Featured Talks
Discover the selection of the most popular talks.
26th October, 2020
Conversation with Professor Noam Chomsky about Neoliberalism and Climate Change in Bangladesh
It was a true honor to have a conversation with one of the greatest public intellectuals of the world, professor Noam Chomsky. We started our conversation discussing climate justice for Bangladesh, but our conversation quickly turned global, keeping Bangladesh in the center. It is only understandable that a towering intellectual like Chomsky can effortlessly connect the dots drawing examples from around the world, and yet constructed a coherent and compelling narrative about Bangladesh.
Jun 07, 2021
Data Colonialism and the Costs of Connection
Disrupting the conceptual neutrality of ‘DATA’, Prof Nick Couldry and Prof Ulises Mejias, affirm its colonizing repercussions, particularly on populations at the margins in the global south. These notable scholars explained how our lives are being colonized by data, which is not obvious to the uncritical eyes. Prof Couldry and Prof Mejias deny naively accepting the techno-optimism and techno-determinism promoted by the tech titans like Facebook and Google. They invite us to critically examine the politics of these incredibly powerful technologies that are reshaping our social relations, political landscape, and in some cases, reconfiguring what it means to be human in the age of exponential technologies like AI and Big Data.
Sep 26, 2021
Technology Addiction and the Mental Health of Bangladeshi Netizens Amid Covid Crisis
Enayet Chowdhury and I engaged in a dialogue about the ethics of technology design. We tried to unpack how the tech titans have become the attention merchants reducing the technology users into mere means for profit generation in many ways affecting our mental health adversely. We must recognize that the tech titans are not taking responsibility for adversely impacting our netizens' mental health. Technology is just a tool to make our lives easier, but if it is designed disregarding the well-being of the tool-users, we are in trouble.
Aug 22, 2021
CONVERSATION WITH PROFESSOR DAVID LIVINGSTONE SMITH: WHAT MAKES HUMANS THE MOST DANGEROUS SPECIES?
Professor David Livingstone Smith, is one of the leading authorities studying what makes humans cruel. In the Times Literary Supplement, Professor Smith has been described as "a philosopher seeking not just to interpret the world but to change it." Professor Smith borrows from a range of disciplines like philosophy, evolutionary biology, history, anthropology, and psychology to give the readers an intimate understanding of WHAT MAKES US OUR WORST ENEMY! Professor Smith is one of the most remarkable philosophers of our time. His book "On Inhumanity" has been praised by Cornel West (a living legend and a prominent African American philosopher) as "a philosophically sophisticated and prophetically courageous treatment of dehumanization, especially in regard to race. Although Professor Smith writes extensively about how we humans can brutalize each other, his work has been a beacon of light for me when I could not make sense of the mindless cruelty I grew up watching all around me. I strongly believe that understanding human conditions is critical for being kind and compassionate global citizens in a hyper-connected world.
Sep 5, 2021
CONVERSATION WITH WAFAA A. ALUDAINI: WAHT LIFE IS LIKE IN ISRAELI-OCCUPIED GAZA?
Wafaa A. AlUdaini is a remarkable Palestinian woman journalist reporting on the actual realities of Gaza and the resilience of Palestinians under the brutal Israeli occupation. Journalists like Wafaa's work are monumentally important for the world to know about Gaza because western media often fail to report with adequate integrity when it comes to writing and showing the raw realities of Palestine. We deeply appreciate Wafaa's work. According to Maria Holt (Unversity of Westminister), outside observers tend to imagine the face of Gaza as resolutely male: the bearded Hamas "militant", or the young man hurling stones across the border fence. But Palestinian women, both in Gaza and the West Bank, have a significant presence as activists, protesting against an unjust occupation and as the backbone of a fragmented and demoralized society. Women have been active in the Palestinian struggle since its early days. In the 1920s, they protested side by side with men against British control of their country. They formed charitable organizations and expressed themselves politically. After the state of Israel was created in 1948, the majority of Palestinians were forced to flee into exile, and here too, women played a key role as protectors of their families and repositories of the "national story". It was vital that Palestinians, wherever they were in the world, did not forget what had happened and continued to insist on their right to return to their homeland. Women passed their memories of Palestine down to subsequent generations.
18th September, 2020
Ontario's First Ever Black Caucus
Dr. Laura Mae Lindo is a knowledgeable advocate for the rights of women and girls, a respected ally to marginalized community members, and, most importantly, a courageous public speaker on issues often left unaddressed in the mainstream. Dr. Lindo is the Official Opposition Critic for Anti-Racism, and Citizenship and Immigration. She is the Chair of Official Opposition’s first Black Caucus, to collaborate with Black communities and allies to address systemic anti-Black racism in Ontario.
21 June, 2020
Black Lives Matter and the Race Politics in South Asian Diaspora
The brutal murder of George Floyd by a white police officer has mobilized millions of protesters in the USA and around the globe, protesting police brutality against the black communities. We will try to unpack what we can learn from the Black Lives Matter Movement and how we can stand in solidarity with this incredibly important movement that is making a monumental contribution towards racial justice in the USA and around the world.
7 August, 2020
Canada and Structural Racism in Education
Understanding Canada with critical lense is extremely important. Join us today in our critical conversation with an inspiring Member of the Provincial Parliament of Ontario, Doly Begum to discuss CANADA AND STRUCTURAL RACISM IN EDUCATION and how it impacts BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities. MPP Doly Begum is the first Canadian citizen of Bangladeshi origin who has been elected in the Provincial Parliament of Ontario in Canadian history.
3 July, 2020
Hijra Gender and the Politics of Sexuality in Bangladesh
In this critical webinar, we will explore the subject: Hijra Gender and Politics of Sexuality in Bangladesh. One of the prominent researchers in this field and an eminent anthropologist and assistant professor of the Anthropology Department at Jahangir Nagar University, Snigdha Rezwana will join us. We're also privileged to have two distinguished leaders from the hijra community of Bangladesh.