July 27 – 28, 2017, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
With the rise of right-wing populism in the USA and Europe and the increased attention to the vulnerability of racialized populations (in part by the activist efforts of such groups as Black Lives Matter and indigenous activism around the Dakota Access Pipeline), it is necessary to engage with questions of race and racism in our respective fields. In doing so, it is imperative that we reassess the basic epistemological categories we work with as well as our own positionality in dealing with those categories. As such, it is important that we not only direct our critical attention to the problematics of race in the USA, which very often serves as a frame of reference when talking about race, but also look at our own cultural context since German academia is part of German society.
This conference provides a platform for scholars concerned with the processes and the politics of race and racialization as they are understood in the current German research landscape. Basic questions need to be revisited and honestly assessed during the planned 2-day gathering. Among them the following will be of import: What is race as we understand it today? What are race, racism and racialization? What is power? How do we understand privilege? What is Critical Race Theory and what is Critical Whiteness Studies? What are some of the other disciplinary areas (e.g. Critical University Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies) that are connected with the theories and critical scholarship around that elusive, and yet very real, phenomenon known as race?
For the full program, please click here. See the conference poster here.