Dr Nasia Sarwar-Skuse
@nsarwarskuse.bsky.social
Lawyer. Writer. Artist. PhD: Creative & Critical Writing: The Hybrid Aesthetic as Decolonial Practice
Winner of Queen Mary Wasafiri Prize 2023. Co Ediitor: Gathering (2024). Nasiasarwarskuse.com
Winner of Queen Mary Wasafiri Prize 2023. Co Ediitor: Gathering (2024). Nasiasarwarskuse.com
Pinned
How Clive of India’s 1767 sofa ended up in a British south Asian living room
Seven artists launch project to ‘decolonise’ national museums and arts organisations in Wales
www.theguardian.com
My Perspective(s) decolonial enquiry comes to an end in March, but I’m excited about potential off shoots in the pipeline www.theguardian.com/world/2024/n...
Pleased to say last week I passed my PhD Viva with minor corrections.
November 16, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Pleased to say last week I passed my PhD Viva with minor corrections.
I look forward to getting my hands on a copy!
And North American pals, please pre-order from @asterismbooks.bsky.social bc
a) they're awesome
b) you save big on shipping
c) you save Peninsula from tariff forms so they have more time to make great books
d) they're awesome 🐉
asterismbooks.com/product/bad-...
a) they're awesome
b) you save big on shipping
c) you save Peninsula from tariff forms so they have more time to make great books
d) they're awesome 🐉
asterismbooks.com/product/bad-...
Bad Language | Asterism Books
**There is no such thing as a safe word**
In Bad Language, So Mayer blends memoir and manifesto as they explore the politics of speech, while looking at how language has been used – and abused – in t...
asterismbooks.com
October 9, 2025 at 6:29 PM
I look forward to getting my hands on a copy!
To flatten South Asia into one story is a colonial impulse disguised as empathy. The universal ‘female body’ and its easy ‘we’ erase class, caste, and difference, turning complexity into aesthetic comfort. Writers need to do better than this.
October 6, 2025 at 8:47 AM
To flatten South Asia into one story is a colonial impulse disguised as empathy. The universal ‘female body’ and its easy ‘we’ erase class, caste, and difference, turning complexity into aesthetic comfort. Writers need to do better than this.
‘Recognition’ of Palestine is simply colonial theatre. Palestine is a nation long occupied not ‘invented’ by imperial signatures. Anti-colonial solidarity means standing with a people whose sovereignty lives beyond Western permission. #FreePalestine #Decolonise
September 22, 2025 at 8:30 AM
‘Recognition’ of Palestine is simply colonial theatre. Palestine is a nation long occupied not ‘invented’ by imperial signatures. Anti-colonial solidarity means standing with a people whose sovereignty lives beyond Western permission. #FreePalestine #Decolonise
White-on-white gun crime seems to be a big problem in the US.
September 13, 2025 at 10:06 AM
White-on-white gun crime seems to be a big problem in the US.
On my way home from a super interesting talk by @arifa.bsky.social about her book Wolf Moon which is brilliantly researched with so many passages that have stayed with me long after reading it.
September 2, 2025 at 8:37 PM
On my way home from a super interesting talk by @arifa.bsky.social about her book Wolf Moon which is brilliantly researched with so many passages that have stayed with me long after reading it.
Colonialism’s most insidious weapon is linguistic erasure; violent severing of communities from their epistemologies, oral histories, and cosmologies. Decolonising lang is not mere translation; it’s the radical reactivation of suppressed worldviews & refusal to think in the grammar of the coloniser.
August 12, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Colonialism’s most insidious weapon is linguistic erasure; violent severing of communities from their epistemologies, oral histories, and cosmologies. Decolonising lang is not mere translation; it’s the radical reactivation of suppressed worldviews & refusal to think in the grammar of the coloniser.
Seeing a lot of “you’re so brave for speaking about Palestine.” Brave are the journalists reporting genocide. Brave are Gaza’s children & men risking their lives to find food. Brave are the mothers holding what’s left of their homes. Standing with Palestine isn’t bravery, it’s basic humanity.
food.men
August 10, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Seeing a lot of “you’re so brave for speaking about Palestine.” Brave are the journalists reporting genocide. Brave are Gaza’s children & men risking their lives to find food. Brave are the mothers holding what’s left of their homes. Standing with Palestine isn’t bravery, it’s basic humanity.
Absolutely. We need to decolonise decolonisation itself and interrogate the frameworks, the gatekeeping, and who gets to speak for the South.
From 2022 -
Epistemologies of the South without the South is not the decolonial option, it's the careerist option that several academics have been defaulting to in our era of decolonise-all.
Citational prevalence from the South is an ace start.
PS: There are pockets of global South in North.
Epistemologies of the South without the South is not the decolonial option, it's the careerist option that several academics have been defaulting to in our era of decolonise-all.
Citational prevalence from the South is an ace start.
PS: There are pockets of global South in North.
August 3, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Absolutely. We need to decolonise decolonisation itself and interrogate the frameworks, the gatekeeping, and who gets to speak for the South.
After 10 years of bold, brilliant work, 404 Ink is closing its doors. A small press that always played big, fearless, sharp, & committed to its authors. I’m so grateful they gave Gathering a home. Brilliant work by Heather & Laura looked after their authors with such care. Thanks for everything.
July 11, 2025 at 6:18 PM
After 10 years of bold, brilliant work, 404 Ink is closing its doors. A small press that always played big, fearless, sharp, & committed to its authors. I’m so grateful they gave Gathering a home. Brilliant work by Heather & Laura looked after their authors with such care. Thanks for everything.
Delighted to have two pieces of work exhibited at Manchester Museum until 31 August. I am also running a series of writing workshops around material memory. Check out MM’s website for further details.
www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/event/khawaa...
www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/event/khawaa...
Khawaab Mahal and Absent Presence
www.museum.manchester.ac.uk
June 6, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Delighted to have two pieces of work exhibited at Manchester Museum until 31 August. I am also running a series of writing workshops around material memory. Check out MM’s website for further details.
www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/event/khawaa...
www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/event/khawaa...
So well deserved, especially because of the work by curator Nusrat Ahmed for South Asia Gallery.
June 6, 2025 at 9:46 PM
So well deserved, especially because of the work by curator Nusrat Ahmed for South Asia Gallery.
This is such joyful news!
“This is not just my victory, but a chorus of voices often left unheard. A thousand fireflies lighting a single sky, brief, brilliant and utterly collective.”
~ Banu Mushtaq in her acceptance speech.
#InternationalBooker2025 #internationalbooker
~ Banu Mushtaq in her acceptance speech.
#InternationalBooker2025 #internationalbooker
May 21, 2025 at 2:30 PM
This is such joyful news!
Reposted by Dr Nasia Sarwar-Skuse
The "Chowk" column at Lakeer is open for submissions throughout the year. The theme for 2025 is "Borders/Boundaries – سرحدیں/حدود". Submit your poetry, essays, art and photography to [email protected].
lakeermag.com/chowk2025
lakeermag.com/chowk2025
May 18, 2025 at 11:18 AM
The "Chowk" column at Lakeer is open for submissions throughout the year. The theme for 2025 is "Borders/Boundaries – سرحدیں/حدود". Submit your poetry, essays, art and photography to [email protected].
lakeermag.com/chowk2025
lakeermag.com/chowk2025
Postcolonialism has quietly morphed into neocolonialism, visible in climate imperialism, where the Global South bears the brunt of extraction for the Global North’s ‘green’ futures. From carbon offsets to conservation dispossession, and of course Palestine. Colonial logics persist under new guises.
👉NEW -- The empire never died
by @markcurtis30.bsky.social
The British Empire is still with us, in the UK’s island outposts and military bases, in the plunder of other countries’ resources, and in UK officials’ imperial mindset.
www.declassifieduk.org/the-empire-n...
by @markcurtis30.bsky.social
The British Empire is still with us, in the UK’s island outposts and military bases, in the plunder of other countries’ resources, and in UK officials’ imperial mindset.
www.declassifieduk.org/the-empire-n...
The Empire never died
The British Empire is still with us, in the UK’s island outposts and military bases, in the plunder of other countries’ resources, and in UK officials’ imperial mindset.
www.declassifieduk.org
May 19, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Postcolonialism has quietly morphed into neocolonialism, visible in climate imperialism, where the Global South bears the brunt of extraction for the Global North’s ‘green’ futures. From carbon offsets to conservation dispossession, and of course Palestine. Colonial logics persist under new guises.
Similarly, when institutions claim to operate within a ‘decolonial’ framework but fail to shift power, resources, or authorship, it becomes a performative exercise. Decolonisation and representation isn’t branding, it’s structural, material, and deeply uncomfortable work.
Reason I remain sceptical of representation, even though it might be necessary.
“... representation without redistribution–of power, resources or decision-making–is not justice. And working within institutions that aren’t prepared to listen, adapt or truly share space only goes so far.”
“... representation without redistribution–of power, resources or decision-making–is not justice. And working within institutions that aren’t prepared to listen, adapt or truly share space only goes so far.”
