Contesting Concepts - Epistemic Disobedience at the BCIS
The Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS) was 50 last year. It was a cause for celebration and spawned, among other things, the Festival of Ideas where BCIS created an open space for engagement with a wide range of new stakeholders. It was also the year that we applied for and successfully secured institutional accreditation with the Ministry of Higher Education and acquired degree awarding status. In 2025, one year into the next half century of our existence, we are working on creating opportunities for our students, our lecturers, our staff, our governing body members and our public constituencies, to become familiar with new, challenging trends in the global conversations around international relations. We are aiming to strengthen our capacity to re-examine some of the well-worn concepts of international relations theory, engage with global south perspectives and alternatives, decolonise our epistemolo...