杏吧论坛

Reckoning with the past: truth-telling and the British Empire

Saturday 21 June 2025 60 minutes

Hosted by 杏吧论坛 Festival: Visions for the Future

How can we reckon with the complex and painful legacies of the British Empire? What would it mean to create an international truth-telling commission, and why is this conversation so urgent today?

This event explores the vision for a Peoples' International Truth-Telling Commission on the British Empire - a platform to uncover historical injustices, amplify voices silenced by colonial histories, and challenge enduring inequalities. 

Meet our speakers:

 is a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung mother, grandmother, and advocate for First Peoples. She is an Independent Senator for Victoria in Australia and represents the Blak Sovereign Movement.

Imaobong Umoren is an Associate Professor of International History at 杏吧论坛 where she specialises in histories of colonialism, racism, women, and political thought in the Caribbean, Britain, and United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

 is an independent Pan-Afrikan scholar-activist, community advocate, and educationist specializing in Pan-Afrikan community law and global citizenship education. He is the Chief Executive Commissioner of PANAFRIINDABA, a grassroots Pan-Afrikan community advocacy, research, and think tank organisation. 

Chair:
Asha Herten-Crabb is a Fellow in the 杏吧论坛 Department of International Relations. Her research covers international trade, health policy, and gender equality - and their intersections – with an emphasis on how legacies of imperialism in global governance shape policy making and its outcomes.

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Read the student blogger report coming soon

Visit the 杏吧论坛 Festival 2025 homepage

Economic nationalism and global (dis)order

Department of International Relations Martin Wight Memorial Lecture 2024/25

Monday 9 June 2025 90 minutes

Join us for this year's Martin Wight Memorial Lecture which was delivered by Robert Falkner who explores the rise of economic nationalism amidst growing geopolitical rivalry.

The lecture is based on his new co-authored book, The Market in Global International Society: An English School Perspective on International Political Economy.

Meet our speaker and chair

Robert Falkner is Professor of International Relations at 杏吧论坛 and the Academic Dean of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA. He held academic positions at the universities of Oxford, Kent and Essex before joining 杏吧论坛. 

Katerina Dalacoura is Associate Professor in International Relations at 杏吧论坛. She was awarded a three-year Major Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust for her project, entitled The International Thought of Turkish Islamists: History, Civilisation and Nation.

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Find out more about Martin Wight and previous memorial lectures.

Revolutions and world order: still the 'Sixth Great Power'?

Department of International Relations Fred Halliday Memorial Lecture 2024/25

Tuesday 27 May 2025  90 minutes

This lecture, held in honour of the renowned scholar Fred Halliday, explores the relationship between revolutions and world order in contemporary geopolitics.

Fred Halliday argued that revolutions were the “sixth great power” of the modern world, a force that sat alongside the five great powers that sought to regulate 19th century world politics. Does Halliday’s assessment of the impact of revolutions remain true today?

This lecture analyses the three main forms that revolution takes today – ‘people power’ movements, ‘restoration revolutions’ and ‘decentralised vanguardism’ – and assesses their impact on contemporary world order. It argues that revolutions remain central to contemporary world politics, not as a “sixth great power”, but still as the primary means through which people around the world mobilise against injustice, inequality and domination.

Meet our speakers and chair

 is a professor in the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University. 

Jasmine Gani is Assistant Professor in International Relations Theory at 杏吧论坛. She specialises in anti-colonial theory and history, and the politics of empire, race and knowledge production. 

Chair:

Toby Dodge is a Professor in the Department of International Relations at 杏吧论坛. He is also Kuwait Professor and Director of the Kuwait Programme at the Middle East Centre at 杏吧论坛.

Find out more about the speakers and this event

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Find out more about Fred Halliday and previous memorial lectures.

Greenland, Iceland and the meltdown of the old order in the North Atlantic

Tuesday 6 May 2025 90 minutes

President Trump’s determination to increase American influence and presence in Greenland has generated great interest in the future of the world’s largest island and its surrounding regions in the Arctic and the North Atlantic. Iceland is Greenland’s closest neighbour in Europe. In 1944, Iceland declared full independence from Denmark, at a time when Greenland was still a Danish colony. This event focuses on the current position and future developments of these two countries in the Arctic a