Prompted by our youngest team member’s desire for shorter podcasts on her regular commute to and from LSE, Can You Hear Us?  is proud to present So We Heard, a series of bite-sized, informal chats dedicated to exploring academic theories, case studies, and current affairs within international development through the lens of black, indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). With episodes lasting 30 minutes or less, Can You Hear Us team members join assistant producer, Ragini Puri, on a quick deep-dive into what topic within development is peaking their interest and why it matters. In the second part of our two-part discussion on China’s Three-Child Policy, host Ragini Puri (CYHU Assistant Producer) and Doris Huang (CYHU and SWH Researcher) discuss how generational attitudes can be shaped by social policy.Resources:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHpnceEki30

Prompted by our youngest team member’s desire for shorter podcasts on her regular commute to and from LSE, Can You Hear Us?  is proud to present So We Heard, a series of bite-sized, informal chats dedicated to exploring academic theories, case studies, and current affairs withininternational development through the lens of black, indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). With episodes lasting 30 minutes or less, Can You Hear Us team members join assistant producer, Ragini Puri, on a quick deep-dive into what topic within development is peaking theirinterest and why it matters. On this episode, Ragini is joined by Doris, the very team member who voiced her desire for shorter podcasts. They discuss China’s Three-Child Policy and it’s pros and cons.Why does social policy subordinate economic policy?What effect could China’s Three-Child Policy have on gender equality?How could the policy lead to the feminisation of poverty?We discuss this and a lot more in the sixth episode of So We Heard. Tune in to listen! Resources:https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/02/22/its-time-abolish-chinas-three-child-policy https://www.dsb.cn/178629.html https://www.hengyang.gov.cn/hystjj/hdjl/zjdc/fkjg/20230111/i2910462.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHpnceEki30

In season 4’s debut episode Can You Hear Us?, sits down with Dr. Lama Tawakkol, Lecturer in International Relations in the Department of Politics  at the University of Manchester to talk about everything from her research on the Humanitarian Development Nexus in Jordan and Lebanon to her appreciation for definitions and Cairo’s urban revitalization! Tune in to listen to her discuss how power dynamics operate within a capitalist and global economy, including within the politics of development policy and aid. As well as expand on her conceptual framework on how international development and humanitarian aid projects have extended and reproduced Western imperialism. Quotes from the interview:“ Like with any terms, these definitions, these terms, imperialism and colonialism the definitions for them are never uniform, they are always debated always contested between different scholars, and sometimes they are even used synonymously” - Lama on the Imperialism and Colonialism“And that’s the key thing; what is being prioritised? Yes things aren’t black and white but we need to be looking at who is benefitting and which interests are taking prominence in these project and in these policies etc” - Lama on the privatisation of public goods via the HDN“Put the people and the inhabitants first [...] have that be the compass” - Lama on Urban Revitalisation and revitalization initiatives“One of the key things is to not be afraid to bring one's perspective and ones experiences  into their research and their academic journey [...] in my experience this is how you find what you enjoy and what you are most passionate about, and they give you unique insights and contributions if we are thinking from an intellectual or academic perspective” - Lama on advice to future BIWOC in academia

Prompted by our youngest team member’s desire for shorter podcasts on her regular commuteto and from LSE, Can You Hear Us?  is proud to present So We Heard, a series of bite-sized,informal chats dedicated to exploring academic theories, case studies, and current affairs withininternational development through the lens of black, indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC).With episodes lasting 30 minutes or less, Can You Hear Us team members join assistantproducer, Ragini Puri, on a quick deep-dive into what topic within development is peaking theirinterest and why it matters. In the first episode of 2024, Monica, a CYHU co-founder, joins Ragini to discuss mentorship. As a young professional, she brings personal insights to the conversation. How has the nature of mentorship evolved in the twenty-first century?What, if any, is the ideal mentor-mentee relationship?How can cultural nuances affect mentorship?We discuss this and a lot more in the fifth episode of So We Heard. Tune in to listen!Resources:Defining mentoring: https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nyas.14176 

