Links
Announcements
Call for Papers
Afro-Asian Critical Psychology Conference 4th – 6th May 2021
Psychology in the global south is heavily influenced by mid-twentieth-century American Psychology, this has often meant that the discipline has replicated American cultural ideals onto local contexts. In doing so, psychology has become a means of erasing local psychologies and socially relevant ideas. The call to decolonise is not a new one, but in recent years it has been gaining traction and gathering form. For critical psychology, this is a chance to challenge hegemonies of cultural dominance and essentialisms. Critical psychology attempts to provide more meaningful psychology that is grounded in historical, economic and local contexts. It is a psychology that constantly questions power structures and allies itself with radical ways of thinking about the world. Critical psychology does not shy away from being political as it does not cling to faux neutrality. The focus of the discipline and allies itself with activism.
It is an undeniable fact that most of the knowledge that circulates around the world comes from the countries located in the North Atlantic: United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany. To address the issue of epistemic violence it is becoming essential to collaborate with academics and experts who work in the global south.
Aim of the Conference:
Through this online based conference, we seek to create a platform for academics to interrogate the exclusion, silencing, invisibility and inaudibility of work by scholars from Africa, Asia and wider global south regions. Systematic distortions of meanings of contributions and the diminished status assigned to the work/knowledge produced from these regions. Discussions and sessions will provide academics from the named regions with an opportunity to call attention to the unjust structures of meaning making, knowledge production practices and dissemination of such in the wider field of global academia.
In addition, through this conference, we hope to create an international networking opportunity for critical psychologists from the wider global south regions in order to facilitate a collaborative response to the highlighted challenges from these regions.
By making this conference virtual we hope to make this an accessible space and open to scholars at a minimal or no cost.
Themes:
Resisting hegemonies.
Emerging discourse.
Interdisciplinary alliances.
Responding to the local political environment.
Locating critical psychology in history.
The position of critical psychology in a local context.
Submission of abstracts:
Academics and researchers are invited to submit a proposal on or before the deadline below. You should indicate the type of session that you would like to undertake. Please note that we are especially keen to receive abstracts from academics and practitioners at different stages of their careers. Research groups and postgraduate students are also welcome to submit abstracts for this conference.
Send us your abstract of 250 words with a title and brief biography about yourself (no more than 50 words). Title your email as – ‘abstract submission 2022’. Our email address is- afroasiancriticalpsy@gmail.com
Important dates:
Abstract submission deadline -15th December 2021
Notification of acceptance -27th February 2022
Conference dates- 4th-6th May 2022
We will give participants a chance to publish their completed papers in a special issue of the Annual Review of Critical Psychology (ARCP). This is a peer-reviewed open access journal with contributions from scholars across the world.
Conference organisers:
Dr Mvikeli Ncube and Dr Sonia Soans.
While maintaining independence, the organisers of this conference work closely with several universities across the global south region. We are affiliated with the Discourse Unit, a trans-institutional centre that supports radical theory and practice.
FREE MEMBERSHIP FOR PERSECUTED PEACE SCHOLARS
Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology
Academic freedom is under attack around the world. Attacks on academics and students are occurring with alarming frequency. In this context, I find it very important for professional organizations to offer support to persecuted scholars.
I am a persecuted scholar myself. Three years ago, in April, I was fired from my position at Doğuş University in Istanbul for having signed a peace petition in January 2016. My dismissal, as well as other dismissals across Turkey, was part of the vicious campaign against Academics for Peace.
Dismissals were initially carried out formally. My dismissal, for instance, followed the recommendation by a “university investigation committee”. After July 2016, when the regime declared a state of emergency, there was no need to pretend there was any due process. The regime carried out mass purges with emergency decrees. Academics were banned from any kind of public service for life. These decisions were final, with no legal recourse. Purged academics were destined to remain outside of academic institutions. They could not continue their work outside of Turkey either because they were not allowed to leave.
I happened to be outside of Turkey when the state of emergency was declared. This is why I have been able to continue some of my academic work in exile in Europe, with the support of several academic institutions. In June 2016, I was declared a “scholar at risk” by the Scholars At Risk Network, based in New York. In March 2017, I was offered a visiting position by the University of Macerata, in Italy. In May 2017, I was offered the “Emergency Solidarity Fellowship” by the Université libre de Bruxelles, in Belgium. In 2018, I joined Goethe University Frankfurt a.M. with the support of Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Scholarships for International Scholars.
In 2018, a number of professional organizations in psychology started offering free yearly membership to persecuted scholars. These organizations included the International Association of Political Psychology and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
Earlier this year, I asked the Executive Committee to recognize the importance of supporting persecuted scholars. I am glad to announce that the Executive Committee decided unanimously to offer one-year membership to persecuted peace scholars (i.e., scholars whose work is focused on peace). This is a limited gesture but meaningful, nevertheless.
I would, therefore, appreciate if you could circulate this announcement in your networks.
Interested colleagues can contact me at this address: serdardegirmencioglu@gmail.com.
Serdar M. Değirmencioğlu, Ph.D.
President, Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology