The world as we know it is rapidly changing. Wars, environmental destruction, the rise of right-wing populism and increasingly polarized international relations. Is this a time of rupture, where the world as we understand it will change forever, or not also a moment for new beginnings? What do we know about this new world, how can we better understand it and find ways forward? One way is to turn to the “majority world”, i.e. the part of the Globe where most people live whilst being underrepresented in public debates, to better understand and reflect on our current place in world history. Governments, organisations and people in the Global South have long been pushed to the peripheries of world affairs and knowledge production.
This lecture series aims to showcase the importance of understanding the world from Southern perspectives, rooted in post- or decolonial approaches. Far from being an abstract theory, the speakers in this series will highlight the very practical relevance and importance of seeing contemporary affairs from a Southern lens.
29.04.26, 8pm c.t., HS 1098
Is This New? Unmasking ‘Uncertainty’ and Rising Facism through Knowledge and Wordings from the Americas
Dr. María Cárdenas (Goethe University Frankfurt)
20.05.26, 6.30 pm, HS 1098
Reparations Beyond the Human? Rethinking (Post)Conflict Repair and Justice in the Bangsamoro, Philippines
Prof. Dr. Rosa Cordillera A. Castillo (Freie Universität Berlin / Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa)
10.06.2026, 8pm c.t., HS 1098
Whose World? Whose Rules? African Agency in a World Remade
Prof. Dr. Toni Haastrup (University of Manchester)
08.07.2026, 8pm c.t., HS 1098
Race, International Relations and the Politics of Israel-Palestine
Prof. Dr. Somdeep Sen (Roskilde University, Denmark)
The ALMA (Africa, Latin America, Middle East and Asia) Lecture series is a series organised by the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute at the University of Freiburg in cooperation with the Colloquium Politicum addressing theoretical, empirical and methodological questions from a Global South perspective. This year’s lecture series is co-organised with the De/Coloniality Now Initiative of the University of Freiburg. This multidisciplinary initiative seeks to understand the impact of coloniality on today’s world and the ways in which people and institutions in all regions of the world, including our own, remember, perpetuate, and contest the legacy of colonialism with a focus on the present day (“now”).