In the closing keynote conversation of the 2025 Toronto TWAIL Conference organized by Osgoode Hall Law School, on 6 September 2025, Ọláolúwa Òní engaged Balakrishnan Rajagopal on the conference theme: A Structured Ambivalence? A Multidisciplinary International Conference on Third World Approaches to International Law and Governance in a Time of Global Crises.
Category Archive: TWAILR: Dialogues
Jake Okechukwu Effoduh interviewed Usha Natarajan on 5 September 2025 for the opening keynote conversation of the Toronto TWAIL Conference ~ ‘A Structured Ambivalence? TWAIL and Governance in a Time of Global Crises’ at Osgoode Hall Law School. They discussed resisting the diverse attempts to undermine radical scholarship, considering in particular Palestine, environmental and migration crises, and #MeToo in academia.
Benjamin P. Davis talks to Usha Natarajan about Ben’s book on the inspirational Caribbean poet, Édouard Glissant. What we can learn from Glissant about human rights? What does Glissant mean by the ‘right to opacity’? Is it necessary and possible to know the Other? How do we ‘choose our bearing’ and engage in ethical academic and legal praxis amid neoliberal institutions that are complicit in genocide, famine, violence, and suffering?
Sarah Riley Case talks with Usha Natarajan about the foundational link between racism and ecological harm and how to repair relations between peoples and planet. They discuss Sarah’s research on recovering third world ecologies, making reparations, and reconceptualizing the human, and conclude by considering the crucial situation in Palestine.
What is the role of the (legal) intellectual in social transformation today, amid escalating environmental and economic injustice, and the rise of racist regimes worldwide? How should the tactics of third world anti-imperialists evolve amid the disintegration of US power and the mass suffering inflicted by the death throes of US imperialist and capitalist hegemony? While international laws and institutions have contributed to structuring and reproducing suffering across the global south, what role (if any) can law play towards structuring a world order for peace and ecological stability based on respectful interrelations? Vijay Prashad discussed these issues and more with Usha Natarajan and John Reynolds online on 23 April 2025.
A roundtable discussion involving Sumedha Choudhury, Julia Dehm, André Dao, Haris Jamil, Richard Joyce, Adil Hasan Khan, Tanvee Nandan, Dianne Otto and Saika Sabir, expressing their indebtedness to the Palestinian scholars they had read together.
Fathima Cader & Sujith Xavier discuss conceptualisations and practices of solidarity in response to genocidal violence against Tamils and Palestinians.
This conversation was an online panel discussion on 29 November 2023 with Katherine Franke, Shahd Hammouri, Ardi Imseis, Darryl Li, John Reynolds, and Nahed Samour. It is published in three parts: 1. Influences, 2. The Role of Law, 3. Academic Freedom, BDS & Contemporary Tactics. The panel was organized by Usha Natarajan and sponsored by Sijal Institute for Arabic Language and Culture; TWAIL Review; Center for Comparative Muslim Studies at Simon Fraser University; UWIN RAACES at University of Windsor; Social Justice Center at Kwantlen Polytechnic University; and Middle East Studies at University of British Columbia.
This conversation was an online panel discussion on 29 November 2023 with Katherine Franke, Shahd Hammouri, Ardi Imseis, Darryl Li, John Reynolds, and Nahed Samour. It is published in three parts: 1. Influences, 2. The Role of Law, 3. Academic Freedom, BDS & Tactics. The panel was organized by Usha Natarajan and sponsored by Sijal Institute for Arabic Language and Culture; TWAIL Review; Center for Comparative Muslim Studies at Simon Fraser University; UWIN RAACES at University of Windsor; Social Justice Center at Kwantlen Polytechnic University; and Middle East Studies at University of British Columbia.
This conversation was an online panel discussion on 29 November 2023 with Katherine Franke, Shahd Hammouri, Ardi Imseis, Darryl Li, John Reynolds, and Nahed Samour. It is published in three parts: 1. Influences, 2. The Role of Law, 3. Academic Freedom, BDS & Contemporary Tactics. The panel was organized by Usha Natarajan and sponsored by Sijal Institute for Arabic Language and Culture; TWAIL Review; Center for Comparative Muslim Studies at Simon Fraser University; UWIN RAACES at University of Windsor; Social Justice Center at Kwantlen Polytechnic University; and Middle East Studies at University of British Columbia.