User Avatar

Course: Reparations and Debt

9 Weeks
All levels
35 lessons
7 quizzes
9 students

This course emphasizes the vital role of reparations in the ongoing struggles against colonization, slavery, genocide, and ecocide globally. It recognizes reparations as essential work that seeks to rectify historical injustices and promote healing. Despite centuries of advocacy, calls for reparations are often dismissed by powerful entities in the global North, who fear that meeting these demands could undermine their wealth and dominance. The traditional reparative approaches, which usually focus on compensatory payments and human rights frameworks, frequently fail to tackle the root causes of these injustices.

This course encourages participants to critically examine the potential of reparations to foster radical and transformative change. It explores how reparations can confront and dismantle the systemic inequalities established through colonization, slavery, and genocide, which continue to affect marginalized communities today. Drawing on insights from activists and critical scholars worldwide, the course aims to illuminate the pathways through which reparations can contribute to creating a more just and equitable world for all.

The course was designed by Associate Professor Elise Klein as part of the Beyond Development Working Group Collective.

Curriculum

  • 9 Sections
  • 35 Lessons
  • 9 Weeks
Expand all sectionsCollapse all sections
User Avatar

Elise Klein

Dr Elise Klein (OAM) is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Crawford School, Australian National University, whose work explores the intersections of development, social policy, decoloniality and care. She is the author and co-editor of several influential books on inequality, neoliberalism, postdevelopment and basic income, including Developing Minds: Psychology, Neoliberalism, Power and Critical Global Development (with Uma Kothari). Beyond academia, her research and public engagement have had significant policy and societal impact: she regularly advises members of the Australian Federal Parliament, contributes evidence to Senate inquiries, and has worked with the United Nations, including on the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Development and the Human Rights Committee of the UN General Assembly. Her work has featured widely in international and Australian media such as The Guardian, The New York Times, Rolling Stone and the ABC. In recognition of both her scholarly and public contributions, she received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) and the Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research in 2019. She is also co-director of the Australian Basic Income Lab.