Voices: The EISA Podcast

This month, we are flipping the script a little: Our new episode features our producer Judith Koch (University of Sussex), whose recent PhD research offers a fresh perspective on Brexit: rather than a sudden rupture, she interprets it as the latest chapter in a decades-long tension between the UK and Europe. What if Brexit wasn’t a bolt from the blue, but just the latest instance in a decades-long struggle between the UK and its European counterparts? In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Judith talks us through the longer history of Brexit, all the way back to the Suez Crisis of 1956. Her work reframes Brexit as the collapse of a unique dynamic that had long sustained UK-European relations, challenging the usual story of the UK’s 2016 decision to leave the EU. Her work has been published in Global Political Economy, and she is currently working on her book. She has been a political journalist with Germany’s ARD for over a decade and now provides media training and produces podcasts for academic and research organisation - including this one!

Koch, J. (2023). The making of the Single European Act reconsidered: IPE, UCD and the challenge of supranationalism. Global Political Economy, 2(1), 98-120. Retrieved Jul 10, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1332/QLOC4375

PGR interviews ( 6 February 2025): Examining the evidence for why Britain took so long to leave the EU with Judith Koch. Sussex Research Hive.

Benquet, M., & Bourgeron, T. (2022). Alt-Finance: How the City of London bought democracy. Pluto Press.

Thompson, H. (2017). Inevitability and contingency: The political economy of Brexit. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 19(3), 434–449. https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148117710431

Pal, M. (Host), & Koch, J. (Guest). (1 March 2021). What is…Political Marxism? [Audio podcast episode]. In Voices - The EISA Podcast.](https://voices-the-eisa-podcast.podigee.io/11-new-episode)**)

What do recent controversies over statues reveal about global politics and the legacy of empire? In this episode, Rahul Rao (University of St. Andrews) joins us to discuss his new book “The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire” (Pluto Press, 2025). In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Rahul Rao talks us through his work in which he explores how debates over statues – from Cape Town to Bristol and Richmond – uncover deeper struggles over race, caste, and decolonisation, and how these disputes have reshaped anticolonial political thought. Journeying through sites of contestation across South Africa, England, the US, Ghana, India, Australia, and Scotland, he examines how societies grapple with justice, cultural memory, and belonging through the icons they choose to honour or remove. Rahul Rao´s research spans international relations, postcolonial and queer theory, and South Asian politics. His award-winning work focuses on the global politics of identity -especially gender, sexuality, race, and caste.

Rao, R. (2025): The psychic lives of statues: Reckoning with the rubble of empire. London, Pluto Press.

Rao, R. (2020): Neoliberal antiracism and the British university. Radical Philosophy, (2), 45–58.

Jain, K. (2021). Gods in the time of democracy. Duke University Press.

In this episode, we are joined by Noam Leshem (Durham University) to discuss his new book Edges of Care: Living and Dying in No Man’s Land. Noam Leshem explores the spatial politics of abandonment, highlighting how marginalised communities – like the Israeli Black Panthers fought against systemic discrimination faced by Mizrahi Jews in the 1970s united with marginalised Palestinians - found moments of solidarity in shared struggles against state neglect. Noam Leshem is associate professor of Political Geography at Durham University where he works closely with communities grappling with the impacts of violent conflict, emphasising creative methods and innovative collaborations. He is the current holder of a large grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK looking at the ability of displaced communities to determine the fate of cultural heritage collections when they are denied access to ancestral land that includes collaborations with museums and cultural institutions in the UK and Palestine. This project emerges out of earlier research focused on Arab urban space in Israel after the 1948 War that was the subject of his first book, Life After Ruin: The Struggles over Israel’s Depopulated Arab Spaces published by Cambridge University Press.

What does a just energy transition look like, and how do politics and power shape the global transition to low-carbon energy? In this episode, we speak with Peter Newell (University of Sussex), a leading expert on the political economy of environment and development, whose career spans more than three decades of research at different universities, including the Universities of Sussex, Oxford, Warwick and East Anglia, and FLACSO Argentina, policy advising, and activism. From climate change governance to corporate accountability and trade policy, he has worked across multiple continents, including Argentina, China, India, and South Africa, to analyse how political and economic forces influence environmental decision-making.