RHS ambassador for communities quits, saying he was made to feel a ‘nuisance’
Tayshan Hayden-Smith says Chelsea flower show celebrates ‘exclusivity over equity’ and he was naive to think he could bring change
www.theguardian.com
May 17, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Similarly, when institutions claim to operate within a ‘decolonial’ framework but fail to shift power, resources, or authorship, it becomes a performative exercise. Decolonisation and representation isn’t branding, it’s structural, material, and deeply uncomfortable work.
Ever collaborated on something, only for the other person to later act like it was solely their work and attempt to erase your input to claim full authority? Would love to hear how others have dealt with this.
May 16, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Ever collaborated on something, only for the other person to later act like it was solely their work and attempt to erase your input to claim full authority? Would love to hear how others have dealt with this.
I have been enjoying this very much.
NEWS! I've been hard at work with a fantastic group of fellow writers making a new online magazine about thrutopias. BENDING THE ARC launches 22nd April! Our aim is to write thriving, desirable futures into being. Pls subscribe & share!
bendingthearcmagazine.substack.com
bendingthearcmagazine.substack.com
Bending The Arc | Bending The Arc Magazine | Substack
publishing stories, poems and features that bend the arc of the possible towards a thriving future on Earth. Click to read Bending The Arc, a Substack publication.
bendingthearcmagazine.substack.com
May 2, 2025 at 7:17 PM
I have been enjoying this very much.
Thinking about terms we use & how decolonised has become a label. Nothing is truly decolonised while neocolonial power still shapes our world. To declare a practice or institution decolonised is to betray the unfinished nature of decolonial struggle. The term is a comfortable lie. #coloniality
April 29, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Thinking about terms we use & how decolonised has become a label. Nothing is truly decolonised while neocolonial power still shapes our world. To declare a practice or institution decolonised is to betray the unfinished nature of decolonial struggle. The term is a comfortable lie. #coloniality
There are a thousand ways to stand with Palestine. Silence is not one of them.
Decoloniality without solidarity is just branding.
Decoloniality without solidarity is just branding.
April 28, 2025 at 3:15 PM
There are a thousand ways to stand with Palestine. Silence is not one of them.
Decoloniality without solidarity is just branding.
Decoloniality without solidarity is just branding.
Reposted by Dr Nasia Sarwar-Skuse
1. Because this issue is critical, but has received remarkably little coverage, here's a thread pulling out the key themes from my article yesterday, on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which puts decades of environmental protections to the torch. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Labour’s great nature sellout is the worst attack on England’s ecosystems I’ve seen in my lifetime | George Monbiot
The horrifying planning bill, which rips up environmental protections, was drafted with CEOs in mind. We know because Keir Starmer told us, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
April 25, 2025 at 6:19 AM
1. Because this issue is critical, but has received remarkably little coverage, here's a thread pulling out the key themes from my article yesterday, on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which puts decades of environmental protections to the torch. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Can’t wait to get my hands on this.
The proofs have arrived! Countdown to our summer of publication. Looking forward.
Just received final proofs.
April 23, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Can’t wait to get my hands on this.
Publishing the nationalities of offenders is about reinforcing racialised hierarchies. It echoes neocolonial practices where ‘the other’ is pathologised to justify control, exclusion, and the illusion of moral superiority.
Mindblowingly awful, given the historial precedent of associating particular ethnicities with particular types of wrongdoing. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Cooper ‘pandering’ to Farage by ordering publication of foreign criminals’ nationalities
Move expected to lead to ‘league tables’ showing which nationalities are more associated with particular crimes
www.theguardian.com
April 22, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Publishing the nationalities of offenders is about reinforcing racialised hierarchies. It echoes neocolonial practices where ‘the other’ is pathologised to justify control, exclusion, and the illusion of moral superiority.
Reposted by Dr Nasia Sarwar-Skuse
Klaxon-not all gloom. Our brand new inter-uni seminar titled 'Undiscipline, Decolonise, Repair' kicks off 2nd May: Paris Book Launch of Alana Lentin's The New Racial Regime.
Online speaker series next.
Coordinators at various stages of career. Cast an eye.
undisciplinedecoloniserepair.wordpress.com
Online speaker series next.
Coordinators at various stages of career. Cast an eye.
undisciplinedecoloniserepair.wordpress.com
April 10, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Klaxon-not all gloom. Our brand new inter-uni seminar titled 'Undiscipline, Decolonise, Repair' kicks off 2nd May: Paris Book Launch of Alana Lentin's The New Racial Regime.
Online speaker series next.
Coordinators at various stages of career. Cast an eye.
undisciplinedecoloniserepair.wordpress.com
Online speaker series next.
Coordinators at various stages of career. Cast an eye.
undisciplinedecoloniserepair.wordpress.com