Discussing Decolonisation Reading Group 2025/26

About:

The Discussing Decolonisation Reading Group (DDRG) is an internal reading and discussion group, set up and co-convened by Lucy Potter and Laura Key, to complement our ongoing public event series. 

Whilst our 2024/25 readings focused on exploring the history and politics of decolonisation via twentieth-century anti-colonial thought, the readings for 2025/26 will be more closely aligned with this year’s Discussing Decolonisation event series in order to facilitate deeper engagement with the issues explored by our guest speakers and facilitators.

The sessions will generally take place online, over lunchtime, but the day of the week will vary to hopefully enable more colleagues to participate. Although it would be beneficial to attend all sessions, colleagues are more than welcome to join the reading group at any time and/or to dip in and out over the course of the year.

Please note that the texts below are offered as prompts for thinking and discussion, and there is no requirement to finish all the reading suggested. Wherever possible, we will point to key extracts around which we can base our conversations, and/or suggest podcasts or other media sources that can be accessed in lieu of the written materials.

Please click here to sign up for the reading group, and/or email Lucy Potter or Laura Key if you would like any more information.

Reading Group Schedule:

Session 1: Tuesday 21st October, 12-1pm

On climate, race and the struggle for justice (following guest lecture by Dr Leon Sealey-Huggins, on 8th Oct 2025). 

Read one or both of the following:

• Sealey-Huggins, L. (2017). ‘‘1.5°C to Stay Alive’: Climate Change, Imperialism and Justice for the Caribbean’. Third World Quarterly, 38(11), 2444–2463. [Access online] 
• Sealey-Huggins, L. (2018) ‘The climate crisis is a racist crisis: structural racism, inequality and climate change’. In Johnson, A., Joseph-Salisbury, R. and Kamunge, B. (eds), The Fire Now: Anti-Racist Scholarship in Times of Explicit Racial Violence. London, UK: Zed Books, pp. 99-113. [Download PDF chapter, or borrow physical copy from YSJ Library]

Bonus reading: Vergès, F. (2017). ‘Racial Capitalocene’. In G. T. Johnson and A. Lubin (eds), Futures of Black Radicalism. London: Verso, pp. 72-82. [Purchase online, or borrow from YSJ Library]

Session 2: Friday 23rd January, 12-1pm (rescheduled from 12th Dec)

On environmental warfare and activism in Palestine (preceding discussion event on 6th Feb 2026)

Read the ‘Introduction – Colonial legacies of farm warfare’ and, if time, Chapter 4 ‘Israeli herbicidal warfare as colonial practice’ of Environmental Warfare in Gaza, by Shourideh C. Molavi:

• Molavi, S. C. (2024). Environmental Warfare in Gaza: Colonial Violence and New Landscapes of Resistance. London: Pluto Books (Ebook available from YSJ Library)

You might also be interested in the Verso podcast on ‘climate colonialism’, which explores the deep connections between colonialism, capitalism and climate crisis, and what this means for the struggle for justice including in relation to Palestine.

Session 3: Tuesday 10th March, 12-1pm

On racism, resistance and the mainstreaming of the far right (following guest lecture by Dr Aaron Winter on 24th Feb)

Read the following excerpt from Aaron Winter’s book, co-authored with Aurelien Mondon, Reactionary Democracy: How Racism and the Populist Far Right Became Mainstream (Verso, 2020):

• Excerpt: Illiberal Racisms, Extremism and the Discursive Reconstruction of the Far Right | Verso Books

And/or the following op-ed, published by Open Democracy in 2018:

• Op-ed: Understanding the mainstreaming of the far right | openDemocracy

You might also be interested to listen to Aaron discussing free speech, reactionary politics and the far right on this Sociological Review podcast from June 2025 (43:56), and/or talking about researching racism and anti-racism on The Sociology Staffroom Podcast from Sept 2025 (01:11:18).

Dates and readings for future sessions will be confirmed as soon as possible. In the meantime, you can find more recommended reading and resources on a range of topics from our Decolonisation at YSJ webpages.