Online seminar series: What is the Global South and why it matters - Session 11

Session 1: Decolonising the Social Sciences: Moving from Discourse to Action 

Speaker: Dr Shakiba Moghadam, Lecturer in Psychology, Southampton Solent University

This talk will critically examine what it truly means to decolonise the social sciences and more specifically, the psychology curriculum, moving beyond rhetoric toward practical change. It will outline tangible strategies for challenging Eurocentric dominance in psychological knowledge and teaching, and demonstrate how to actively centre voices, scholarship and knowledge acquisition that have been historically marginalised and “othered.” The session calls for meaningful structural, pedagogical and reflective action rather than symbolic, performative gestures.

Date and Time: Wednesday 18 February 2026, 1pm–2pm BST/GMT

Register and join the event >

About the speaker

Dr Shakiba Moghadam is a Chartered Psychologist and university lecturer and Chairs the British Psychological Society’s Human Rights Coordinating Group and Solent University’s BIPOC Staff Network. Her research focuses on mental health literacy, wellbeing and help-seeking among marginalised communities, including refugees and asylum seekers, alongside exploring the relationship between psychology and human rights. She is a lead facilitator for the Chartered Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences’ SEPAR EDI workshops, delivering training on cultural awareness in applied practice. Shakiba is a multiple award-winning EDI leader and consultant, a trustee for two non-profit organisations, and a Wellbeing Advisor for Solent Mind, working in community crisis support.

About the seminar series

This online seminar series aims at both centring and critiquing discussions around the ‘Global South’.

Contributions will come from leading academics drawn principally from the social and human sciences whose research or practice engages with, challenges, or advances the concept of the ‘Global South’ and who, to do so, draw on a variety of theoretical, scholarship and research positions.

The series will be of interest to academics, professionals, students, researchers and policy makers eager to diversify their knowledge and make their professional practice more inclusive. It would appeal to those working in the areas of criminal justice including prisons, probation services and policing, education, nursing, psychology, social policy, sociology, and social work.

The series will take place every Wednesday, 1-2pm (BST/GMT), in February and March 2026, starting Wednesday 11 February. It will be Co-Chaired by Professor Elaine Arnull and Dr Amy Duvenage.

For more details and to register > 

If you have any questions, please email elaine.arnull@solent.ac.uk.