"Words won't feed them." Understanding the violence of human-created famine
Event description
This discussion is a part of the Shadow Syllabus, Emergency! Humanitarian Aid Under the Spotlight. See more after the speaker bios.
In this seminar, we will examine why and how hunger and famines are a form of slow (structural) violence created by economic and social policies, and/or can be deliberately weaponised through blockades and other violent tactics. The impacts of climate change can also exacerbate food shortages and famine. Officially, a famine has to be ‘declared’ by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) before UN agencies, governments, and NGOs worldwide must take action.
In a special report released in May 2025, the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) Network warned us,
“The scale and severity of acute food insecurity is highest in Sudan and Gaza, where exhaustive measures are urgently required to ensure multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance can prevent further loss of life. Concern is also high for South Sudan; Yemen; northern and southern Ethiopia; Somalia; Haiti, the eastern DRC; the Liptako-Gourma region in the Sahel; and northern Nigeria…”
In this seminar, we will unpack how, despite repeated warnings and calls for action (including within this seminar series), a famine was declared in parts of Sudan in 2024, and clear evidence of starvation and malnutrition is evident in Gaza today.
As global humanitarian funding faces unprecedented cuts while military expenditures surge, we ask: Did our government and aid agencies act as needed and in line with their international obligations? Where are the failures and pressure points? What more is required beyond aid and humanitarian assistance?
The phrase "words won't feed them" is taken from a sign held silently by Australian Greens party Senator Mehreen Faruqi during the opening of the 48th Australian Parliament on July 22, 2025. Senator Faruqui was subsequently sanctioned for breaking decorum rules.
Speakers:
Sara Sinada is a Sudanese-Australian humanitarian professional with over 15 years of experience in the humanitarian and post-conflict sectors. For the past six years, she has managed food assistance programs, focusing on improving food security and supporting vulnerable communities in complex crisis settings across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Sara co-founded Media for Justice in Sudan to challenge harmful narratives and amplify the voices of Sudanese people globally. She writes on the intersections of conflict, hunger, gender, and justice. Her work centres on elevating the lived experiences of Sudanese people—especially women and girls—and calls for equitable, accountable, and feminist approaches in humanitarian response. | |
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Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak is a Lecturer at Monash University in the School of Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education. She recently completed her PhD in Education on storyworlding radicalised youth and radicalisation, employing decolonial/feminist approaches to education research. | |
Jayda Abu Musa is a community development expert and works in the Victorian Parliament. She brings lived experiences of war and displacement as a woman from Gaza. Her work has centred on amplifying the voices of those affected by structural violence. A recent graduate of the Monash Master of International Development, her research thesis explored the role of deliberative democracy in addressing complex socio-political conflicts with case studies on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, political polarisation in the United States, and Indigenous affairs in Australia. | |
Angie Sassano is a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Philosophical, Historical, and Indigenous Studies at Monash University. Her work focuses primarily on the intersections between food, agriculture, and colonisation. She has a background in environmental and food politics, and her current research explores the intersection of food, ecological ethics, new technologies, and decoloniality. Her most recent work examines the social and ethical impacts of artificial intelligence and robotics in agriculture. | |
Swati Parashar is a Professor in Peace and Development Studies at the School of Global Studies (SGS). Her extensive research and teaching interests include feminist and postcolonial international relations, culture and religion in global politics, hunger and famines, sexual violence in peace and war, women militants and combatants, peace and development in South Asia and East Africa, the race politics of aid organisations, and the ethics of conducting research. Her public engagements focus on development, conflict, and violence, and her blog (www.kaalratri.com) centres on women’s experiences, promoting the idea of ‘solidarity beyond borders’. | |
Samanthi J. Gunawardana will facilitate the discussion. She is a Senior Lecturer in Gender and Development in the School of Social Science in the Faculty of Arts, and Fellow in the Monash Global Peace and Security Centre. She co-convenes the Monash Liberatory Praxis Collective |
About Emergency! Humanitarian Aid Under the Spotlight Shadow Syllabus
As wars and conflicts escalate and climate change intensifies, the world faces complex, overlapping crises that demand urgent and just responses. There is no doubt that the humanitarian aid system is under pressure and characterised as being on the verge of collapse. Nonetheless, humanitarian needs persist and are deepening around the world.
Humanitarian aid is the ‘provision of basic life-saving food water and sanitation, shelter and health services to those within or in the aftermath of conflict or other crisis, such as natural disaster’. While ‘humanitarianism’ has historically existed in varied forms in all societies, the present international humanitarian system that enables the provisioning of aid emerged in the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II. Although the system is critiqued as in need of reform for various reasons, it has enabled a space for state signatories to uphold their obligations under the Geneva Convention and International humanitarian law, which in turn give rise to the (at times contested) principles underpinning the provision of humanitarian assistance: humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. Beyond state signatories, diverse actors, including those from Australia’s vibrant and diverse humanitarian aid sector, must work within the parameters of these laws and conventions.
The title Emergency! reflects the multiple crises we face at this present historical moment: funding cuts, the escalating need for effective humanitarian action, and the centrality of emergency conditions in the lives of many people worldwide today. This seminar series also highlights the pressing need for solutions that align with Australia’s commitments to international humanitarian law and can keep pace with the increasing scale of humanitarian disasters, both human-made and natural. It will centre on lived experience, and bring together academics, professionals, and policymakers to discuss the most urgent questions: Is today's humanitarian system fit for purpose? Is Australia’s new humanitarian policy enough to address global needs? What is the impact on aid workers?
This seminar is a part of a Shadow Syllabus of the Liberatory Practices Collective. A shadow syllabus is an informal or supplementary guide to a formal program. This shadow syllabus, comprising a series of online webinars, is open to all and provides an informal learning environment for thoughtful reflection.
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