A week before COP28 convenes in Dubai, we’re teaming up with the Oxford Climate Journalism Network to speak to Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at Imperial College and one of the leading climate scientists worldwide.

Dr Otto will be in conversation with Mitali Mukherjee, Director of Journalist Programmes at the Reuters Institute, and the event will feature expert contributions from Diego Arguedas Ortiz, Associate Director of the RISJ's Oxford Climate Journalism Network and Dr SanYuMay Tun, Research Fellow at Green Templeton.

Abstract:

Biography

This talk explores the histories, journeys, and legacies of 'coolie' migrants as central to the making of Indian diplomacy. I argue that the Indian state framed the 'international' realm as a sanctified space to negotiate what it deemed the 'coolie stain' on its reputation, a discourse shaped by the intersections of caste and class. While examining indenture and the regulation of mobility as intrinsic to postcolonial Indian diplomacy, I also seek to foreground how these migrants themselves actively conceptualised their international status.