I strive to layer my contributions to academic service, research, and teaching. In the realm of service I have been the Undergraduate Coordinator for the Department of International Development Studies since 2019, and I am a founding co-chair of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility standing committee as well as the Chair/Coordinator Search Committee. I served as the Section and Program Chair of the Global Development Section of the International Studies Association in 2020, and deputy chair and newsletter editor for the same association in 2018 and 2019.
I approach teaching symphonically: the role of the teacher, like the role of a symphony’s conductor, is to hone distinct skills of different parts of the classroom and deploy methods to amplify and de-amplify voices—in the end, a beautiful collective song emerges. Good teaching is demonstrated when the teacher can fade into the background while students continue to collaborate creatively and critically in a way that supports one another. My ultimate goal in the classroom is to facilitate autonomous and passionate learning.
I am currently engaged in an exciting project entitled Racialization of Asian international students funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant. As a Co-Investigator and project lead for the Halifax/Dalhousie Case Study, I am recruiting students willing to share their experiences who are current international students hailing from China, India, and South Korea. Please see the Project Homepage for more information
Decolonising Palestine Book Talk with Dr. Somdeep Sen
I had the great privilege to sit down with Dr. Somdeep Sen, author of Decolonising Palestine: Hamas between the anticolonial and the postcolonial for the purposes of posing some questions to him that emerged from seminar discussions with my students in INTD 4005: The Praxis of Encampment: Settler Colonialisms in Turtle Island and Palestine. This…
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Faculty members strongly condemn the forced removal of the Al Zeitoun University encampment
In the early hours of the morning on Monday, July 29, university security moved to destroy the camp that has peacefully used the space outside the Henry Hicks building at Dalhousie University for nearly three months. After months of communications re-iterating the rights of students under the code of conduct to engage in peaceful demonstration…
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DFA Motions on Gaza, including BDS
I’m happy to share and enter into the public record that the Dalhousie Faculty Association has now passed all three motions my colleagues and I (many many more than who are listed as movers and seconders in the motions). Here is the text of the three motions, for any other organizations that would like to…
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Convocation Address, Dal Faculty of Arts & Social Science May 28, 2024
I was honoured to be invited to address the graduating class of 2024, including bringing greetings from the student encampment of Al Zeitoun University on the Dalhousie quad. Below I post the text of my speech, and a link to the YouTube recording of the full convocation. The address falls between time 2:20 – 2:32,…
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Ajay Parasram 