Prompted by our youngest team member’s desire for shorter podcasts on her regular commuteto and from LSE, Can You Hear Us?  is proud to present So We Heard, a series of bite-sized,informal chats dedicated to exploring academic theories, case studies, and current affairs withininternational development through the lens of black, indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC).With episodes lasting 30 minutes or less, Can You Hear Us team members join assistantproducer, Ragini Puri, on a quick deep-dive into what topic within development is peaking theirinterest and why it matters. Since we are in the middle of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, Madiera, one of CYHU’s founders, joins Ragini to discuss GBV. Can focussing on women’s vulnerability lead to their essentialisation?How do we further include men and boys in discussions of gender-based violence?What happens when GBV permeates a whole new space, like the virtual world?We discuss this and a lot more in the fourth episode of So We Heard. Tune in to listen!Resources:UNFPA’s virtual is real website: https://www.unfpa.org/thevirtualisreal 

In the second part of our two-part discussion on children’s welfare and child-centric development, host Ragin Puri (CYHU Assistant Producer) and Sanjana Sunder (CYHU Assistant Producer) explore the intersections between child-centric development and gender. They dive into how poverty can be passed from generation to generation, leading to intergenerational child poverty. Finally, the discussion reflects on the space accorded to child poverty in International Development. 

On this week’s episode of Can You Hear Us?, Monica and Ragini are joined by development economist and author Shrayana Bhattacharya. After completing her training from Delhi University and the Harvard Kennedy School, Shrayana worked on research projects with the Institute of Social Studies Trust, SEWA and Centre for Policy Research. At present, she is a Senior Economist at the World Bank. Her first book of non-fiction Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence was published by HarperCollins India in November 2021 and by Liberty Books in Pakistan in August 2022. Shrayana recently won the Atta Galatta BLF Book Prize for Best Non Fiction for 2022. She has also won the Times of India JK Paper AutHer Prize for Best Non-Fiction Author for 2022 and the SKOCH Economic Forum Prize for Literature.Quotes from the interview:  “Feminism is a way of life, it is a lived practice, it’s a way of conscious of power relations and  choices, and how you show up in the world”  - Shrayana on Female vs Feminist icons, and how feminism manifests in this definition of feminist icon“We’re all complex human beings, what is the idea of ‘the best’? Why should we impose this Olympics of status and bestness on anyone?” - Shrayana on the notion of the Great Man and its future I

Prompted by our youngest team member’s desire for shorter podcasts on her regular commute to and from LSE, Can You Hear Us? is proud to present So We Heard, a series of bite-sized, informal chats dedicated to exploring academic theories, case studies, and current affairs within international development through the lens of black, indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). With episodes lasting 30 minutes or less, Can You Hear Us team members join assistant producer, Ragini Puri, on a quick deep-dive into what within development is peaking their interest and why it matters. This week, Sanjana, CYHU’s social media head, joins Ragini to discuss children’s welfare and the importance of adopting a child-centric lens in International Development.

The Can You Hear Us Team is excited to Introduce So We Heard — an informal coffee chat series that, like Can You Hear Us, creates a space for black, indigenous women and femmes of color to discuss and understand anything related to international development without the pressure of having to sound intelligent while doing it. In the first episode, host Ragini Puri (CYHU Assistant Producer) dives into a chapter from The Critique of Commodification: Contours of a Post-Capitalist Society by Christoph Hermann with CYHU lead researcher, Dana Abuzinadah. They re-examine the notion of commodification, its many critiques, and how it truly operates within our world, paying special attention to the commodification of women’s labour globally.At the end of the day, commodifying or the process of turning into a valued commodity transcends the boundaries of the labor force and creates this notion of a breadwinner in the household ultimately shaping and reinforcing the idea of a nuclear family. And linking this to women’s development, constraining them to the household or keeping them dependent on a male breadwinner in no way feeds into their development.

