Frontiers, illicit flows and the geographies of uneven development
Key information
- Date
- Venue
- Zoom
- Event type
- Virtual/online
About this event
Watch a recording of this seminar.
The Centre for the Study of Illicit Economies, Violence and Development (CIVAD) at SOAS, and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), are organising a series of six seminars which will bring together academics, students, policy makers and practitioners with an interest and engagement in questions of illicit economies, violence and development.
In this opening seminar of the CIVAD-RUSI seminar series, Michael Watts and Dolly Kikon will discuss how the circulation of illicit flows (capital, commodities, people, ideas) shape and connect processes of (uneven) development within and across regions. In conversation with chair Jonathan Goodhand, Michael and Dolly will rethink what is meant by key terms, take a systemic and structural look at how the world is changing, and set the agenda for the rest of the seminar series.
Chair: Jonathan Goodhand (SOAS University of London)
Panelists: Michael Watts (University of California, Berkeley) and Dolly Kikon (University of Melbourne)
Michael Watts is Professor Emeritus at the University of California (Berkeley). At the centre of his research is a longstanding engagement with the political economy of development, and in particular energy and agro-food sectors in Africa. He is interested in the intersections between poltical economy, culture and forms of power.
Dolly Kikon is Senior Lecturer at the School of Social and Political Sciences, Melbourne University. Her work focuses on the political economy of extractive resources, militarization, migration, development initiatives, gender relations, food cultures, and human rights in India.
Jonathan Goodhand is Professor of Conflict and Development at SOAS University of London. His research interests focus on the political economy of armed conflict, post-war transitions and peacebuilding, with a particular focus on South and Central Asia. Recent research projects have focused on the dynamics of borderlands in relation to illicit economies and war to peace transitions, and the challenges they present for actors aiming to support post-war peacebuilding.