Colonizer's World Tour

April 9, 2022 1:42 PM

Social science researchers Dr. Kristen Nielsen Donnelly and Dr. Erin Hinson decided to spend the second year of the pandemic learning about a different colonized nation every week. They discuss what they've learned each week in the videos of their Colonizer's World Tour, currently up to episode 68.
posted by clawsoon (7 comments total)

Wow wow wow. This looks SO INTERESTING.

It makes me sad that I have so little time for podcasts and video blogs these days, because I would really love to dig into this. (And now I WILL - I don't know how far I'll manage to get, but this looks SO GREAT.)

For anyone who, like me, almost didn't click into the main link - please do.

It appears that they're doing this great sort of alternating thing where they do a 101 about a country (Ireland 101, Iceland 101, Iraq 101), about 25-45 minutes long, plus a companion piece for that same country, often about a film, so, "Herself" for Ireland, "Woman at War" for Iceland.

It's a great approach, and I am really looking forward to getting to watch all of these.

Some day.

Thank you so much for posting this, clawsoon!
posted by kristi at 4:18 PM on April 9, 2022

Thank you!!
posted by panhopticon at 6:55 PM on April 9, 2022

Ooooooo
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 7:51 PM on April 9, 2022

I quit about half-way through the episode about Iceland. There were just too many errors, and when they somehow placed both home rule, which happened in 1903, and the 1845-6 Hekla eruption, in the 1870s, I just gave up.
posted by Kattullus at 5:18 AM on April 10, 2022 [7 favorites]

Ditto Ireland. Genetics, Wikipedia and everyone else agree that Irish Travellers are not a sept of the Roma. Today's language is Irish not Gaelic; which is a broader language class. And it's Paddy Darby O'Gill and the Little People. The last snit to prove that I listened to the end. The one positive thing is their assertion [paraphrase] "it's complicated and anyone who is certain about any part of it needs to do more homework" but they fail to follow their own advice. I won't be going to Indonesia with them.
posted by BobTheScientist at 6:55 AM on April 10, 2022 [3 favorites]

It's a neat idea, but I'm not sure why they didn't bring in scholars from the areas they are discussing. I listened to the India 101 episode and didn't detect any blatant misstatements, but how do you manage to talk about Partition without even a passing reference to Gandhi, Nehru, and Jinnah?? I actually opened the transcript to see if I'd missed something. Nope, just Mountbatten and his unnamed geographer's rush job. Makes millions of Indian freedom fighters (my grandfather among them) seem like passive victims of British incompetence.
posted by basalganglia at 8:25 AM on April 10, 2022 [5 favorites]

I mean, these two have academic credentials in anthropology and sociology. Surely they've realized that the subaltern can, in fact, speak?
posted by basalganglia at 9:29 AM on April 10, 2022 [8 favorites]