The Big Decolonisation Dialogue
The Big Decolonisation Dialogue, led by members of the Water WISER Inequalities Working Group (WWAIWG), produced a podcast series and an interactive workshop – both of which address global academic inequalities within water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) research.
Decolonisation, as a means of addressing historical injustices and problematic practices, is becoming increasingly prominent across the research and innovation sector – a rise which has been helped substantially through the activities and profile-raising of researchers operating in this field.
The Crafting the Flow: The Intersectional Complexities of Water Security workshop sought to build a network of researchers by creating a safe space to share and learn about decolonising global health research, focusing on positionality and structural research inequalities.
Alongside this, the team also developed The Big Decolonisation Dialogue podcast series, exploring how decolonising the SDGs would impact on the ground for gender, poverty, growth and other themes.
You can listen to this podcast series on Spotify
“Getting involved in this project has expanded my mind on many levels! The amazing people we interviewed have opened my mind to understanding decolonisation on a global scale.
“It expanded my knowledge to see inequalities beyond my local experience, beyond my niche field of work, and to realise how all of this is intertwined with the power dynamics established within my own country. It has shifted my perspective and hopefully will continue to shift it as I engage in the local debates with global perspectives and vice-versa.”
– Lais Dos Santos
“We’ve been meeting as a group for nearly four years now. The conversations we’ve had have changed my opinion and ways of functioning both as a researcher and within my personal perspective of the world.
“We wanted to extend these conversations, inviting experts to speak on the topics of global inequalities to a wider audience. This is why we decided to use the Horizons Institute funding to do two things: the first was to create a podcast, and the second was to help form a conference on Intersectionality and Water Security. In this way, we hope to reach the local and a wider audience in conversations we deem vital to improving research and global perspectives.”
– Georgia Hales.
“When I first moved from India to the UK for my PhD, I was surprised at how little I knew about this country or any other. I bonded with colleagues over passionate conversations about food, culture, politics, and more — the common thread is the impact of colonialism in our own countries.
“These insights and learnings have greatly shaped my understanding of how the world works, and I was eager to share these with friends and family back home. So, when the opportunity arose, it made complete sense to create a podcast to continue these conversations and build a repository for future reference.”
– Spurthi Kolipaka
“Through the Big Decolonisation Dialogue, we had the opportunity to provide a platform for the people and stories that have educated, influenced and inspired us as we navigate the decolonisation debate and our individual research journeys. Interviewees have been so generous with their time and knowledge - it has truly been a privilege to play a small part in creating these podcasts.”
– Lizzy Cullen
“Working with this group on inequalities and decolonisation has given me an amazing sounding board for discussions on how to approach my PhD research and fieldwork ethically. The diversity within the group, as well as the breadth of issues that we are addressing through the podcast, has challenged us all to be more inclusive and considerate in our work.”
– Virginia Roaf
Project Co-leads
- Lais Dos Santos
- Georgia Hales
- Spurthi Kolipaka
Further information
Listen to the podcast on Spotify, or connect with The Big Decolonisation Dialogue on LinkedIn.
If you would like to know more about this project, please email the Horizons Institute team at horizons@leeds.ac.uk