CEA Global Voices: The Critical Knowledge Podcast

Learning From Civic Engagement And The Climate Movement 

COP 27 is underway in Egypt. As climate-related catastrophies rise all over the world, this year the climate change conference has some difficult topics on the agenda. The world is projected to cross 2.5 degrees Celsius warming if drastic changes aren’t enacted immediately. Developing countries have demanded that their rich counterparts reach net-zero emissions before 2050 to give the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal a fighting chance of survival. Meanwhile, COP 27 (its big corporation organizers) are also being accused of greenwashing in an effort to stay relevant without taking major steps.

To discuss this, we spoke with 2 sets of ECRs who specialize in climate change and the environment about their experiences. We talk to them in an attempt to decipher the conference as well as what to expect in the future!

Participants are Gaurav Gharde (University of Manchester), Harriet Burton (University of Manchester) and Shreya Urvashi (TISS Mumbai) where they touch upon climate action and inaction, and the role of the civil society in this movement.

In the fourth episode we spoke with a student from Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia), Juan Camilo. Juan was one of our first members, and we were please to have him back in this episode.  This is what Juan said about himself:

"  Hi, my name is Juan Camilo. I am student of natural science at the  university of Los Andes Bogota (Colombia). I am 23 years old. I was the  president of the student council of the university in 2019. And I was a  student representative of Faculty of Science in 2018 and 2019. One of my  specialties at the university is vulcanology. I worked in the oil  industries, but I didn’t like it too much. I love to play video games,  watch series or anime. I started to work with CEA because I was apart of  the conference in NY. And I gave a presentation about the journey for  peace in the third world countries, especially Colombia. The idea was to  show the history of our country, and how much the people suffer. “

In the third episode,  we spoke with an international student from RUC, Anne Cassau. Anne  wanted to share her experience as an international student and what are  the challenges that international students are dealing with. And here is  what Anne said about herself:

My name is Anne Cassau, I am 24 years old, and I am in my last semester of my bachelor’s degree at Roskilde University.

For  me, the coronavirus pandemic has made me feel what 'distance' really  means. I am not able to meet my family, neither my long-distance  boyfriend. I think it is important to remember how many of us are living  abroad, studying, working, whatever it may be - but we are all facing  the same uncertainty: When can we go home? When can be meet our loved  ones again? Definitely, this is not the main issue of the pandemic but  surely a topic to discuss since the effects on our mental health are  potentially high. There are many perspectives on these issues, and this  is one of them. "

In the second episode,  we spoke with a student from RUC, Aubrie Kennel. Aubrie is bringing us a  slightly different perspective on the topic. And here is what Aubire  said about herself:

“My  name is Aubrie Kennel, I’m 20 years old, and I’m finishing up my  bachelor’s degree at Roskilde University. There’s no question that  Covid-19 has worsened the mental health of many, and completely altered  almost everyone’s day-to-day life. One could easily say that both our  own, individual mental health, and our collective mental health, have  been impacted in indescribable ways. But after losing control of our  world for a year and struggling to find purpose and meaning in our new  reality, it is so important that we recognize our capability to make  sure that those around us, and we ourselves, are seen, heard, and  acknowledged for all that we are, all that we feel, and all that we  survive.”

In  the first episode, we spoke to a student from UniAndes, Colombia. In  order to meet her, here is what she said about herself and her  experience during the pandemic:

"My  name is Andrea Pineda, and I'm a 22-years-old Political Science student  at Los Andes University in Bogota, Colombia. The pandemic hasn't been  fair with me; it has pushed me back four steps that I had once overcome  with my anxiety and depression. And I know this isn't an exceptional  situation - many of my friends are currently juggling virtual classes  and worsening mental health. It's unfair to us, university students from  all over the world, to be forced to continue our studies as if we  weren't facing a pandemic and continuous lockdowns that have turned our  lives 180º. Our mental health must be addressed, and it's our job to  bring the topic to discussion."

We end the second season of our podcast by discussing an issue close to all of us- education. With Federico, a Ph.D. student at Copenhagen Business School, Adrijana and Shreya discuss the ever-changing contexts of global higher education. Basing the episode on Achille Joseph Mbembe's "Decolonizing the university: New directions" the three students try to understand the complexities associated with the coexistence of different pieces of knowledge that negotiate the university space in a neoliberal environment. We try to place our own education in this perspective and wonder what this means for the future of higher education.

In this episode, we talk to Alejandra Yanet, an architect and a student of  regional development management, master student at RUC, from Colombia. We talked about her perspective on indigenous struggles in relation to identity and extractivism in South America, particularly Colombia. We look at these present struggles with a socio-historical lens and attempt to understand the different ways these conflicts are experienced by the actors involved. We also delved into the conception of terms like insider and outsider and compared their meanings in a European context and the South American context. We attempt to peel the multiple layers of complexities that constitute our social reality.

