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Kanchana N. Ruwanpura is a Professor of Human Geography at the University of Gothenburg. Previously she was a Reader at the Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh, where she continues to be a Fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies. Her focus areas are uneven development, labour geographies and feminist politics. Ruwanpura held a Humboldt Fellowship at the University of Gottingen, Germany (2019-20) and was the France-ILO (International Labour Organisation) Chair Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Nantes, France. She has a book manuscript entitled Garments without Guilt? Global Labour Justice and Ethical Codes in Sri Lankan Apparels, imminent with Cambridge University Press.

A British-Sri Lankan by citizenship, Kanchana was born and grew up in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Much of her research has focused on her native country and the South Asian region more broadly. Until recently, she was a Reader at the Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh, where she also served as the Programme Director for the MSc in Environment and Development (2015-2019) and served as one of two Directors at the Centre for South Asian Studies (2014-2018). Since completing her PhD at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, she has worked at the University of Southampton (UK), Hobart & William Smith Colleges (USA), University of Munich (Germany) and the International Labour Office (Switzerland).

Building Success in Development and Peacebuilding by Caring for Carers: A Guide to Research, Policy and Practice to Ensure Effective, Inclusive and Responsive Interventions

Authors: Dr Eleanor Gordon and Dr Briony Jones

Find it on our website: tinyurl.com/toolkitcare

Ex-Combatants’ Claims to Moral Legitimacy, Professor John Brewer

12 May, 17-18:30h (UK time)

This lecture uses data from research on male and female ex-combatants in Northern Ireland,Republican and Loyalist, to address the moral claims to legitimacy they make in order to render their decision to engage in violence as rational and inevitable. These claims do not denude them of moral responsibility for their actions, but frame their actions as morally legitimate as a way of managing the problem of moral responsibility. Six claims to moral legitimacy are made: they were reluctant combatants; the decision to take up arms and to continue was emotionally problematic and not lightly taken; they were protecting their own community; they have been heavily involved in subsequent conflict transformation; the legacy of that decision leaves heavy suffering and costs to this day; and people should be judged on what they do now for conflict transformation, not on the past.

Find out more and register here: https://tinyurl.com/WICIDbrewer

Thank you to all those who were able to join us for the WICID Inaugural Lecture on March 31. Professor Mahmood Mamdani joined us to discuss his new book "Neither Settler Nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities" and Randolph Persaud and Teodora Todorova served as discussants. Thank you to our speakers! You can watch the recording here.

Mahmood Mamdani - Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities

Today is the day! Please join us for our WICID Inaugural Lecture at 12noon (UK time).

Register here or join us directly here.