CSD Seminar with Dr. Samar Al-Bulushi (University of California, Irvine)

War-Making as Worldmaking: Kenya, the United States, and the War on Terror

This talk explores the entanglement of militarism, imperialism, and liberal-democratic governance in Kenya today, asking what a view from East Africa can tell us about the shifting configurations and lived realities of post 9/11 imperial warfare. Informed by ethnographic research in the cities of Nairobi and Mombasa, I will explore how Kenyan Muslim activists contend with the deaths and disappearances of their fellow citizens at the hands of U.S.-trained Kenyan police. If the Kenyan state and its security partners collect information to anticipate risk and guide decision-making, so too must the subjects of surveillance and policing gather knowledge and make calculations about their own safety as they grapple with what it means to remake a world unmade by imperial warfare.

The event will take place in-person. If you have any questions, please email the seminar convener, Dr Jac St John, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations (stjohnja@westminster.ac.uk)

Samar Al-Bulushi is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. Her book, War-Making as Worldmaking: Kenya, the United States, and the War on Terror, was published by Stanford University Press in November 2024. She is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and previously served as contributing editor for Africa is a Country. She has published in a variety of public outlets (e.g. Jacobin, The Intercept, Teen Vogue) on topics ranging from the International Criminal Court to the militarization of U.S. policy in Africa.

The Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), established in 1989, is based in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Westminster. At the Centre, academics working in politics and international relations undertake socially engaged, methodologically diverse and often interdisciplinary research that aims to address a range of critical political challenges in relation to democracy worldwide.

CSD has a longstanding international reputation for research excellence through a programme of publications, events and collaborations with academics, practitioners, policymakers, and activists. Research in Politics and International Studies at CSD was ranked 4th highest in the UK for impact in the Research Excellence Framework 2021.

The Centre has established numerous collaborations with scholars and universities around the world and has hosted encounters with public intellectuals including Luc Boltanski, Judith Butler, Stuart Hall, Bruno Latour, Richard Rorty, Quentin Skinner, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Charles Taylor, James Tully, and Michael Walzer. The CR Parekh lecture, instituted by Lord Bhikhu Parekh, has included lectures by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arundhati Roy, and Ashis Nandy.

CSD recognises that responding to contemporary social and political challenges requires engagement beyond the academy, so actively welcomes dialogue and collaboration with researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and activists around the world. The Centre is directed by Professor Nitasha Kaul.

Host or Publisher This seminar is organised by the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD).