Decolonizing International Relations Conference

One of my favorite annual Fletcher events took place recently, feeling refreshingly back to normal for its in-person format. The Decolonizing International Relations Conference is notable not only for its fascinating content, but for the fact that it is an entirely student-organized affair. It’s become one of Fletcher’s major annual scholarly events in a short time, and we have the initiative and energy of our student community to thank for it.

This year’s program featured a typically engaging series of speakers, panels, and workshops on topics including “Third World Approaches to International Law,” “Decolonialism and Environmental Activism,” and “Anti/Queerness in Colonialism,” among others. The conference welcomed activist Mohammed El-Kurd as its keynote speaker. As usual, I was able to catch a few minutes of several sessions here and there, and was left wishing I could just attend the whole thing.

There are many aspects of the Fletcher community for which I feel a great deal of pride, and the annual work of our students to foreground this important body of scholarship and perspectives is chief among them. Thank you to the Decolonizing International Relations team and all its supporters for another excellent event!