Join us at the launch of the new open access book edited by Dibyesh Anand and Nitasha Kaul at this CSD event featuring a discussion with the contributors and guest scholars.
About the book
We live in a world dominated by states and statist knowledge where it is rare to speak of more than one stateless nation and there is a conspicuous neglect of non-Western colonial practices.
This volume brings together scholarship on two peoples associated with 'conflict' but who we argue are best described as 'stateless nations': Kurds and Kashmiris. Both these contexts raise important questions relating to coloniality, sovereignty, statehood, self-determination and human rights, and yet they have never been studied together.
Our intervention challenges the 'sovereignty privilege' in International Relations and calls upon postcolonial and decolonial studies to take anti-colonialism seriously by focusing on contemporary stateless nations.
The chapters in this volume showcase the diverse knowledge and expertise of the contributing authors from different disciplines and cover a range of topics including governance, education, nationalism, regionalism, bureaucracy, political mobilisation, coloniality, solidarity.
What unites the contributions is the desire to go beyond the conventional studies of conflict and of ‘ethnic’ minorities that take for granted the ‘sovereignty privilege’ of existing nation-states, and instead, to interrogate the coloniality of power experienced by the Kurds in Turkey and Kashmiris in India.All the contributors are connected to the University of Westminster – some currently work here, some studied and researched here in the past.
"This book addresses the complex issue of colonialism and nationalism among the Kurds who live in Turkey and the Kashmiris who live in the valley of Kashmir. For those wishing to understand the respective political, religious and social challenges of both groups, this book is essential reading."
– Victoria Schofield, author of ‘Kashmir in the Crossfire’ and ‘Kashmir in Conflict’
Physical copies of the book will be on sale at the venue; it can also be downloaded from doi.org.
Discussants during the event
Guest scholars
Victoria Schofield is a writer, biographer and historian and the author of several books including “Kashmir in the Crossfire” and “Kashmir in Conflict”.
Kamran Matin is a Reader in International Relations at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex and an expert on Kurdish politics and history.
Contributors to the volume
Omer Tekdemir is Associate Professor in International Political Economy and Associate Head at the School of Business, Accounting and Law at Coventry University.
Umit Cetin is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Westminster.
Celia Jenkins is an Emeritus Fellow in Sociology at the University of Westminster.
Radha D’Souza is Professor of Law, interdisciplinary scholar, barrister, social justice activist, and writer from India.
Editors
Dibyesh Anand is Professor of Politics and International Relations and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement and Employability at the University of Westminster.
Nitasha Kaul is Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies and the Director of Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Westminster.
Event format
- 17.45–18: Onsite registration and welcome from UoW
- 18–19.30: Roundtable with editors, contributors, and guest scholars
- 19.30–20: Networking and wine reception
Location
Cayley Room, 309 Regent Street, University of Westminster (UoW), W1B 2HW, London
