Global Blackness and Transnational Solidarity (virtual event)

Dr Awino Okech, SOAS Centre for Gender Studies

Global Blackness and Transnational Solidarity with Dr. Awino Okech, moderated by Dr. Sophie Chamas both from SOAS University of London.

Register for the event on Eventbrite.

The Pan African ideal that calls for the unification of people of African descent due to common interests bears particular salience at this moment. The world is forced to confront the evidence of systemic racism, catalysed by the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on black and ethnic minorities. This webinar considers what it means to build meaningful transnational solidarity as one of many moves needed to dislodge patriarchy and its bedfellows white supremacy and extreme extractive modes of capitalism. What does meaningful solidarity with people of colour look like as black people confront the manifestations of our structural exclusion. This webinar will consider these questions from the speaker’s positionality as an African feminist academic working in the UK.

THE LECTURE SERIES:

The Continuing the Conversations event series is designed to engage SOAS alumni but open to all. The event will include a talk for about 20 minutes and then a discussion regarding questions from the audience for about 20 minutes.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Dr Awino Okech's teaching and research interests lie in the nexus between gender, sexuality, security and nation/state making projects as they occur in conflict and post-conflict societies. Dr. Okech remains deeply attentive to power in knowledge production and transfer processes and explores these dynamics through methodological and pedagogical choices in research and in the classroom. Prior to joining the Centre for Gender Studies at SOAS, Dr. Okech worked in the development sector across various sub-regions in Africa for over a decade, supporting women rights organisations and local movements in building local capacities for peace. This work remains central to Dr. Okech's scholarship and teaching and is illustrated in ongoing support to feminist social justice movements in Africa and feminist movement building organisations globally. At CGS Dr. Okech convenes and contributes to a range of postgraduate modules including Gender Theory, Queer Politics in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Dissertation Methods for Gender Studies, African Feminism/s: Theories, Politics and Action and Gender and Security in Africa.