The Editorial Board of Decolonial Subversions comprises a group of specialists from a number of different subject areas, geographical areas, linguistic backgrounds and career-stages. Through their expertise and Responsibilities, they ensure that the platform is exposed to an ever increasing variety of knowledge systems.
Members
The Editorial Board of Decolonial Subversions consists of members from a variety of fields, linguistic backgrounds and geographic regions of the world. They are specialists who are profoundly committed to and engaged in decolonial knowledge and modes of being.
Ibtisam M. Abujad
Ibtisam M. Abujad is a doctoral candidate and teacher in the department of English at Marquette University in the United States. In her research, Ibtisam examines how oppression and resistance function culturally. She uncovers how global systems of power that are economic, social, and political are cultivated in media, literature, film, and in everyday cultural practices through race, gender, class, and national borders and boundaries that act as mechanisms. In similar ways, she analyzes cultural texts and their embeddedness in the conditions of their production to think about how resistance to oppression can occur culturally and communally through ways of being, doing, and knowing that disrupt these mechanisms. To enable this comprehensive anti-oppression decolonial framework in her “critique and praxis-oriented” research, teaching, and creative writing, she utilizes transnational and intersectional feminism, cultural studies and historical approaches, critical race theory, theories of class and politics, and Critical Muslim Studies. Ultimately, her work stems from her positionality as a Muslim and Palestinian woman, migrant, mother, academic, and poet, motivating a solidarity with those most vulnerable in the world.
She has published a number of scholarly articles and creative works.
To engage with her research and publications, visit https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ibtisam-Abujad/research.
Fabio Armand
Fabio Armand holds a Joint PhD in Linguistics and Anthropology, is an associate
professor at Lyon Catholic University (UCLy) and a member of the Sciences and
Humanities Confluences Research Center (EA1598, « Culture(s), Language and
Imaginaries » division) at the same University. His work focuses on the ethnography of
the Alps and the Nepalese Himalayas. He conducts his research among high Hindu
Bahun-Chhetri castes and Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups (Newar and Eastern Gurung).
He has contributed to the development of a transcultural neurocognitive
anthropology aiming at studying the neural foundations of shamanism(s). He also
works on Francoprovençal, his mother tongue, and on the transmission and
revitalization of endangered languages.
Sharmila Chauhan
Playwright, screenwriter, and prose writer: Sharmila’s work is often a transgressive meditation on love,
sex and power.
Her plays include: Be Better in Bed, The Husbands (Soho Theatre), Born Again/Purnajanam
(Southwark) and 10 Women (Avignon Festival). Both of her short films (Girl Like You, Oysters)
were produced by Film London and her feature Mother Land was long-listed for the Sundance
Writers’ Lab.
Sharmila also has a degree in pharmacy and a PhD in Clinical Pharmacology. She lives in London with her
husband, son and daughter, and cat Tashi.
URL: https://sharmilathewriter.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sharmilawrites
Vimala Devi K
Vimala Devi, K is founder member of Mukta: A Telangana Women’s Collective and Telangana Development
Forum (TDF), USA.
She has been visiting faculty at several Indian and international universities and institutions
including IIIT Hyderabad, Hebrew University, Israel, The University of Chicago, and University of
Wisconsin.
She has pursued research in Telangana studies and documented the Telangana movement.
Her publications include collections of essays Anubhavalu-Drukpadalu (2014), Collective
Voices (2013), a co-edited poetry collection Juloos (2010), an edited collection of
stories Gaddipoolu (2008), and an edited book on Telangana language, culture and history titled
Ooregimpu (2007).
Alex Kanyimba
Prof. Alex Kanyimba is associate professor in education for sustainable development, and deputy director at the Centre of Research and Publications at the University of Namibia, Windhoek Campus.
Prof. Kanyimba has published papers pertaining to integrating sustainability into higher education, climate change and gender in rural Namibia, and integrating environmental management systems into South African primary schools.
He was formerly guest editor on African sustainable development issues in higher education: International
Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, published by Emerald (UK). His current research
is on ‘Transformative Governance for an Inclusive, Innovative and Responsible Blue Society’, funded by the GCRF.
Tung-Yi Kho
Tung-Yi is a scholar of modern China with PhDs in Social Anthropology (SOAS) and Cultural Studies (Lingnan University, HK).
His research interests cut across multiple fields but their singular concern is with the human predicament, and especially with well-being under the conditions of capitalist modernity.
He is presently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
He is a founding member of the Global University of Sustainability: https://our-global-u.org/oguorg/
Ioannis Kyriakakis
MSc, PhD, anthropologist, adjunct lecturer, Hellenic Open University.