New ERC/UKRI funded project SUS POL

Co-founder of the Rapid Transition Alliance

Newell, P. (2024). Back from the dead: the ecology of IR. International Relations, 38(3), 331-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/00471178241269708

Newell, P., Roz Price, R. & Daley, F. (2024). Landscapes of (in)justice: Reflecting on voices, spaces and alliances for just transitions, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 116, 2014, 103701, ISSN 2214-6296, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103701.

Newell, P. (2024). Towards a more transformative approach to climate finance. Climate Policy, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2024.2377730

Szabó, J. & Newell, P. (2024): Driving towards a just transition? The case of the European car industry, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 115, 2024, 103649, ISSN 2214-6296, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103649.

Newell, P. & Daley, F. (2024). Supply-side climate policy: A new frontier in climate governance. WIREs Climate Change, 15(6), e909. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.909

Newell, P. & Carter, A. (2024): Understanding supply-side climate policies: towards an interdisciplinary framework. Int Environ Agreements 24, 7–26 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-024-09631-3

Newell, P., Daley, F., Mikheeva, O. & Peša, I. (2023). Mind the gap: The global governance of just transitions. Global Policy, 14, 425–437. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13236

In this episode, we are joined by Iosif Kovras, winner of the 2024 EISA Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR) Award, who explores the transformative role of forensic technologies in reshaping how societies confront their violent pasts. Iosif Kovras, an Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cyprus, and a leading voice in the fields of comparative transitional justice and human rights, focuses on questions of accountability, transitional justice, and the pursuit of truth in post-conflict settings. His current research explores the logic of the crime of disappearances in repressive and (post)conflict settings and is funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant. His extensive research agenda spans policies of accountability in post-conflict societies, the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and the complexities of enforced disappearances in repressive and conflict-ridden contexts. His forthcoming book, Accountability after Economic Crisis (Oxford University Press), examines how nations tackled the fallout of the 2008 financial meltdown through prosecutions, inquiries, and public apologies.

Kovras, I. (forthcoming): Accountability after Economic Crisis. Retribution, Truth, or Acknowledgment? Oxford University Press.

Kovras, I. (2023): Technologies of justice: forensics and the evolution of transitional justice. European Journal of International Relations, 29(1), 29-52.

Kovras, I. (2017): Grassroots Activism and the Evolution of Transitional Justice: The Families of the Disappeared. Cambridge University Press.

Rosenblatt, A. (2015). Digging for the Disappeared: Forensic Science after Atrocity. Stanford University Press.

What does it mean to take love and care seriously in the "deathworlds" of International Relations? How can these concepts reshape how we understand and navigate worlds marked by loss and violence? This episode shifts the focus of International Relations’ traditional preoccupation with war, violence, and insecurity to the themes of love and care. Host Polly Pallister-Wilkins is joined by Roxani Krystalli (University of St Andrews) and Philipp Schulz (University of Bremen), who explore the roles of love and care in reshaping worlds after loss, including ecological and interpersonal grief, as part of a collaborative project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and the German Research Foundation. Roxani’s work bridges feminist peace and conflict studies with the politics of nature and place. Drawing on her experience as both a researcher and a humanitarian practitioner, she focuses on gendered harms, justice, and peacebuilding – themes her recently published book “Good Victims: The Political as a Feminist Question” (2024, Oxford University Press) explores. Philipp investigates the gendered dynamics of armed conflict and violence, with a particular focus on masculinities and queer experiences in conflict settings. His work also examines sexual violence against men and issues surrounding forced migration.

Krystalli, R. and Schulz, P.: Centering Love and Care in Peace and Conflict Studies (2023-2026). Research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Krystalli, R. and Schulz, P. (2022): Taking Love and Care Seriously: An emergent research agenda for remaking worlds in the wake of violence.’ International Studies Review 24(1): 1-15.

