The 2025 Decolonizing International Relations Conference seeks to foster a collaborative space for interdisciplinary dialogue that unsettles traditional hierarchies of knowledge production in order to center marginalized voices. Through building a community of praxis amongst academics, practitioners, and activists, it aims to promote more robust decolonial engagement that transforms discourse into action. Students, activists, scholars, practitioners, and community members are invited to join our exploration of and endeavour towards decentering hegemonic narratives through daily practice.
The Decolonizing International Relations Conference at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is an annual event that began in 2017. It holds the distinction of being the first conference of its kind within International Relations Graduate Schools. Our conference serves as a platform for addressing pressing issues and concerns within the field of International Relations, aiming to develop innovative solutions for global challenges that arise from antiquated and harmful power structures.
Therefore, this Conference will build on its previous six iterations by critically engaging with what it means to practice decoloniality in a manner that disrupts the geopolitics of knowledge production, re-envisioning ways of working at the interpersonal, quotidian, collective, and theoretical levels. In this way the Conference will respond to challenges of bridging theory and practice and respond to the need to better articulate how decoloniality can be used as a lens, tool, and embodied action.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
In the sphere of international relations, the foundational basis of scholarly tradition is largely rooted in imperial frameworks and epistemology. This theoretical skew neglects pluriversal perspectives, leading to erroneous conclusions that inadequately explain the socio-political and economic realities of underrepresented regions. DIR’s relevance lies not only in the act of questioning colonial logics in the present day, but also in determining a path that looks forward. Our goal is to imagine alternative horizons of possibility within academia and practice, while contending with circumstances rooted in the past. Every year, the Conference utilizes a different lens to think through questions of decoloniality and transgression, with the intent of better understanding the magnitude of issues and complexity of regions that are often generalized and understudied. Through assessing the legacies and impacts of imperialism in different contexts, such as academia, current politics, professional practice, art and the environment, the Conference challenges the boundaries of knowledge-production, expanding the ambit of the world as we know it.