The third episode deals with the question of environmentalism politics. Furthermore about politicization and depoliticization of environmental politics and how does this affects environmentalism itself. Another important question that is raised in this episode is: is environmentalism failing and why. By discussing the different practices around the world this question will be unwrapped. Considering that environmentalism changed from its roots until now, the real issue is what is the future of environmentalism and what is its position in the modern world.

The second episode is dedicated to the text by Nanda Shrestha, “Becoming a Development Category.” Although this text was published over two decades ago and speaks about the personal journey of Shrestha and his experiences with the development, we found it relevant, considering that he tries to stay nonbiased when discussing development. Looking to development through his journey, where he unravels it layer by layer, helps us understand this notion’s depth and impact on people. In this episode, we will be discussing things such as social constructions and structural violence on the psyche.

Nanda Shrestha, Becoming a Development Category, Routledge, 1995

In the first episode of Season 2, we discuss the divide between Global North and Global South using Boaventura De Sousa Santos’ concepts of “abyssal thinking” and “epistemologies of the South.” Both ideas revolve around how cognitive biases, gaps, double-standards, and their legal and material manifestations (e.g., Guantanamo as a zone where human rights are suspended), serve to perpetuate the exploitation and oppression brought about in Western-centric modernity via patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism. We explore how these critical concepts provide us with a vocabulary and a framework to understand the complex layering of inequalities and social changes in the increasingly interconnected global web of human-made structures. Keeping these concepts in mind for future episodes throughout the season, we invite our listeners to consider these cognitive divisions as useful tools to understand otherwise perplexing forms of inequality as intrinsic to modernity itself.

BONAVENTURA DE SOUSA SANTOS, Epistemologies of the South; Justice against Epistemicide, Routledge, New York, 2016

In episode 5 of CEA Global Voices, we spoke with two psychologists about the challenges for motivation and reaching out during the lockdown, with a special focus on education. Bhasker Malu is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at CHRIST in Bangalore, India. He has developed a website- Onestoppsychology.com, and co-developed an android app called Summarizing Psychology. He has researched student motivation and contributed his insights into the role of isolation and technology on the psychology of human beings. Jesper Jørgensen is a space psychologist and astrosociologist. His knowledge about the psychology of astronauts and sailors who spend long periods of time in varying states of isolation, and about the role of space and time in how humans make sense of these states, complements this podcast. Together, we explored questions like: can demands on students be kept stable during these times? How should parents, educators, or other people in positions of responsibility react? As mental health has reached the status of a public health concern, the interconnected and intersectional nature of health, and the role of social interaction in our wellbeing is a topic that deserves in-depth discussion.

The ecological impact and implications of the coronavirus have been a topic of interest for many environmentalists. Global carbon emissions have fallen substantially - giving us an insight into, as some say, what the world would look like without fossil fuels. The unprecedented restrictions on travel, work and industry due to the coronavirus have ensured good air quality in many otherwise choked cities. Wildlife has returned to habitats. Pollution is considerably down across continents, in comparison to the pre-pandemic normality. Is this just a fleeting event, or could it lead to longer-lasting changes? We discuss this today with Prof. Tamara Steger, and Prof. T Jayaraman.

Guests:

Prof. Tamara Steger researches on environmental and social justice and currently teaches in Budapest, Hungary, at CEU (Central European University). She holds a Bachelor of Science (cum laude) from State University of New York, a Master of Marine Studies from University of Washington, and a Ph.D. (with distinction) from Syracuse University. T Jayaraman is a Senior Fellow of Climate Change at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai in India. He used to work as a Professor at School of Habitat Studies in Tata Inst. of Social Sciences, Mumbai. TJ is trained as a theoretical physicist, and his current interests include climate change and policy, economics of climate change, climate change and agriculture. He also looks at science policy, and the history and philosophy of science.

For the first episode of CEA Global Voices, we were joined by two experts on epidemiology: Catalina Gonzalez Uribe, Master in Anthropology as well as MSc in Social Epidemiology, as well as Doctorate in Epidemiology and Public Health from University of Los Andes, Colombia; and Maarten van Wijhe from Roskilde University, Denmark, postdoctoral researcher on epidemiology, who works with the historical and statistical aspects of infectious diseases. Both universities are part of Critical Edge Alliance (CEA), a global collaborative framework for innovative, student-centered, and critical universities around the world which has brought us together to create this podcast.

With the aim to understand the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of its historical context, we explored past, present, and future together: what makes this pandemic different from those in the past? Why and how did this pandemic catch so many completely off guard? What are the present challenges and future implications of COVID-19? Joined by Catalina, an epidemiologist with an interdisciplinary orientation having also studied psychology and anthropology, and Maarten, who contributed historical insights, we crossed boundaries and found a means to connect using our computers and critical minds. Together, we created something larger than the sum of its parts: a shared understanding of what makes our present meaningful and historical.