“Duality is a useful lens to have for International Development because if we are not aware of these dualities, how can we work on improving the system and eliminating them?” - EmonieThis week on Can You Hear Us, Monica and Madeira discuss dualities in International Development alongside Emonie Ayiwe; a Finnish-Nigerian Luxembourger with a master's degree in Intercultural Encounters! The theme for this week was inspired by Monica and Madeira’s personal experiences, and also the experiences of CYHU’s past guests. As a podcast dedicated to amplifying the voices of BIPOC women, we often ask our guests how their identities contribute to their approach to their work. Almost all of them respond with the same phrase, “This is not all I am.” Duality can be defined as “the quality or state of having two different or opposite parts or elements.” Keeping this definition in mind, the episode begins with Emonie breaking down what it means to be a Finnish-Nigerian Luxembourger. She explains how the term essentially describes “who she is” and “where she comes from” and  highlights the importance of accepting her Finnish and Nigerian identities as a whole instead of considering herself a sum of “halves”. Monica and Madeira, who are both mixed, further add to the conversation by reflecting on their own experiences. The three of them discuss the pressures of being put in a box and how owning all aspects of their identity helped them feel more assertive. The episode proceeds to focus on the role of duality in one’s professional life. Emonie has a keen interest in hip-hop studies and wrote her master's thesis on the expressions of identity in South Korean b-boys. Further, she has also interned in Benin. Currently, she is a research assistant for a Brussels-based NGO called the Democratic Society. She talks about code-switching and how the way she expresses herself varies depending on her surroundings. Monica brings up an interesting study that found that reminding any social group of a stereotype can negatively affect their outcomes and performance. This leads to an interesting discussion about dualities in International Development. An idea that often pushes back against looking at identities as dualities is intersectionality. Emonie discusses the importance of intersectionality but points out that instead of negating the idea of dualities, it works in conjunction with it. The discussion comes full circle as Monica, Madeira, and Emonie reflect on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index with Emonie pointing out how the numbers cannot be studied in isolation as gender is simply one aspect of an individual’s identity. After a deep and reflective discussion, the episode ends on a light note as Emonie is subjected to the wheel of questions. Perfectly in line with Emonie’s interest in hip-hop, the question for this episode is “Who is your favourite artist?” To find out Emonie’s answer and for some great Nigerian artist recommendations, check out this week’s episode of Can You Hear Us!Written by: Ragini Puri, assistant producer, CYHU Podcast

“International development encourages us to view the world as a ‘bigger picture’.” -Doris Huang  “When we are talking about international development, we do need to be mindful of the fact that the reason inequalities exist is because they were created. If the west is prosperous, they did so at the cost of someone else not being prosperous.” - Ragini Puri  “ID focuses more on the actor ‘doing development’ as opposed to the site of development. Hence, there is less focus on creating an environment where development can foster itself.” - Sanjana Sundar  The Can You Hear Us podcast is back! There are several themes we are eager to explore with our brand-new team. In this Meet The Team episode Monica and Madiera are joined by Ragini, our assistant producer, Sanjana, our social media manager, and Doris, our lead researcher all responsible for the conversations that will take place in this third series of the podcast. Today,  the new team discuss: everything International Development (ID)!  Doris, is a first-year sociology student at the LSE, who had not heard about ID before joining the podcast. However, after discussions with Monica and Madiera, she realised that she had in fact done work which could fall under development. To this end, she asks Ragini and Sanjana to elaborate on their understanding of international development and its definition. This leads to an insightful conversation about what the main goal of ID is, what constitutes the ID space, and why we need ID!  Turning to Inclusivity, Sanjana provides insights about how ID tends to be gendered. She also touches upon the idea of those who provide aid versus those who receive aid. The team draws from their own experiences to understand what an inclusive ID space would look like and  while there are no concrete answers, the team builds on each other’s knowledge to come up with practical solutions.   In the final segment, the team becomes introspective as they discuss where they stand in the ID space. As students and alumni of LSE, the team discusses the inherent elitism in the ID space. Sanjana had already touched upon the idea of an active actor and a passive receiver. The team expands on this topic to include personal anecdotes of instances where they first realised their own position in ID.    After an excellent conversation about everything ID, Monica and Madiera bring out the wheel of questions! For this episode, the guests had to answer the prompt, “Horoscopes, yay or nay?” As an issue that has swept up the youth, there were many opinions to be shared. In an interesting discovery, the CYHU team realised there are three cusps on the team! To find out who votes yay and who votes nay, as well as who those cusps are, make sure you tune in to our brand new episode of Can You Hear Us! 

