Partitions & Decolonization

Wed Oct 29 2025 at 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm UTC-04:00

Heyman Center for the Humanities | New York

The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities
Publisher/HostThe Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities
Advertisement
A panel discussion about two recent works addressing ongoing effects of decolonization and partition.
About this Event

If you are a Columbia/Barnard affiliate with campus access, please use your Columbia/Barnard email when registering.

Each attendee must have their OWN registration and email address.

Registration for external guests closes at 4PM on October 28. Registration will automatically close at that time. Columbia/Barnard affiliates may register at the door.

Post–World War II came an era of rapid decolonization across the Global South; a period about which Ghanaian revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah exultantly wrote that European direct rule was“everywhere in retreat.” Still, those anticolonial victories were experienced unevenly across the decolonizing world, often undone by new forms of neocolonial exploitation, partitions, rising authoritarianism, and counterinsurgent violence. For many peoples, especially in spaces remade by settler colonialism and native dispossession, independence remained out of reach. As the hopefulness of Nkrumah’s era has long since waned, the reality of a world divided between well-fed and hungry has only become more sharply defined, and naked forms of colonial violence—as with the ongoing genocide in Palestine—continue to shape our political horizons. This event brings together two recent publications and their authors: Esmat Elhalaby, author of Parting Gifts of Empire: Palestine and India at the Dawn of Decolonization (UC Press, 2025) and the editors of Radical History Review: Decolonization Now (153: October 2025) Manan Ahmed Asif, Marissa Moorman, and Jessica Namakkal. The panel will offer a presentation by Elhalaby and a discussion of *Decolonization Now* from the perspective of our ongoing partitions and dispossessions.


About the Speakers

Manan Ahmed is a historian of early modern and modern Indian Ocean World. He is the author, most recently, of Disrupted City (2024).

Esmat Elhalaby is an Assistant Professor of Transnational History at the University of Toronto. He is a historian of colonial and anti-colonial thought in modern West and South Asia and author of Parting Gifts of Empire: Palestine and India at the Dawn of Decolonization (UC Press, 2025).

Marissa J. Moorman is Professor of African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin –Madison and the Faculty Director of the African Studies Program. Her research focuses on politics and culture in colonial and independent Angola. Author of two books: Powerful Frequencies: Radio, State Power, and the Cold War in Angola, 1931-2002 (Ohio University Press, 2019) and Intonations: a Social History of Music and Nation in Luanda, Angola, 1945-Recent Times (Ohio University Press, 2008), she is at work on a book about the Luanda Trial of Mercenaries in 1976, tentatively titled “Imperialism on Trial.” With Sean Jacobs, she is co-writing A People’s History of Contemporary Africa, under contract with Columbia University Press. She is currently a member of the School for Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University.

Jessica Namakkal is a historian of empire, colonialism, anti-colonialism, and decolonization. She teaches in International Comparative Studies, History, Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and Asian American and Diaspora Studies at Duke University. She is the author of Unsettling Utopia: The Making and Unmaking of French India (2021) as well as numerous other scholarly and popular articles and essays. She is a member of the Radical History Review editorial collective and a co-editor on the website the Abusable Past.

Please email [email protected] to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs. This event will be recorded. By being present, you consent to the SOF/Heyman using such video for promotional purposes.

Advertisement

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Heyman Center for the Humanities, East Campus Residence Hall, New York, United States

Tickets

USD 0.00

Sharing is Caring:

More Events in New York

Fifth Avenue Association: Annual Membership Meeting
Wed, 29 Oct at 09:00 am Fifth Avenue Association: Annual Membership Meeting

767 5th Ave

MOMENTUM+\/ You're a UXer Gamifying Solutions
Wed, 29 Oct at 10:00 am MOMENTUM+/ You're a UXer Gamifying Solutions

Manhattan

Test 09\/19 JS
Wed, 29 Oct at 10:00 am Test 09/19 JS

One Liberty Plaza

NYC Private Investor Lunch
Wed, 29 Oct at 12:00 pm NYC Private Investor Lunch

New York

The Making of the Hebrew Gay
Wed, 29 Oct at 12:30 pm The Making of the Hebrew Gay

King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center

Museum of Public Relations Field Trip
Wed, 29 Oct at 03:00 pm Museum of Public Relations Field Trip

Museum of Public Relations

TONIJAXX & FRIENDS presents "DA HORRORS OF HIP HOP"
Wed, 29 Oct at 05:00 pm TONIJAXX & FRIENDS presents "DA HORRORS OF HIP HOP"

The Delancey Rooftop

Engineering for a Circular Economy
Wed, 29 Oct at 05:00 pm Engineering for a Circular Economy

88 Pine St 4th fl

College Fair @ StreetSquash
Wed, 29 Oct at 05:00 pm College Fair @ StreetSquash

SL Green StreetSquash Center

Kevin Blancq Big Band | WED
Wed, 29 Oct at 05:30 pm Kevin Blancq Big Band | WED

Swing 46

Ivan Dalia @ The Nines
Wed, 29 Oct at 05:30 pm Ivan Dalia @ The Nines

The Nines

New York is Happening!

Never miss your favorite happenings again!

Explore New York Events