The Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Human Sciences Seminar Series for 2026, Philosophies of Resistance, will explore the philosophical thought that has resisted colonial, racial and carceral oppression.
The 2026 series aims is to question the role that philosophical ideas have played – and continue to play – in collective struggles for social justice, and human emancipation more broadly.
The three seminars in this series are:
Frantz Fanon & Stand Up to Racism, Wed 25 March 2026
Philosophy in Prisons, Sat 25 April 2026
Human Rights & Resistance, Wed 27 May 2026
Each seminar includes an academic talk followed by an ‘in-conversation’ discussion between the speaker(s) and a local political activist, and questions from the audience.
A 15-minute refreshment break is included.
The MMU Human Sciences Seminar Series is an invited speaker and research seminar organised by the Philosophy section of MMU’s Department of History, Politics and Philosophy.
The series, which has run for over forty years, was founded by Philosopher David Melling and Professor Wolfe Mays in 1979. It was created out of a desire to explore the various human sciences in a systematic way from the standpoint of critical philosophy.
In this seminar, Barbara Arneil will discuss the evolution of human rights and explore how they have been used as tools of resistance, as well as tools of marginalisation and oppression. Following her talk, there will be an in-conversation session with activist Elilee Arulkumar where they will consider the relationship between rights and more radical modes of political resistance as well as the advantages and limitations of systems of rights when seeking to overcome oppression.
Contributor biogs
Barbara Arneil is a Professor of the Global History of Anti-Colonial Thought at the University of British Columbia. She is interested in the areas of identity politics and the history of political thought. As an author she has a specialism in the intersection between liberalism and colonialism. She is also interested in gender and political theory and has done research in the areas of social trust and diversity, global citizenship and cosmopolitanism, the role of disability in political theory and domestic colonies. Dr Arneil is Past President of the Canadian Political Science Association (2019-2020), Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2022) and Member of the Order of Canada (2023).
Elilee Arulkumar is an Eelam Tamil Londoner, who’s background has informed her understanding and aims in organising. She has been involved in campaigns for anti-gentrification and anti-imperialism, understanding these to be broadly operating in the land justice movement. Following undergraduate studies in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, she is an incoming student at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, and hopes to continue organising and working towards designing alternatives and imagining otherwise.
Please note Elilee Arulkumar replaced Rishi Milward-Bose.
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