Barthwal-Datta, M.; Krystalli, R. and Shepherd, L. (2024): 'Pedagogy as care. Love, loss, and learning in the world politics classroom.' Journal of International Political Theory 20(3): 247-258.

Schulz, P.; Apio, E. and Oryem, R. (2024): 'Love and Care in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda.' Global Studies Quarterly 4(2): 1-12.

Lorde, A. (1988): A Burst of Light and Other Essays. Firebrand Press.

Limón, A. (2018): The Carrying. Milkweed.

Limón, A. (2022): The Hurting Kind. Milkweed.

Pin-Fat, V. (2019): "‘What’s love got to do with it?’Ethics, emotions, and encounter in International Relations." Review of International Studies 45, no. 2: 181-200.

hooks, bell (1991): All about love. New York City: Harper.

Govindrajan, R. (2018): Animal Intimacies: Interspecies Relatedness in India's Central Himalayas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kimmerer, R. (2020): Braiding Sweetgrass. Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions.

Malatino, H. (2029): Trans Care. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Care Collective (2020): The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence. London: Verso Books.

Pádraig Ó Tuama (2020): 'One Tree.' Poetry Unbound.

What are the politics of human mobility through the lenses of visibility and invisibility? What does it mean for movement to be seen - or unseen - and who controls that? Joining us in this episode is Anna Finiguerra (King’s College London), whose Phd thesis “Ecologies of Visibility: Assembling the Politics of Mobility through Multiple Practices of Knowledge Production” won this year’s EISA best dissertation award. Anna Finiguerra’s research rethinks traditional frameworks of (in)visibility in studies on migration by examining events like the construction of the Gateway to Europe and migrant self-narration at the same site. Her work challenges traditional perspectives on how knowledge about migration is generated and how it is rendered visible and opaque in fundamentally different ways than if we were only to consider migration in terms of borders, and checkpoints. Anna Finiguerra, now a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the ESRC-funded project "Practice, Assemblage, and Emergence in the Governance of Freight Shipping" at King’s College London, brings a unique perspective informed by her work on mobility, materiality, and knowledge.

**Dr Anna Finiguerra **

Finiguerra, A. (2023): A boat’s afterlife: multiple translations of migratory debris. European Journal of International Relations 29 (3), pp. 628-650.

Finiguerra, A. (2022): Re-imagining Mobility: From (In)visibility to Multiple Processes of Making Present. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 51 (1), pp. 261-283. 10.1177/03058298221131358

Finiguerra, A. (2020): Vulnerable Solidarities: Identity, Spatiality and the Contentious Politics of Migration. OpenEdition

Tazzioli, M. (2019): The Making of Migration: The Biopolitics of Mobility at Europe’s Borders. S.l.: Sage Publications, Ltd (Book, Whole).

**Stengers, I. (2005): Introductory notes on an ecology of practices. Cultural Studies Review, 11(1), pp. 183–196.

Haraway, D. (1988): Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist studies, 14(3), pp. 575–599.

Why do women still die when they don´t have to? Despite global advancements and available resources, preventable deaths among women persist. Women continue to shoulder the weight of healthcare work and the socio-economic impact of health crises. Sophie Harman, prize-winning Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary London, is – as her new book flags – sick of it. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins they discuss Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women’s Health which maps out how women´s health is manipulated for political gain, from health-washing to attacks on maternity hospitals and the exploitation of health workers. As we navigate a year of crucial elections, this book offers a candid reflection on the state of women´s health in global politics and a vision for reclaiming equality in health. Sophie Harman brings her extensive expertise to the discussion. With seven academic books and numerous articles on global health politics, she has been a voice in major media outlets and a consultant for the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She has also co-written and produced the feature film Pili (2017), highlighting the real-life struggles of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. Tune in for a groundbreaking contribution that reveals the causes for why politics is still jeopardising women´s health around the world.

Harman, Sophie (2024): Sick of It. The Global Fight for Womens Health. London, Virago.

Harman, Sophie and Papamichail, Andreas (2025): Global Health Governance, 2nd edition. London, Routledge.

