Sumi Madhok
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sumimadhok.bsky.social
Sumi Madhok
@sumimadhok.bsky.social
LSE Professor| Feminist Political Theorist|Own Views|

Thinking and writing on human rights|Imperialism|Anti-imperial epistemic justice| Rights politics in most of the world| Recent book📕 bit.ly/3C3Tb7V
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
Received official notice today that my employer will be withholding 100% of pay for the next three weeks, to myself and all other members of @sheffielducu.bsky.social who refuse (as is our legal right, and our solidaristic duty) to reschedule classes cancelled due to strike action. Outrageous.
Well that’s me locked out. No pay for the foreseeable future, all because I refuse to reschedule lost teaching, for which I have already lost pay as part of the strike. Please donate to support @sheffielducu.bsky.social members like me at www.gofundme.com/f/heubvb-sup...
January 19, 2026 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
"families of those executed have been obliged to pay for the rope or the bullet used during executions"

Prof Roja Fazaeli of the Irish Centre for Human Rights writing on protest and repression in Iran.

@uniofgalway.bsky.social @uniofgalwaylaw.bsky.social

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
Opinion: Why does Iran’s regime fear its own people so profoundly that it kills thousands?
Whatever is to come next must be shaped by the democratic aspirations of Iranians, rather than foreign interventionism
www.irishtimes.com
January 19, 2026 at 9:32 AM
“Follow the Money”.

The Funambulist drops another brilliant issue. 📚
We are happy to share with you our new issue "Follow the Money" (January–February 2026), coedited by Myriam Amri, where we enter the crevices of a capitalist system and trace it back to its central nodes: property, land, capital, and class.

ORDER YOUR COPY NOW: thefunambulist.net/shop/63-foll...
January 18, 2026 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
Three UK hunger strikers end their hunger strike after the MoD meets one of their demands: The MoD has denied a major new £2 billion contract with the Israeli defence firm's subsidiary, Elbit Systems UK, for an Army training program..

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Three Palestine Action protesters end their hunger strike
Four more who had paused opt not to continue after government opts against giving contract to Elbit Systems UK
www.theguardian.com
January 14, 2026 at 11:12 PM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
India’s rural women tillers, labourers, workers & farmers - Dalit, low caste & poor- built an extraordinary rights politics for ‘haq’ that expanded the list of social and economic rights.

These hard won entitlements are being torn up by the Hindu rightwing govt.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on India’s employment guarantee: scrapping a right to work risks a rural revolt | Editorial
Editorial: A globally unique programme allowed the poor to demand – and get – jobs, empowering rural women. Narendra Modi courts trouble by hollowing it out
www.theguardian.com
January 11, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
who could have predicted that stopping international students, care workers and nurses from coming to the UK would damage the economy/public finances while yielding precisely no political benefits?

Oh. Me.

[& lots of others obviously]
January 10, 2026 at 1:50 PM
India’s rural women tillers, labourers, workers & farmers - Dalit, low caste & poor- built an extraordinary rights politics for ‘haq’ that expanded the list of social and economic rights.

These hard won entitlements are being torn up by the Hindu rightwing govt.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on India’s employment guarantee: scrapping a right to work risks a rural revolt | Editorial
Editorial: A globally unique programme allowed the poor to demand – and get – jobs, empowering rural women. Narendra Modi courts trouble by hollowing it out
www.theguardian.com
January 11, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
January 8, 2026 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
"I’m going to pause here just to review: an institution that purports to be a university has told a philosophy professor he is forbidden from teaching Plato."

surreal times

dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...
Texas A&M Bans Plato - Daily Nous
Drop the race and gender material from your course and the Plato readings, or teach a different course. You have a day to decide. That's a paraphrase of what Martin Peterson, professor of philosophy a...
dailynous.com
January 7, 2026 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
Whenever the Europeans/US have gone to war (sometimes wars of extermination) against black/brown people, they've called it “police action”. Since the Hague convention in fact. That is why the Hague banned the use of Dum Dum bullets in wars against the “civilised” but not against Asians and Africans.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Michael Waltz: "There is no war against Venezuela or its people. WE are not occupying a country. This was a law enforcement operation."
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Michael Waltz Statement at U.N. Security Council Meeting on Venezuela
YouTube video by C-SPAN
youtu.be
January 5, 2026 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
Quite incredible that the EU’s top foreign affairs official can criticise Maduro’s lack of legitimacy but cannot condemn the blatantly unlawful aggression by the United States.

A clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations.
I have spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and our Ambassador in Caracas. The EU is closely monitoring the situation in Venezuela.

The EU has repeatedly stated that Mr Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition. (1/2)
January 3, 2026 at 11:29 AM
01 January. Late afternoon.
January 1, 2026 at 9:26 PM
Sara Ahmed is so important here:

”I would describe citation as a rather successful reproductive technology, a way of reproducing the world around certain bodies…way[s] of making certain bodies and thematics core to the discipline, and others not even part”.
feministkilljoys.com/2013/09/11/m...
December 21, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
I am not sorry. This is simply true. Academics should be able to write fluently and express themselves clearly and academics should do their own work. It’s literally our job. It’s what we trained until 22nd grade to do. This is a simple observation that should require no explanation or defense.
I’m sorry, but it is disgraceful to be an academic who uses this technology to conduct research. It should be prohibited in all of our scholarly institutions, including universities and journals.
December 20, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
While waging a murderous campaign in the Caribbean and threatening a war of aggression against Venezuela, the United States has now sanctioned two additional ICC judges for performing their judicial functions in the Palestine situation.

Gangsterism across the board.

www.icc-cpi.int/news/icc-str...
ICC strongly rejects new U.S. sanctions designations against two ICC Judges
The International Criminal Court deplores the announcement of new designations for sanctions by the US administration against Judge Gocha Lordkipanidze (Georgia) and Judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin (Mongolia). These additional designations follow the earlier designation of nine elected officials of the Judiciary and the Office of the Prosecutor, drawn from all regional groups.These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution which operates pursuant to the mandate conferred by its States Parties from across regions. Such measures targeting judges and prosecutors who were elected by the States Parties undermine the rule of law. When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk.As previously stated, the Court stands firmly behind its personnel and behind victims of unimaginable atrocities. It will continue to carry out its mandate with independence and impartiality, in full accordance with the Rome Statute and in the interest of victims of international crimes.The ICC values the consistent demonstrations of solidarity of States Parties, civil society and all those who support the rule of law and justice for the victims of international crimes. The Court will continue its work, with all partners, to ensure the effective and independent implementation of its mandate.For more information, please contact the ICC Public Affairs Unit: PublicAffairs.Unit@icc-cpi.int. You can also follow the Court’s activities on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Flickr
www.icc-cpi.int
December 18, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
Dog-whistle and factually incorrect. Ladies, raise your hand if you were sexually assaulted by a boy at school? I’d wager this or a family member is most women’s first experience of sexual violence
December 18, 2025 at 4:15 PM
To read: *Frantz Fanon at 100*

👇🏽
A Special Issue @roapejournal.bsky.social
2/2 🧵 ✨ The entire Frantz Fanon special issue is available to read and download for free — the perfect festive deep dive 🎄🔥

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#Fanon100 #AfricanLiberation #Decolonisation
December 18, 2025 at 2:41 PM
“It is a line. A line that allows Western Marxism to critique exploitation while remaining evasive about empire”.
December 18, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
We would particularly love to see applications from amazing social justice scholars (sociolegal, constitutional, human rights, global context, critical, health, access to justice, environment, culture, feminist, queer, race, disability, you name it)!

We're a friendly and supportive crew. Join us!
December 17, 2025 at 12:59 PM
At any rate, please let’s not apply human rights law for migrants and all those ‘others’.

After all, human rights have always been about operationalising differential standards and, so…
Is there an echo here?

On immigration and the European Convention on Human Rights?
December 16, 2025 at 7:07 PM
a.k.a settler colonial necropolitical technique of governance.
i don't know what else anyone could call this except apartheid — it is, anyway, a complete landscape of surveillance and militarized partition
December 16, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Sumi Madhok
Beautiful writing.

“…close reading is not magic. Its power lies in argument: always vulnerable, nothing simpler and yet nothing harder. And to clarify my stakes: the way that close reading is powerful is that it lays claim to power.”

www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
www.bostonreview.net
November 30, 2025 at 2:53 PM