Ioannis Kyriakakis studied political science in Athens and anthropology in London (UCL). He conducted fieldwork in England, in Ghana and in Greece. He is concerned with cosmologies, global inequality and the anthropology of capitalism.
He is the author of the book The Witchcraft of Capitalism (published in Greek, currently being translated into English).
Chra Mahmud – Editorial Assistant
Dr Chra Mahmud is a lecturer, research fellow, and interdisciplinary scholar
from Southern Kurdistan (also known as Iraqi Kurdistan). Her work is situated at the
intersections of migration, displacement, identity, and marginalisation, informed by
sustained engagement with the lived consequences of colonial and neo-colonial power
relations. Drawing on her own migration trajectory and settlement in the UK, Mahmud
foregrounds lived experience as a critical epistemic site, interrogating dominant
knowledge regimes that marginalise racialised, diasporic, and Indigenous voices.
Chra holds a BA in English Language and Communication (Canterbury Christ Church
University) and an MA in Linguistics (University of Kent). Since completing her PhD,
she has developed culturally responsive teaching practices to help students navigate
complex social and epistemic hierarchies. Her scholarship challenges dominant narratives
that marginalise diasporic and non-Western experiences, addressing marginality,
freedom of expression, identity, and the politics of representation, offering a
critical lens on how these perspectives inform broader social and epistemic debates.
To engage with her research please see: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4012-2603
Chra also holds several research and advisory roles. She is a research fellow and
scientific committee member at the Centre for Genocide, Gender, and Social Research
at Soran University, Iraq, where she contributes to interdisciplinary exchange on
migration, diaspora, language, and material culture, focussing on social justice,
memory, and displacement. She is a co-contributor on the Ukraine Project at
Canterbury Christ Church University, a research initiative investigating the experiences
of the Ukrainian refugee community, including how displacement and social marginalisation
intersect with access to education and community support. In addition, Chra serves on the
International Advisory Board for the Journal: Trends in Educational Practice and
Outcomes.
Chra’s editorial philosophy seeks to ensure that scholarly and creative contributions
from historically marginalised communities are foregrounded and recognised as
legitimate, valuable, and transformative forms of knowledge. You can contact
Chra Mahmud: mahmud@arden.ac.uk
Victoria Odeniyi – Editor-in-Chief
Dr Victoria Odeniyi is an educator and researcher at the Decolonising Arts Institute,
University of the Arts London. Research and professional interests include the
coloniality of language and knowledge, ethnography, linguistic diversity and
institutionalised knowledge production, and how these phenomena intersect with race
and identity in the contemporary world. Victoria has a Masters in Education and a
doctorate in Applied Linguistics. She has lived in Ghana, and for her doctoral
research, Victoria conducted a critical ethnography of the lived and migration
experiences, of African migrant students at a British university.
Victoria was a researcher on the ‘Developing Educators’ project
(Queen Mary University of London), designed to gain a deeper and more critical
understanding of teaching practices and educational inequalities. She was also a
research assistant on the Andrew Mellon Foundation ‘Reading Peer Review ‘research
project (PLP-2019-023) during which she analysed confidential expert peer review
reports from the PLOS ONE scientific journal. The project resulted in an open access
monograph by Eve, Cameron, Daniel, Moore, Gadie, Odeniyi, and Parvin,
Reading Peer Review: PLOS ONE and Institutional Change in Academia . As post-doctoral
researcher, Victoria led the 'Reimagining Conversations'
project which sought to raise
awareness of the educational and creative potential of the use of language in creative
education. Since 2020, Victoria has been an Editorial Board Member on the transnational,
collaborative and evolving ‘In Other Words’
resource development project that support
the reversal of narratives of otherness.
Victoria and Dr Gillian Lazar guest edited a special issue of Decolonial Subversions (2023)
which interrogated the theme of decolonising the university and the role of
linguistic diversity in diverse global contexts. Victoria is the incoming
Editor-in-Chief for the multilingual, open access, peer reviewed publishing platform
Decolonial Subversions. If you would like to get in touch with Victoria,
please email: info@decolonialsubversions.org
Ousmane Pame
Ousmane Pame, PhD, is a university professor of literature, former mayor of the eco-town of Guede Chantier, president of GEN Africa and a regional community leader.
He designs and coordinates international academic programmes in ecovillages in Senegal. Dr Pame is founder and president of REDES (Network for Ecovillage Emergence and Development in the Sahel, https://redes-ecovillages.org/). In collaboration with government agencies, local governments, international NGOs and universities, REDES is now creating ecovillage hubs in Senegal and a transborder ecovillage hub between Senegal and Mauritania.
