SEASON 9: HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE AGE OF POLYCRISIS

EPISODE 2: CENSORSHIP, MISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA IN AFRICA

We are often informed to the terrorising, oppressive and distressing effects of Human Rights abuses across the continent of Africa. However, what happens in the rare cases that citizens don’t know they’re being abused? By exploring the implicitly powerful weapon of censorship and mass propaganda, we can observe how patriotic, anti-western narratives succeed in instilling hope and nationalistic pride, rather than terror, to these inhabitants.

About the Guest 
Farooq Kperogi, Professor and Author 

Farooq Adamu Kperogi is a Nigerian-American professor, author, media scholar, newspaper columnist, blogger and activist. Professor Kperogi’s research broadly explores the intersection between communication in a global context and the singularities of the communicative practices of marginal groups within it. 

He is interested in the transnational, mass-mediated, online discourses of marginalized diasporas in the West, which he studies by examining the alternative and citizen online journalistic practices of previously disempowered Third World ethnoscapes whose voluntary geographic displacement to the Western core imbues them with the cultural and social capital to be vanguards for potentially transformative cross-border exchanges with their homelands

Website: https://facultyweb.kennesaw.edu/fkperogi/index.php
Email: fkperogi@kennesaw.edu
 
Connect with Us 
Subscribe below for more regular and profound discussions. Connecting practitioners, activists, and students together to dissect the compelling intersections related to human rights and social justice.  
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/declarations-the-human-rights-podcast/id1178474117  
 
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Episode Credits 
Host: Ed Parker & Yusan Ghebremeskel 
Producer: Yusan Ghebremeskel 
Executive Producer: Sarah Awan 
Show Notes: Yusan Ghebremeskel 
Publisher and Communications Manager: Evie Nicholson 
Editor: Max Parnell  

Episode 1: Human Rights and American Foreign Policy


From campus protests against the Vietnam War to campaigns like Save Darfur, American activists have long invoked the language of human rights to press for change at home and abroad. But has this discourse meaningfully shaped U.S. foreign policy—or has it always taken a backseat to strategic interests? In this episode, Ed Parker speaks with Andrew Preston, an acclaimed historian of American foreign relations post 1890, to trace the role of human rights in American protest movements and foreign policy debates, asking whether humanitarian ideals have ever truly guided U.S. decision-making. Together, they explore key moments when human rights language surged, examine its retreat in recent years, and consider how American power has influenced—and at times undermined—the broader global human rights regime. Looking ahead, they ask whether we are witnessing a lasting shift in U.S. foreign policy priorities or simply the latest chapter in a long cycle of competing values and interests.

About the Guest
Andrew Preston, Historian

Organisation: University of Virginia, Department of History (currently)
Andrew Preston is an eminent author and scholar of history, with experiences teaching American history at Cambridge for nearly 20 years, as well as his distinguished editorial positions of the journals Modern American History, The Historical Journal, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, and Diplomacy & Statecraft. His work particularly resides on the American ideas shaping foreign policy, the instruments of policymaking in Washington, and the wider implications of this for both elite and popular camps, domestic politics, and culture. In this spirit, an interesting intersection of human rights ideals in both the logic and strategies of foreign policy making are explored.

Website: https://history.virginia.edu/people/andrew-preston
Email: amp33@virginia.edu
 
Connect with Us
Subscribe below for more regular and profound discussions. Connecting practitioners, activists, and students together to dissect the compelling intersections related to human rights and social justice.
Subscribe on
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/33zeclUn2wMUIxRjsOApPW
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/declarations-the-human-rights-podcast/id1178474117
 
Follow us on
X: @DeclarationsPod
Instagram: @declarationspodcast
LinkedIn: Declarations: The Human Rights Podcast
 
Share your thoughts using #declarationspodcast
Email us at info@declarationspod.com
 
Episode Credits
Host: Ed Parker
Producer: Ed Parker and Sarah Awan
Executive Producer: Sarah Awan
Show Notes: Yusan Ghebremeskel
Publisher and Communications Manager: Evie Nicholson
Editor: Max Parnell

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