Dr Awol Allo

My research is in the areas of social justice, human rights, and international law, with a focus on Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), postcolonial and decolonial studies, and global histories of empire and imperialism. In my work, I examine norms (not only legal but also social and cultural), discourses (such as legality, the rule of law, terrorism, decolonisation, imperialism, and self-determination), practices (such as resistance and protest), and institutions (particularly knowledge- producing and/or truth-bearing institutions such as courts, universities, think tanks, and the media). My edited volume, “The Courtroom as a Space of Resistance: Reflections on the Legacy of the Rivonia Trial” (Routledge 2015), offers an analysis of the political trial as ‘method’ and examines Nelson Mandela’s life-long engagement with law from diverse disciplinary perspectives. My scholarly articles have appeared in top-tier interdisciplinary journals including the Journal of Social and Legal Studies, the Journal of Law, Culture, and the Humanities, the Journal of Law and Critique, and the Yale Journal of Human Rights and Development. My forthcoming monograph, “Law and Resistance: Toward a Performative Epistemology of the Political Trial”, will be published by Routledge in 2024.

I am currently working on a book project entitled “Africa as Method: Decolonizing Knowledge Production and the Quest for Epistemic Justice.” It aims to offer a decolonial critique of existing knowledge production landscapes while exploring the conditions of possibility for African knowledges, methodologies and frameworks anchored in the histories and experiences of the African people.

In addition to publishing in top-tier interdisciplinary journals, I also write regularly for popular media outlets, and my publications have appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Policy (FP), CNN, Al Jazeera English, Open Democracy, African Arguments, and several other outlets. I comment regularly for global media, including the BBC (BBC News, BBC World Service, BBC Hard Talk, BBC Radio 4, and BBC Newsnight), CNN, Times Radio, Al Jazeera TV, ABC, CNBC, Sky TV News, NPR, SABC, TRT, Channel 4, Arise News, and several other outlets.