Tenth CIF Speaker Series Session
Shampa Biswas and Anne Harrington Make a Case for Decolonizing Nuclear Studies
On March 14, 2024, the Critical Issues Forum (CIF) at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) hosted Dr. Anne Harrington, Associate Professor at Cardiff University, and co-founder and Project Director of HIGHLY NRICHED, and Professor Shampa Biswas, Judge and Mrs. Timothy A. Paul Chair of Politics and Co-Chair of Politics at Whitman College, in the tenth session of the CIF Speaker Series. Conducted online, the session saw Harrington and Biswas introduce their new project entitled “Decolonizing Nuclear Studies.” Aimed at changing the discourse around nuclear studies, the project is focused on making anti-racism, postcolonialism, and feminism integral to the teaching of nuclear weapons’ policy and practice. Students and educators from the United States, Japan, and Canada attended the session.
The session started off with an introduction to CNS, CIF, and the speakers by CIF Project Manager, Masako Toki. In her remarks, she highlighted the importance of engaging young people bringing diverse voices in substantive discussions on a range of nuclear issues. She also gave a run-down of CIF’s activities and initiatives while introducing its upcoming Spring Students Conference entitled “Advancing Nuclear Disarmament and Nonproliferation Through Youth Education.”
This round of introductions was followed by Prof. Biswas’ presentation, in which she introduced the Decolonizing Nuclear Studies project, its overview, and the rationale behind launching it. She started her presentation by arguing that academic change is a slow process both in terms of curriculum and pedagogy. Therefore, she asserted that “academia is a slow-moving beast. “This, according to Prof. Biswas, is primarily because it becomes difficult for scholars to challenge the basic tenets of their respective disciplines and get published. Such limitations, she stressed, reduce the prospect of innovation. That being said, Biswas acknowledged that outside pressure, especially from young people, made some change possible, not least in the 1960s and 1970s. She noted how civil rights and feminist movements, and students’ protests forced academic institutions to introduce new programs, such as those in race and ethnic studies. She also noted that these programs enriched our understandings and gave us new tools to analyze global issues. The knowledge that this wave of activism produced, she argued, created pressure groups who brought scholarly insights to advocate for the decolonization of existing disciplines.
After giving this backgrounder, Prof. Biswas made remarks about the receptivity of nuclear studies to decolonization endeavors, stating that, when narrowly defined, the discipline has been resistant to change. She pointed out that the security studies field is still conventional, with its syllabi primarily centered on concepts like deterrence. While arguing that current curricula and teaching methods do not build an intellectually strong case for nuclear disarmament, Prof. Biswas said it is important to transform the way nuclear issues are taught to younger generations. All this, Prof. Biswas said, gave them the motivation to launch their project.
Prof. Biswas then went on to succinctly introduce the project, focusing on its modules and methodologies. She told listeners that they emphasize the use of visual learning techniques given that those resonate with learners in a more befitting way.
Prof. Biswas’ compact presentation was followed by that of Dr. Harrington. She centered her talk on explaining the project’s learning resources and activities, which are collated and catalogued on the online platform of HIGHLY NRICHED. Dr. Harrington said the online educational resources are an all-important part of this project as they are instrumental in providing educational resources and technical support to teachers and students. She highlighted that, in addition to getting access to a lot of nuclear-related content through HIGHLY NRICHED, students and educators can listen to experts and their pathways to successes in the nuclear field. This, Dr. Harrington said, is coupled with the option of contacting them. Dr. Harrington noted that all this makes HIGHLY NRICHED an important resource to build both a knowledge base and a professional network.
Thereafter, to give an example, Dr. Harrington walked through one of the project’s activities. Entitled “The Sounds of Nuclear Expertise,” this activity asked attendees to make sense of an individual’s expertise by listening to their audio. Based on a set of questions related to the audios, a discussion ensued between Dr. Harrington, Toki, and the attendees. They dissected the audio clips, sharing their views on the strengths and weaknesses of the contents.
At the end, Prof. Biswas and Dr. Harrington engaged in a thought-provoking question-and -answer session. It was focused on looking at ways to induct young, energetic voices in the debate surrounding nuclear weapons. One of the surest ways to do that was identified by Prof. Biswas, when she stressed the need for linking nuclear-related issues with topics like climate change and racism, to name a few. The session also featured a question on the prospect of nuclear abolition. Answering that, Dr. Harrington said it is important to first bolster institutional and structural frameworks that deal with verifications.
This event highlighted the importance of innovative ideas to engage more young people in disarmament and nonproliferation discussions. CIF is looking forward to further collaborations with HIGHLY NRICHED to promote disarmament and nonproliferation education.