Pili (Sophie Harman, Leanne Welham, 2017)

Elnakib, Shatha; Aly, Sarah; Asi, Yara M. and Shawar, Yusra Ribhi (2024): The Humanitarian System: Politics can not be avoided. The Lancet 404 (10458), pp. 1105-1106.

Bedford, Kate (2019): Bingo Capitalism. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Dependency Theory provides a crucial framework for understanding the persistent inequalities shaping our global society which extend beyond borders, influence global conflicts, financial systems, and work at the intersections of gendered and racialised oppression. In this episode, Dr Felipe Antunes de Oliveira (Queen Mary University of London) is in conversation with host Judith Koch (University of Sussex) to discuss Dependency Theory which is rooted in Latin American thought. Felipe's unique dual perspective as a scholar of Latin American Political Economy and International Relations Theory on the one hand, and as a career diplomat on the other hand deeply informs his critical approach to development discourses. Felipe worked at the Department of South American Politics of the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations from 2012 until 2014, he acted as advisor to the Brazilian Executive Director at the IMF from 2019 to 2020, and is currently on a secondment to the Brazilian Ministry of Finance working as Coordinator General of International Economic Cooperation. His latest book, "Dependency and Crisis in Brazil and Argentina: A Critique of Market and State Utopias" (2024, University of Pittsburgh Press) proposes a way to overcome the problematic binary distinction between development and underdevelopment. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation!

Antunes de Oliveira, Felipe (2024). Dependency and Crisis in Brazil and Argentina. A Critique of Market and State Utopias. Pittsburg, University of Pittsburgh Press.

Antunes de Oliveira, Felipe (2024): Dependency And Crisis In Brazil And Argentina. Progress in Political Economy (PPE), July 9, 2024.

Antunes de Oliveira, Felipe & Kvangraven, Ingrid H. (2023). Back to Dakar: Decolonizing international political economy through dependency theory. Review of International Political Economy, 30(5), 1676–1700. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2023.2169322

Reis, Nadine, & Antunes de Oliveira, Felipe (2021). Peripheral financialization and the transformation of dependency: a view from Latin America. Review of International Political Economy, 30(2), 511–534. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2021.2013290

Antunes de Oliveira, F. (2020). Development for whom? Beyond the developed/underdeveloped dichotomy. J Int Relat Dev 23, 924–946. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-019-00173-9

Fajardo, M. 2021. The world that Latin America created: The United Nations economic commission for Latin America in the development era (Vol. 192). Harvard University Press.

Marini, Ruy Mauro (2022): The Dialectics of Dependency.edt. by Amanda Latimer and Jaime Osorio.Translated by Amanda Latimer. NY, Monthly Review Press.

Villegas Plá, B. (2023): Dependency theory meets feminist economics: a research agenda. Third World Quarterly, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2023.2292176

This episode explores the experiences of migrant academics. We are joined by Olga Burlyuk (University of Amsterdam) and Ladan Rahbari (University of Amsterdam), editors of "Migrant Academics’ Narratives of Precarity and Resilience in Europe" (2023, Open Book Publishers) who have curated this essential collection of narratives by migrant academics. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, they tease out the multifaceted experiences of migrant academics, shedding light on various forms of precarity. From challenging hiring practices and systemic sexism and racism to economic disadvantages and the often 'culturally accepted' yet problematic divisions of labour within academic spaces, these narratives are both eye-opening and crucial for the academic community.

In their own words, Olga Burlyuk and Ladan Rahbari emphasize the importance of recognizing that academia, despite its status and prestige, is not immune to precarity. They remind us of the systemic power imbalances that permeate all social strata, including the academic environment. Don't miss this wake-up call for academia to strive for a more just and inclusive space.

Dr. Olga Burlyuk

Dr. Ladan Rabhari

Burlyuk, Olga and Ladan Rahbari (editors) (2023): Migrant Academics’ Narratives of Precarity and Resilience in Europe. Cambridge, Open Book Publishers. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0331. Free ebook available.