Decolonising scientific expeditions at sea and on land

Join researchers from natural sciences, social sciences, and literary studies to reflect on the colonial legacy of scientific expeditions, both at sea and on land, and explore how the CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) principles can complement the FAIR (Findable, Accessible,Interoperable, Reusable) data framework.

This panel discussion is presented by Project BIG in collaboration with Dr. Alice Lefebvre (MARUM)

Date and Time: 24th June, 2026, Online at 13:00-14:30

The event will be held via Zoom; you will receive the Zoom link by email one week before the event.

Registration

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Nikita Dhawan holds the Chair in Political Theory and History of Ideas at the Technical University Dresden. Her research and teaching focuses on global justice, human rights, democracy and decolonization. She received the Käthe Leichter Award in 2017 for outstanding achievements in the pursuit of women's and gender studies and in support of the women's movement and the achievement of gender equality. Selected publications include: Impossible Speech: On the Politics of Silence and Violence (2007); Reimagining the State: Theoretical Challenges and Transformative Possibilities (ed., 2019); Rescuing the Enlightenment from the Europeans: Critical Theories of Decolonization (forthcoming, Duke University Press). In 2023, she was awarded the Gerda Henkel Visiting Professorship at Stanford University and the Thomas Mann Fellowship, Los Angeles.

I am a Costa Rican marine scientist dedicated to advancing deep-sea research and equity in ocean governance. Now based in France, I am bridging science, technology, and policy to ensure developing nations have a seat at the table when it comes to protecting ocean areas both within and beyond national jurisdiction. I am doing my PhD through the ARGO-DOME project at Sorbonne Université, where he combines Argo float data and satellite remote sensing to study the Thermal Dome of the Eastern Tropical Pacific. My research aims to explore how surface ocean dynamics influence deep-sea ecosystems, especially through the Biological Carbon Pump. I want to contribute towards making deep-sea/open ocean science and technologies more inclusive, ensuring that small and developing nations have capacity to manage national and areas beyond national jurisdiction through both science and fair governance.

I am really looking forward to the panel, and am honoured to be included. I am a professor in the Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics at the University of Guelph in Canada. As a child growing up in western Canada the physical systems around me (streams, lakes, glacially carved valleys) shaped my curiosity for how the world around us worked. My teaching and research follow this wandering path today where I work to foster equitable and engaged learning opportunities while contributing to research on freshwater systems, river processes, and understanding the impacts of change (e.g., climate change, landuse change).

Ola Talabi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of North American and Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies, and the Executive Director of the Bremen Institute of Canadian and Québec Studies at the University of Bremen, Germany. Her research, teaching, and publications spread into the fields of Black, queer, critical future, and environmental studies. She completed her PhD in 2023 at the University of Bremen and in 2022 was a visiting scholar at the African American and Black Diaspora Studies Department, Boston University, USA. Her first monograph Woman, African, Other: Black Feminism and Intersectionality in the Contemporary Works of African Diasporic Women was published by Transcript in June. Her current postdoctoral research examines the ways maritime modernity shaped the emergence of nineteenth-century American literature, particularly its engagements with philosophical, political and ethical questions of natural equality and modern human rights.