If you are interested in finding out about what are decolonial research methodologies and why are they important in today's word, this roundtable conversation is for you. Three panel members, Ian Calliou, Cristina Sala and Pallawi Sinha will share with us their experiences developing decolonial research in different geographical contexts. Ian will share some of his journey as an indigenous researcher carrying out his PhD research in Canada on Indigenous reconciliation policies. Cristina will discuss some of her insights of using participatory methodology in conflict transformation with local communities in Latin America and Pallawi will share her experiences from working with Indigenous peoples and children in India. The panel will be chaired by Teresa Armijos and Iokiñe Rodriguez from the University of East Anglia. The session will be in a panel format. We will not have presentations but instead we will follow a conversation and commentary format. Come and join us in in this conversation where we will have open discussion about the opportunities and challenges of decolonising research methodologies.
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    University of East Anglia UEA
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    Ian Calliou
    Visiting Fellow, Centre for Trust, Peace, and Social Relations (Coventry University)
    Ian's research looks at using an Indigenous research paradigm in a social science setting. He wanted to share an Indigenous perspective on reconciliation in Canada, contextualizing the discussion within their ways of knowing, being, and doing. Ian negotiated a space within that discussion through his own Indigeneity, respectful, and reciprocal research practice, honouring the research ceremony, and being relationally accountable. Part of his decolonizing practice was to resist in his own research space against ‘playing the game’ and conforming to dominant practices. Rather than placing his Indigenous research vis a vis against Western practices Ian chose to articulate the knowledge shared within its own contextual space.

    Inspiration for his research
    A short extract from Kanatiio (Allen Gabriel) Kanesatakeronnon (Kanesatake Mohawk, Bear Clan). It is the Thanksgiving Address in the final report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996, Canada)
    'And now we come to you, Sonkwaiatison. You have created all this and you have given us certain instructions. We see that all the different nations of your Creation struggle to carry out the instructions you gave them in the beginning of time. They continue to strive in fulfilling their responsibilities and carrying out their duties as you have asked them to. It seems that only we, the two-legged, have difficulty in remembering your instructions. We seem to be blind to the lessons you have placed all around us. We are deaf to your teaching.'
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    Cristina Sala Valdes
    Senior Research Associate at the University of East Anglia
    I am Senior Research Associate at the University of East Anglia (England). Nowadays, I work in the project “School, territory and post-conflict: Grounding a local peace culture in Tolima, Colombia” at two levels: 1) generating new frameworks and concepts that help defining roles for communication in conflict scenarios and 2) doing practice-based research. I am counsellor and tutor of MA subjects and thesis within the Campus for Peace (Open University of Catalonia) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
    I am specialised in transdisciplinary research. I have obtained my PHD with a dissertation dedicated to “Pathways of Communications for Peace. Conceptualization, Critic Review and Proposals from the lenses of Communication towards Social Change and Conflict Transformation Theory” (University of Deusto). I hold a MA in Evaluation of Public Policies and Programs (Complutense University). As junior researcher in 2007-2008 and 2010-2011, I have completed two research periods (Marie Curie Research Grant) within the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, Uppsala University; and the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra. My current research interests include: communication towards conflict transformation, decolonization of peace, restorative memory, pluriverse, evaluation of communication for social change and peace.
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    Pallawi Sinha
    Lecturer in Childhood Studies at University of Suffolk
    Pallawi’s career commenced as a product designer before training as an educationist and a teacher. She completed her Master’s degree in 2012 and doctorate in 2016, at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, which culminated in her two postdoctoral positions at the University. For the past thirteen years, Pallawi has sought to build knowledge on childhood studies centring on: marginalised and disadvantaged communities, education, difference, ethics and politics of education and research, indigeneity, political economy and decolonisation. Today, her research interests include: comparative education and international development, early years education and care, ‘other’ epistemologies, qualitative research, arts, culture and community, and place-making. Her doctoral investigation with the indigenous Sabar peoples of India has been published widely and through unique insights gained from rich data makes pertinent contributions to ethical, empirical and epistemic traditions. Pallawi’s previous research with street-children was published as a book chapter in Education, Childhood and Anarchism: Talking Colin Ward.
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    Teresa Armijos Burneo
    Lecturer in Natural Resources & International Development
    Teresa originally trained in History (University of Virginia, 2003) and then completed postgraduate degrees in Development Studies from the University of Oxford (Mphil. 2005) and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (Ph.D. 2012). Her research explores the relationship between humans and the environment by looking at the politics of natural resource management, hazards and risk from a citizenship, human rights and environmental justice perspective.
    She is currently working on different collaborative interdisciplinary projects that focus on disaster risk management, vulnerability and environmental justice. Teresa is particularly interested in exploring the role that combining different methodologies from the social and physical sciences with the arts and humanities can play in understanding risk to natural hazards and finding innovative ways of empowering communities to respond and cope with these challenges in the long term. Theresa has experience in qualitative and action research in Ecuador, Colombia, St. Vincent, Montserrat, Peru, Argentina and Guyana.
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    Iokine Rodriguez Fernandez
    Senior Lecturer DEV School of International Development
    Iokiñe Rodríguez is a Venezuelan sociologist, with an M.Phil. in Environment and Development from the University of Cambridge, England, a Ph.D. in Development Studies from the University of Sussex, England and a post-doctorate from the Centre of Social Studies of Science at the Venezuela Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC). She specializes on local environmental knowledge and conflict transformation in Latin America using participatory action-research. She has worked in Venezuela, Guyana, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Colombia building local and institutional capacity to transform environmental conflicts. Her work on environmental conflict transformation focuses on issues of local history, local knowledge, power, environmental justice, equity and intercultural dialogue. She is co-founder of Grupo Confluencias, a consortium of Latin American conflict resolution practitioners, researchers and institutions actively engaged for more than 10 years developing processes of environmental conflict transformation, and who have been working together since 2005 in the development of a platform for deliberation, joint research, and training in this topic. Iokiñe is currently a Senior Lecturer in Environment and Development at DEV-UEA where she forms part of the Global Environmental Justice Group.