Global Decolonization Initiative

At GloDec, we envision decolonization as an ongoing process, and not a moment frozen in time. We are committed to collectively interrogating those micro-processes of change with ethics and empathy. Our intellectual interests, therefore, cut across time, scale and geographies.

During each the academic year, GloDec undertakes three forms of programming, which are as follows:

Student-Led Research Projects

GloDec houses two student-driven research projects include Connected Partitions Project to develop a database of case studies on territorial partitions, and the Nuclear Sites Project to develop in-depth case studies on nuclear weapons, energy, and mining sites located in the world’s borderlands. To be eligible to participate in these projects as research interns, students must have already completed IR315 or IR522 for Nuclear Sites, or IR377 for Connected Partitions.

Decolonization-in-Progress Seminar

This work-in-progress seminar is open to junior faculty, postdocs, and advanced PhD students at Boston University and beyond, who are conducting innovative research on themes associated with decolonization as a process.

Student Group & Film Series

• “Students for Decolonization” [SDECOL]
  Approved by BU’s Student Activities Office (SAO), SDECOL is an independent undergraduate student group that aims to facilitate on-campus communication and research on decolonization and related subjects.

• Decolonization Film Series
  In partnership with SDECOL, with the involvement of Masters-level students the film series showcases films and documentaries on decolonization followed by discussion led by a BU faculty member.

Jayita Sarkar is Assistant Professor at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, where she is also the founding director of the Global Decolonization Initiative. She teaches diplomatic and political history at graduate and undergraduate levels.

You can read more on Professor Sarkar’s research and teaching on her Pardee School profile, her personal website and follow her on Twitter.

The GloDec Initiative’s two student-led projects, Partitions and Nuclear Sites, focus on developing in-depth qualitative case studies on territorial separations and radioactive borderlands spread across the world. The Partitions Project has a total of 9 interns for summer and fall. The Nuclear Sites Project has a total of 10 interns for summer and fall. Interns are located across the United States and the world, and conducting research remotely.

Read about the Partitions Project’s research team and their case studies here

Read about the Nuclear Sites Project’s research team and their case studies here.

Interested in a Global Decolonization Initiative Research Internship (HUB CC 284) for Fall 2021? Details and application instructions available on the syllabus.

GloDec’s flagship initiative, the Partitions Project, is developing a comprehensive database of territorial partitions from 1880s to the present with in-depth case studies that could be used for future research and undergraduate and graduate teaching.

GloDec’s Nuclear Sites Project is developing a database with in-depth case studies of nuclear weapons, nuclear energy and mining sites that are located in the world’s borderlands with fraught political, social and legal histories since 1945 to the present.

The case studies examine the political, legal and social processes of systematic disenfranchisement of populations inhabiting those nuclear sites, and how decolonization is an ongoing process in these spaces. These case studies will be used in future research and undergraduate and graduate teaching.

The Spring 2021 Nuclear Sites Ambassadors are as follows:

• Caitlin Meyer (Pardee ’22)
• Sydney Pickering (Pardee ’22)
• Ariana Thorpe (Pardee ’22)
• Cristina Morrison (Pardee ’22)
• Sophia Poteet (Pardee ’22)