The Fletcher Forum Podcast The Fletcher Forum

Second year MALD, Julia Shufro, discusses the field of human security with international security professor, Rockford Weitz. Listen to their conversation about the role of protecting civilians in conflict, considering people when creating policy, and the nexus of human rights and human security.

The Self-Help Group movement that began in South Asia has now proliferated across developing countries of the world. Seen as a means of women’s financial and social empowerment, SHGs have been a popular development intervention. In this conversation with Dr. Michael Woolcock, Lead Social Scientist at the World Bank and  Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, we delve into the history of SHGs, their desired and sometimes undesired outcomes and their relevance today.

This podcast features Jordan Strouse, a 3rd year Fulbright grantee in Taiwan who joins the forum to comment on the intersections of linguistic interplay and exchange in Taiwan. The conversation also includes his commentary on Taiwan’s bilingual 2030 policy and the challenges of teaching English in an environment where students might speak any of 5 languages natively

A podcast with Ian Lesser, Vice President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States discussing the future of European Security from an American perspective. If the Helsinki Accords have been abandoned with the war in Ukraine, can Europe replace them with something new? Throughout European history, the neutral countries have played a large role in this, by tying great powers together or holding them accountable. What could this new role for neutral European states look like, and which European states can be counted upon to take up the mantle of neutrality in the future? All this and more on this episode of the Fletcher Forum Podcast!

The 2022 Fifa World Cup was significant in many ways. As Lionel Messi lifted the long elusive trophy, controversy was not far. One of the many discussions around the Cup was on the role of Qatar as the host. We try to go deeper into the many international relations controversies from the view of those in the Global South. 

We explore the question of whether the United States is colonizing knowledge through international students. We are joined by two experts on the topic: Maria Carolina Sintura (Sintu) is a teacher and Ph.D. student in the English Department at UCSB. Her research brings together the Legal Humanities, Critical University Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Women of Color Feminisms as she studies the discourses constructed around the figure of international students and scholars at the U.S American University, and Rohini Roy is a 2023 MALD candidate at the Fletcher School with a focus on gender and intersectional analysis and human security. Currently, Rohini’s research focuses on developing queer methods for social research.

We discuss how the US has historically dominated the production and dissemination of knowledge and how this has had a disproportionate impact on people from developing countries. We also explore the ways in which international students are often forced to assimilate into US academic norms, which can lead to the loss of their own cultural and intellectual traditions.


Resources on the topic


Resources shared by Rohini Roy:


Anumol, Dipali, and Rohini Roy. "The Racism of Being Tolerated: The Experience of Being Brown Women in ‘International Relations.’" Tufts Observer, 12 Dec. 2022, tuftsobserver.org/the-racism-of-being-tolerated-the-experience-of-being-brown-women-in-international-relations/. Tracking Epistemic Violence: Tracking Practices of Silencing. By Moya Bailey. Hypatia, vol. 35, no. 4, 2020, pp. 878–899. doi:10.1111/hypa.12813. Ahmed, Sara. Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Duke University Press, 2006.
Resources shared by Maria Carolina Sintura:


Ferguson, Roderick A. “The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference.” Chapter 6 in The Reorder of Things: The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference, by Roderick A. Ferguson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012. Ferguson, Roderick A. 2012. The Reorder of Things: The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference. Difference Incorporated. Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press. Chapter 5: Immigration and the Drama of Affirmation. Christian, Barbara. “Diminishing Returns: Can Black Feminism(s) Survive the Academy?” New Black Feminist Criticism, 1985-2000, edited by Gloria Bowles et al., University of Illinois Press, 2007, pp. 204–15. Hong, Grace Kyungwon. “The Future of Our Worlds: Black Feminism and the Politics of Post-Diaspora.” Social Text, no. 26, 2008, pp. 1–24. doi:10.1215/01642472-2008-004.