: https://esocrotterdam.nl/ Insta: @erasmus_school_of_colour  Music for the podcast is produced and performed by Ntomb'Yelanga, whose work is aimed at the preservation, promotion and creation of indigenous instruments and music in South Africa. Her current project, Songs of our Ancestors, explores how ancient sounds ingoma is a language, a memory and a dream we bring to life through intergenerational connections and sound dialogue, where the body is seen as a living archive of these sounds. Makwande sibamba ngazo zombili. http://www.mmaletsatsipro.co.za/ This episode is brought to you by the Civic Innovation Research Initiative, a group of scholar-activists committed to social justice based at the International Institute of Social Studies, in The Hague, Netherlands. https://www.iss.nl/en/research/research-groups/civic-innovation

In this episode, with Rosalba Icaza, we discuss learning to unlearn, mentorship or the undoing of mentorship and the importance of questioning. In doing so we show what unlearning looks like during a PhD  and why you cannot do it alone. Books become doorways to unlearning our fears and coming to voice. We discuss how we came to the reorientation toward life-affirming practices in research and how this space lies beyond the reach of colonial logics. Compañera, mentor and sister, Rosalba Icaza is also an Associate Professor of Global Politics, Gender and Diversity at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Rosalba is a decolonial feminist-teacher-researcher-activist, member of the Transnational Network OtherKnowledges (RETOS), and the Collective Suumil in the Maya Peninsula of Yucatan, Mexico. https://www.eur.nl/en/people/rosalba-icaza-garza Music for the podcast is produced and performed by Ntomb'Yelanga, whose work is aimed at the preservation, promotion and creation of indigenous instruments and music in South Africa. Her current project, Songs of our Ancestors, explores how ancient sounds ingoma is a language, a memory and a dream we bring to life through intergenerational connections and sound dialogue, where the body is seen as a living archive of these sounds. Makwande sibamba ngazo zombili. http://www.mmaletsatsipro.co.za/  This episode is brought to you by the Civic Innovation Research Initiative, a group of scholar-activists committed to social justice based at the International Institute of Social Studies, in The Hague, Netherlands. https://www.iss.nl/en/research/research-groups/civic-innovation

Welcome to Liminal Hangouts, a podcast that brings together the voices of those who resist at the margins of academia. In this introduction you will find out more about our Host Zuleika Bibi Sheik and how the podcast came about.