Listen "The Colonial Present"
Episode Synopsis
International Development Studies is focusing more on the impact, damage, and legacies of colonialism, not just in the global South, but in the global North as well. At the forefront of this conversation are scholars like Ajay Parasram, who studies "The Colonial Present" and who brings important critical dialogue on colonialism into the heart of research and teaching in International Development Studies.
Ajay Parasram is a transnational, multigenerational byproduct of empire and this is central to my research and teaching. Working broadly around the theme of the colonial present, I study structural forms of violence (e.g. race, caste, class, patriarchy) rooted or exacerbated through imperial encounters that have been sanitized of their colonial histories and normalized in the present day.
Dr. Parasram is crossed appointed between the Departments of International Development Studies, History, and Political Science and he is interested in working with graduate students interested in similar and related themes. He is a Founding Fellow at the MacEachen Institute of Public Policy and Governance (2019 – 2021) and served as the Chair and Program Chair of the Global Development Section of the International Studies Association (2019 – 2020). He teaches courses on the colonial foundations of development studies and the state, M.K. Gandhi, postcolonial politics, and activism
Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter: @ProfessorHuish
Ajay Parasram is a transnational, multigenerational byproduct of empire and this is central to my research and teaching. Working broadly around the theme of the colonial present, I study structural forms of violence (e.g. race, caste, class, patriarchy) rooted or exacerbated through imperial encounters that have been sanitized of their colonial histories and normalized in the present day.
Dr. Parasram is crossed appointed between the Departments of International Development Studies, History, and Political Science and he is interested in working with graduate students interested in similar and related themes. He is a Founding Fellow at the MacEachen Institute of Public Policy and Governance (2019 – 2021) and served as the Chair and Program Chair of the Global Development Section of the International Studies Association (2019 – 2020). He teaches courses on the colonial foundations of development studies and the state, M.K. Gandhi, postcolonial politics, and activism
Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter: @ProfessorHuish
More episodes of the podcast GDP - The Global Development Primer
Is there a future in Global Development?
27/10/2025
How Academia Resembles a Drug Gang
28/08/2025
Is Development Destroyed? Not so fast!
08/07/2025
Today I saw a revolution
18/06/2025
Thriving Through the Great Crash
15/04/2025
The Day Development Died
25/03/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.