Shahina Parvin
Dr. Shahina Parvin is the Racial Literacy and Anti-Racism Lead in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba, Canada, leading knowledge creation and praxis on anti-colonialism and racial justice in health care and academic settings. Dr. Parvin’s research interests focus on the racialized minority populations’ mental health and care experiences in Canada with an aim to develop appropriate health care approaches for the folx.
Giridhar Rao
At Azim Premji University, India, A. Giridhar Rao teaches courses on language policy, language pedagogy, linguistic human rights, Esperanto and linguistic democracy, and science fiction.
He blogs on these themes (in English) at http://bolii.blogspot.com/ and (in Esperanto) at http://www.ipernity.com/blog/giridhar/. Giridhar can be reached at rao.giridhar@apu.edu.in
Alena Rettová
Alena Rettová is professor of African and Afrophone philosophies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. She leads a team of seven researchers, funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant entitled ‘Philosophy and Genre: Creating A Textual Basis for African Philosophy’. This project interrogates the role of textual genre in the communication of philosophical meanings, with case studies drawing on eight languages, including Ciluba, Swahili, Shona, Lingala, Kinyarwanda, Wolof, French and English, and several textual genres.
Alena is the author of Afrophone Philosophies: Reality and Challenge (2007), Chanter l'existence: La poésie de Sando Marteau et ses horizons philosophiques (2013), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on African philosophy and literature.
Prasanna Sree Satupathi
Prasanna Sree Satupathi is a professor of English at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. So far, she has guided twenty-three PhDs and eighteen MPhils, and published thirty-two books, some of which have become part of the prescribed texts for university students.
Prasanna has devised alphabets for several tribal languages in India and has been recognised as the first woman in the world to devise so many.
Prasanna’s mission is to protect tribal languages and cultures, her vision is to extend support to facilitate the right to education of every tribal child, and her passion is to work for the less privileged and deprived minorities.
Recipient of international and national awards, she is associated as visiting professor to prestigious universities in the USA, Algeria and Ethiopia.
Peter Sutoris
Peter Sutoris is an environmental anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at the University of York. He is the author of monographs Visions of Development (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Educating for the Anthropocene (The MIT Press, 2022). His research focuses on imagination of alternative futures, cultured of degrowth and activist pedagogies.
Responsibilities
The Editorial Board of Decolonial Subversions is carefully selected with reference to the platform’s thematic, geographic, linguistic and methodological scope. As such, it comprises a very diverse pool of highly specialised individuals in their respective fields who collaborate closely to ensure that the materials published in Decolonial Subversions satisfy the highest standards of excellence, rigour and ethical reflexivity. Moreover, where the necessity arises, the Editorial Board is expected to provide guidance on managerial and policy matters in order to promote the scope and principles of Decolonial
Subversions as outlined in Our Vision and in the Basic Manifesto.
Editorial Board Members are expected to provide advice on content, in particular by:
- reviewing manuscripts and/or providing linguistic review/support (up to two contributions for each Editorial Board Member)
- identifying themes for regular and special issues of Decolonial Subversions
- guest editing regular or special issues of Decolonial Subversions
- identifying and attracting new Contributors, Translators and Reviewers
- identifying new Editorial Board Members.
The Editorial Board is also expected to provide advice on matters such as:
- ethical standards upheld in Decolonial Subversions
- diversity and representativeness of the pool of Contributors, Translators and Reviewers
- diversity and representativeness of the Advisory Board
- policy, engagement and scope of Decolonial Subversions
In order to achieve these criteria, Editorial Board Members are in regular communication with the Founding Editors and are expected to attend a virtual annual Editorial Board meeting.
Editorial Board Members are expected to remain up to date in matters related to the decolonisation of knowledge production, to continue to learn, and to feed this learning back to Decolonial
Subversions. Moreover, they are expected to embrace and support the exploratory and path-breaking nature of Decolonial Subversions.
Repeatedly failing to deliver according to these expectations will result in their removal from the Editorial Board. The Founding Editors reserve the right to invite and to remove Editorial Board Members and to alter the size of the Editorial Board according to the standards outlined by Decolonial
Subversions.
Prospective Editorial Board Members are invited by the Founding Editors after careful evaluation. Particular attention is given to the candidate’s qualifications in their respective field, geographic and linguistic representativeness, personal ethos and commitment to decolonisation.
The Founding Editors are committed to engaging with a diverse pool of Editorial Board Members with backgrounds in academia, activism, art and craftsmanship, various professional fields and specialisations from all parts of the world. Decolonial Subversions is firmly committed to inclusiveness and does not tolerate discrimination on the basis of gender, faith, age, forms of abledness, ethnicity or any other characteristic or identity.
If you would like to be considered as a prospective Editorial Board Member, please express your interest in writing to the Founding Members at ri5@soas.ac.uk (Romina); mh121@soas.ac.uk (Monika).