Towards a Planetary More-than-Humanities and Social Sciences for Just Transitions

This initiative developed out of the Black Atlantic Innovation Network and was established in 2022 by Paul Gilroy (UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation) and Rodney Harrison (UCL Institute of Archaeology) with the aim of engaging a global network of scholars across the humanities, social sciences and beyond with international and regional practitioners and policymakers working in arts, culture, education, environment and heritage. The network aims to develop and share decolonial, anti-racist and just environmental practices and to collaborate on approaches, strategy, research and activities relating to an expansive conceptualisation of the theme of just ‘green’ transitions which has emerged in response to the planetary climate emergency. This will be done by creating and exploring novel frameworks for a multidisciplinary, planetary ‘more-than-humanities and social sciences’ capable of understanding the impact of racial hierarchy and racialised inequalities on matters of social and ecological justice as well as conceptualising these issues as mutually articulated. The international network aims to bring significant benefits to the academy and form enduring research-policy-practice-public pathways to address the global challenge of just transitions in a range of institutional settings and organisations through a range of activities across multiple fora. 

 

Network members include:
•    Professor Achille Mbembe, Research Professor in History and Politics, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
•    Professor Andrew Barry, Professor of Human Geography and Co-Convenor UCL Anthropocene, UCL, UK
•    Ashish Ghadiali, film-maker and activist, UK
•    Professor Avinash Persaud, Special Envoy to the Prime Minister of Barbados on Investment and Financial Services, Government of Barbados, Barbados
•    Professor Felwine Sarr, Professor of Romance Studies, Duke University, US
•    Professor Françoise Vergès, writer and activist, Paris, France
•    Professor Hazel Carby, Charles C & Dorathea S Dilley Professor of African American Studies & American Studies, Yale University and Centennial Professor, International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics, US/UK
•    Professor Jacinta Ruru, University of Otago Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chair in Law, University of Otago, New Zealand
•    Dr Jelena Porsanger, Director, Sámi Museum in Karasjok, Norway
•    Dr Karen Salt, Deputy Director, R&D, Culture and Environment, UKRI, UK
•    Professor Katherine McKittrick, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Black Studies, Department of Geography and Planning, Queens University, Canada
•    Professor Marisol de la Cadena, Professor of Anthropology, University of California at Davis, US
•    Professor Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science, UCL, UK
•    Professor Matthew J. Smith, Professor of History and Director of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, UCL, UK
•    Dr Michael McEachrane, Visiting Researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund, Sweden and UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PAD)
•    Dr Mika Tosca, Associate Professor in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, US
•    Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, South African National Research Foundation Chair in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
•    Professor Radha D'Souza, Professor of International Law, Development and Conflict Studies, University of Westminster, UK
•    Professor Saleemul Huq OBE, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh and Professor at the Independent University Bangladesh (IUB), Bangladesh
•    Professor Tamar Garb, Durning Lawrence Professor of History of Art, UCL, UK
•    Professor Tariq Jazeel, Professor of Human Geography, UCL and Co-Director of the UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation, UK
•    Professor Wayne Modest,  Director (Content) of the National Museum of World Culture (a museum group comprising the Tropenmuseum, Museum Volkenkunde, Africa Museum and the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam) and Professor (by special appointment) of Material Culture and Critical Heritage Studies at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam,  Netherlands