In today’s episode CYHU expands on the definition of activism as we embark on a season-long theme, by highlighting the sector of artisans and their work. Integral to many developing economies and to consumers in the global north, artisanal work has persevered as a gateway to culture preservation and an income opportunity for the majority of women that work within the sector. We are so excited to share this interview with Arushi Chowdhury Khanna, CEO and founder of the social enterprise LoomKatha. Join us as we chat about the origin of loom Katha, the history of India's handloom sector and the importance of highlighting artisans and “handicrafts” in international development.  

In today’s Episode CYHU continues to explore its theme: Activism, by looking at the role of the media - both traditional and social - in the construction, perpetuation, and deconstruction of biases. We are so excited to be joined by Adaora Oramah, fellow LSE alumna and CEO of AMAKA Studio, a pan African digital media platform. We chat about how to define pan Africanism and what it symbolises as well as  the need to  shift from using  “diversification” to using  “amplification” of traditionally underrepresented voices in the media.  As always, join us as we fangirl over our guest, go off script and ask random questions chosen by a wheel! “Being black is inherently political…being anything against the grain is inherently political because A) it has always been politicized and B) we haven’t been given the space to exist in certain environments.” “I think it’s constant unlearning. As a Black dark-skinned woman I am constantly unlearning things that were taught to me and making sure that I am not repeating that or exporting that through media and representation”. 

Back again from both the chaos and peace of finishing our MSc programmes and adjusting to the next chapter of becoming LSE alum, the Can You Hear Us team is back to begin an ongoing series of interviews and discussions surrounding activism. In light of the commitments and global discussions marking the COP26 Climate Summit in late 2021, typhoon Rai in the Philippines and the Colorado wildfires, amongst others, the first episode of the new season focuses on environmental activism, where we interview Dipa Patel, LSE international development department Communications and Events Manager by day, London National Park Ranger by night, and Kavita Purohit,  an environmental engineer- turned- doughnut economics researcher. Dipa and Kavita bring personal insights from community-based and industry perspectives on sustainability, under representation within environmental justice, and the importance of diversity and collaboration in environmentalist efforts. 

Before taking a short break to finish up dissertation writing, the Can Your Hear Us team decided to tackle race in academia on their own—roundtable style. In the last of the two-part series, Madiera, Monica, Kiana, and Ana join in a Jada-Pickett-Smith-inspired “Red Table” discussion about the future of development practice, academia, and their paths post-LSE. From the importance of action-oriented research to the significance of female leadership, the team gets personal about their own experiences, thoughts, and questions for the post-COVID-19 era...and how development should change for it.

