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Violence Research Centre

 

The Shadow of Colonial Justice

 

Colonialism has shaped the history of the modern world. Does colonialism continue to influence crime and justice today? Two experts will share their views on how colonialism has shaped the criminal justice systems in Canada and Ghana. In both cases, as the presenters will argue, current injustices have roots in colonial domination.

 

Dr. Lisa Monchalin

Professor at the Department of Criminology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

&

Dr. Justice Tankebe

University Lecturer in Criminology, University of Cambridge

 

The event is chaired by Professor Manuel Eisner, Director of the Violence Research Centre at the University of Cambridge. 

 

The seminar is followed by a discussion and refreshments.

All welcome! 

 

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dr. Lisa Monchalin

Biography

Dr. Lisa Monchalin teaches in the Department of Criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, BC, Canada. She is the first Indigenous woman in Canada to hold a Ph.D. in Criminology. Lisa is of Algonquin, Métis, Huron, and Scottish descent. Proud of her Indigenous heritage, and driven by personal and family experiences, she is determined to reduce the amount of crime that affects Indigenous peoples through education. 

 

Abstract

Indigenous peoples are vastly overrepresented in the Canadian criminal justice system. The government has framed this disproportionate victimization and criminalization as being an "Indian problem."  It is argued that crimes and injustices affecting Indigenous peoples must be understood within the context of Canada’s shameful history, and the unchanged colonial  goals of original forefathers—those which attempt to silence voices, histories, and cultures of Indigenous peoples—and continue and uphold racism, and patriarchy. These ideas and misrepresentations have permeated institutions, infused today’s value systems, and have become embedded in western media and culture. The consequences of assimilation policies, dishonoured treaty agreements, manipulative legislation, the sexualization of Indigenous women, and systematic racism are analyzed, arguing that the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the Canadian criminal justice system is not an Indian problem but a colonial one.

 

Dr. Justice Tankebe

Biography

Dr. Justice Tankebe is a University Lecturer in Criminology. He holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Ghana, Legon, where he also worked as a teaching assistant after his studies. He joined St. Edmund's College, University of Cambridge, in 2004 to study for MPhil in Criminological Research and Ph.D. in Criminology. Between 2008 and 2011, Justice held postdoctoral research fellowships from the ESRC, the British Academy, and Fitzwilliam College. Prior to his current appointment, he was a teaching associate on the Police Executive Programme at the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge.

 

Abstract

Postcolonial societies in sub-Saharan Africa suffer deep-seated problems of authority and weak institutions. It is sometimes argued that the roots of these problems, especially those in the domain of criminal justice, arise not so much from colonialism but from the functioning of criminal justice agencies as handmaidens of neopatrimonial networks of state and private elites. The claim I wish to advance is that a neopatrominial explanation per se reflects a misunderstanding of colonial domination and the injustice architecture that sustained it. Today’s injustices and fudged mechanisms of accountability are the symptoms of (neo)colonialism.  I illustrate my claims with examples from Ghana, formerly, the Gold Coast.

Date: 
Wednesday, 26 October, 2016 - 17:30 to 19:00
Event location: 
Room B3, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge