#254 | Decolonizing Psychology: Relegated To The Margins, Our Humanity w/ Sunil Bhatia

Intro: 9:24

In this interview, I speak with Sunil Bhatia, Professor of Human Development at Connecticut College. He is the author of dozens of articles related to transnational migration, identity and cultural psychology, and is the author of two books, ‘American Karma: Race, Culture and Identity in the Indian Diaspora’ and ‘Decolonizing Psychology: Globalization, Social Justice and Indian Youth Identities.’

At its root, Western Psychology is colonial. With that in mind, what would a decolonized psychology include and exclude in its framework? As Sunil addresses in his work and in this interview, Psychology, as a social science, has served the Western colonialist project in all its forms. Even as we have entered into a "post-colonial" period over the past century or more, the impacts of colonization on numerous populations around the world are still felt presently, profoundly so. Officially, Western nation-states have abandoned previously defined colonies to self-governance (after centuries of various forms of anti-colonial resistance). But, the processes of an "internalized colonization" continue to manifest from a globalized, neoliberal socioeconomic system that is structurally founded on the long-lasting legacies of colonialism and white supremacy. 

As Sunil stated in an interview with Mad in America: “In psychology, the stories of people from the Global South were depicted as a deficient form of humanity, and stories of people of color were relegated to the margins. I saw 356 million Indian youth, a gigantic part of our humanity, missing from the canon of the discipline. Their voice, their realities were erased, and I wanted to start addressing this gap. This motivated me to come up with a decolonizing framework to speak to these absences, to speak to the realities of the people who are the majority of humanity, but largely missing from the field.” (https://bit.ly/2Ni6XeY)

Sunil Bhatia is an internationally known professor in the field of psychology and human development. He specializes in understanding the development of self and identity within the context of racism, migration, globalization and formation of transnational diasporas. He is currently serving as one of the editors for a special issue on Feminism and Decolonizing Psychology for the journal ‘Feminism and Psychology.’ His Op-Eds have appeared in Psychology Today, OZY, New London Day, Indian Express, Truthout, The Pacific, and U.S. World News and Reports.

Episode Notes:

- Learn more about Sunil and his work: https://bit.ly/3114OMJ

- Learn more about and purchase his books ‘American Karma’ and ‘Decolonizing Psychology’: https://bit.ly/313gJcL / https://bit.ly/3eknn2r

- Listen and read his interview with Mad in America: https://bit.ly/2Ni6XeY

- The song featured in this episode is "Pre-Memory Circle" by Rejoicer from the album Spiritual Sleaze: https://youtu.be/M_rGBgmvcT4