After a break due to summer term assessments, Can You Hear Us is happy to be back with a new theme: Race in Academia, where we aim to highlight both academics and students' perspectives as women and femmes of color within the sector. In the first of a two-part series, we interview Professor Mahvish Shami, co-director of the Development Management program here at the LSE, and Shingira Masanzu a PhD student from the LSE’s department of Law. Together they bring their insights on challenges faced both in in and out of the academic world and in the sphere of international development.“When Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was made head of the WTO, there’s this mass celebration about finally a person from Africa is head of the WTO […], but it is in 2021 that we are getting excited about a black person right in the WTO, that to me speaks to the structural thing, to think about who is occupying positions of leadership in powerful institutions”.  –  Shingi Masanzu“For me the project of decolonizing is asking questions around what voices, ideas and perspectives have dominated the space and what voices have been obscured, [..] and how do we swivel some light to pay attention to those voices that we have not heard”.   –  Shingi Masanzu“I am a woman of color, but I am also an LSE staff member, part of the LSE community, I am also a big fan of modern-popular-movies I also like a certain kind of music. All these identities allow me to relay to different kinds of groups and position myself into different categories.”  –   Dr Mahvish Shami on positionality based on Sen’s “Identity and Violence” (2007)“You guys come from all over the world, you are aware of all sort of different ideas and literatures and voices out there that we may not know, so that’s how you can play a major role [decolonizing academia]: you could bring it to our attention, you could bring it to your seminars, you could take it to your lectures […] I think a lot of students underestimate how important their background is and the knowledge they bring to the classroom”.   –  Dr Mahvish Shami

In the fourth episode of Can You Hear Us, the team continue with our theme of – Having it All – by exploring a particular area of development that both creates barriers and opportunities for women of colour to professionally engage with and advise on development, aid, and humanitarian interventions: Consulting. Susan Sebantindira, LSE alumnus and founder of The Black Humanitarian, sits down with CYHU team to tackle the world of consulting, and how to find and make space within it “I do think imposter syndrome is also a structural issue and not just an individual issue. Too often we place on the individual the onus of removing imposter syndrome or finding a solution for it... but you also have to look at the structures in place that lead women of colour feeling disempowered.” “I felt like it was the first time I could see myself in the [development] sector, that there was a place for me.”

In the third episode of Can You Hear Us, we introduce our second theme - Having it All - through the distinct lens of women of colour in entrepreneurship. To do so we present Margarita Anddrade, Co-founder of Malaika Linens and Threads of Hope Cairo, alongside LSE alumnus Fardida El Kalagy, Threads of Hope’s Sustainability and Development Head. Together, they introduce us to their new sustainable impact model while highlighting the importance of creating social enterprises that focus on women’s empowerment. “Compassion, putting yourself in the shoes of someone else, gives you so much strength” - Margarita Andrade “By sustainability we are focusing on three main aspects: financial sustainability, [….] technical sustainability and […] sustainable impact [which] is one of our main objectives.” - Farida ElKalagy “If you help a woman, you help the whole family--the neighbourhood. You help the world” - Margarita Andrade

In the second episode of Can You Hear Us?, the CYHU team takes a step back to critically tackle a system of oppression embedded within the identity politics of many women of colour in some shape or form: Colourism. Inspired by current events and Professor Akousa Adomako Ampofos Cutting Edge lecture on decolonizing academia, we welcome two guests all the way from Boston to begin deconstructing colorism and the ways in which it operates in social movements and community-building: Beatriz Cantada, Equity, Inclusion and Community Engagement Leader at MIT, and Natalie Petit, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Education in the MIT Sloan School of Management. “Growing up I didn’t use the word Colorism, we just said oh you’re lighter darker skinned” - Beatriz Cantada “Let’s not wait for another Tsunami like George Floyd when we could have just handled the rip tides [...to...] avoid the aftershocks.” - Natalie Petit

In this first episode, the Can You Hear Us? (CYHU) team introduces themselves and their first theme: Sense of Place. They interview the founder of the LSE’s first association for Women of Colour in Consulting (WoCo): Mirabella Pulido. They discuss the reason behind the creation of WoCo, the importance of creating such a space in today's world and what Hogwarts house is behind it all! “Even though being a Woman of Colour is not 110% what I do and who I am it is a big part of it.” “After looking through the LSE’s organisations and not seeing that and looking at the internships I wanted to apply for and realising that there was actually no one who I knew that looked like me that I could reach out to solicit advice, that is when I realised that there was a big need for this.”