254 / Decolonizing Psychology / Sunil Bhatia

In this interview, I speak with Sunil Bhatia, Professor of Human Development at Connecticut College. He is the author of dozens of articles related to transnational migration, identity and cultural psychology, and is the author of two books, American Karma: Race, Culture and Identity in the Indian Diaspora, and Decolonizing Psychology: Globalization, Social Justice and Indian Youth Identities. At its root, Western Psychology is colonial. With that in mind, what would a decolonized psychology include and exclude in its framework? As Sunil addresses in his work and in this interview, Psychology, as a social science, has served the Western colonialist project in all its forms. Even as we have entered into a "post-colonial" period over the past century or more, the impacts of colonization on numerous populations around the world are still felt presently, profoundly so. Officially, Western nation-states have abandoned previously defined colonies to self-governance (after centuries of various forms of anti-colonial resistance). But, the processes of an "internalized colonization" continue to manifest from a globalized, neoliberal socioeconomic system that is structurally founded on the long-lasting legacies of colonialism and white supremacy. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/sunil-bhatia // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast