CPD Paper Prize Honourable Mention 2026: An Indo-Pacific history from below? Kerala, the Indo-Pacific and the ocean as method

Review of International Studies Social Media Manager, Dr Lauren Rogers, talks to Anand Sreekumar, University of Adelaide, about his paper - An Indo-Pacific history from below? Kerala, the Indo-Pacific and the ocean as method - which was the runner up in the BISA Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial (CPD) Working Group's 2026 Early-Career Researcher Paper Prize.

Amongst other things, they discuss the origins of Anand's interest in IR, his dissertation and what might come next. Lauren also asks him what advice he has for other early-career scholars, and confidence and kindness are top of the list.

Of Anand's paper, the judging committee said:

"This paper challenges the Westphalian model of defined nation-states, and offers a bottom-up approach to analysing politics through an innovative methodology of looking at the ocean. This provides an important corrective to the top-down approach. It provides a crucial critique of Hindu nationalism through a reading of caste, and putting the ocean and the history of travel at the centre of the discussion. The paper provides a unique approach to thinking about identity and race through the ocean as method, and in doing so, provides a key critique of nationalism in a well-researched and innovative way. It recentres the people and the communities instead of the nation-state, focusing on their histories and stories of travel across oceans."