The main objective of this international workshop is to promote a debate that engages both with current issues on knowledge/history production and with contemporary discourses/policies on immigration and ‘integration’, taking their intersection as crucial to unravel the relations between the constant (re)making of nation boundaries and ideas of political belonging. We propose that a breakthrough approach requires the challenging of a Eurocentric paradigm, now hegemonic, that is preventing a thorough debate on racism as being embedded on the history of modern science, capitalism, liberal democracies and the state of law.

Description

This workshop is organised within the TOLERACE research project: – The semantics of tolerance and (anti-racism) in Europe, www.ces.uc.pt/projectos/tolerace – and it aims at gathering international academics from different disciplines that have developed cutting-edge research on the theoretical and political challenges of Eurocentrism, the understanding of contemporary (anti-)racism and decolonial/post-colonial analysis and methodologies.

Critical theories of ‘race’, racism and related discriminations and different anti-racist movements/organisations have called for the challenging of certain dominant approaches to racism, considering their impact on public policy. They insist on the necessity to disconnect, at least partially, the question of racism from that of contemporary movements of immigration. In current times, racism is too often naturalised within the discourse and practice of integration and social cohesion and the continuous redrawing of a line between ‘Us’ and the ‘Other’ (non-EU immigrants; ethnic minorities, ‘second-generation’ immigrants). In order to overcome this, a sound debate of the contemporary contours of Eurocentrism and (anti-)racism requires a historically-informed analysis of knowledge production within the academia and policy-making that engages with: a) the making of public history regarding colonialism, ‘race’/racism and nationhood in contemporary European societies (e.g. myths about tolerance in the Netherlands, Egalitarian Republicanism in France, a soft colonialism in Portugal, Political pluralism and religious tolerance in Spain, the myth of fairness and multiculturalism in Britain, etc.); b) the contextual specificities of cultural politics, considering how history shaped different ways of making sense of Europeaness, national identity and racism (e.g. the political declaration that multiculturalism has failed in Britain, controversies and recent policies on the teaching of colonialism in France).

The main objective of this workshop is to promote a debate that engages both with current debates on knowledge/history production and with contemporary discourses/policies on immigration and ‘integration’, taking their intersection as crucial to unravel the relations between the constant (re)making of nation boundaries and ideas of political belonging. We propose that a breakthrough approach requires the challenging of a Eurocentric paradigm, now hegemonic, that is preventing a thorough debate on racism as being embedded on the history of modern science, capitalism, liberal democracies and the state of law.

The workshop will take place at the Centre for Social Studies (University of Coimbra, Portugal). It will last for two days and will be organised around four sessions. Each session will start with introductory remarks by the coordinator, followed by the opening interventions. The debate will then be open to all speakers. Speakers and coordinators will discuss with the workshop attendees by the end of each day’s sessions.

Organisation: Silvia R. Maeso (CES) & Marta Araújo (CES)

Programme

Tuesday, May 22

9:00 Presentation

9:30 – 13:00 Eurocentrism, ‘race’/racism and the politics of knowledge production

Coordination: Silvia R. Maeso (CES-University of Coimbra)

Opening interventions:

• Ramón Grosfoguel,
  
• Branwen Gruffydd Jones,
  
• Nelson Maldonado-Torres,
  
• Barnor Hesse
  
• Boaventura de Sousa Santos

14:30-17:30 The politics of research and policy-making on (anti-)racism (I): Europe and the ‘immigrant imaginary’

Coordination: Salman Sayyid (CERS-University of Leeds/Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding-University of South Australia)

Opening interventions:

• Alana Lentin,
  
• Katy Sian
  
• Julia Suárez-Krabbe

18:00 – 19:00

Debate with the workshop attendees

Wednesday, May 23

9:30 – 13:00 The politics of research and policy-making on (anti-)racism (II): Islamophobia

Coordination: Frank Peter (University of Bern/European University Viadrina)

Opening interventions:

• Gema Martín-Muñoz,
  
• Abdoolkarim Vakil,
  
• Ramón Grosfoguel,
  
• Salman Sayyid

14:30 - 17:30 Current key debates on ‘race’, racism and anti-racism: colonialism, slavery, public history and education in Europe and the Americas

Coordination: Marta Araújo (CES-University of Coimbra)

Opening interventions:

• Barnor Hesse
  
• Lars Jensen
  
• Kwame Nimako

18:00-19:00

Debate with the workshop attendees

SPEAKERS

• Abdoolkarim Vakil (King’s College)
• Alana Lentin (University of Sussex)
• Barnor Hesse (Northwestern University)  
• Boaventura de Sousa Santos (CES-University of Coimbra)
• Branwen Gruffydd Jones (Goldsmiths-University of London)
• Frank Peter (University of Bern/European University Viadrina)
• Gema Martín-Muñoz (Autonomous University of Madrid) 
  
• Katy Sian (CERS-University of Leeds) 
  
• Kwame Nimako (University of Amsterdam)
• Julia Suárez-Krabbe (CES-University of Coimbra/Roskilde University)
  
• Lars Jensen (Roskilde Universtiy)
• Marta Araújo (CES-University of Coimbra)
• Nelson Maldonado-Torres (Rutgers University) 
  
• Ramón Grosfoguel (University of California – Berkeley)  
• Sayyid (CERS-University of Leeds/Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding-University of South Australia)
• Silvia R. Maeso (CES-University of Coimbra)

Advisory committee

• Diana ANDRINGA, Portugal (Journalist and documentary film-maker)
• Eva SMITH ASMUSSEN, Denmark (Chair of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance).
• Lídia BRITO, Mozambique (IHE-UNESCO Governing Board; former Minister of Science and Technology of Mozambique).
• Peter Ronald DE SOUZA, India (India Institute of Advanced Studies).
• Tarso GENRO, Brazil (Minister of Justice; former Minister of Education and of Institutional Relations).
  
• Gema MARTÍN-MUÑOZ, Spain (Director General of Casa Árabe)
• Jorge SAMPAIO, Portugal (United Nations High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations; former President of the Republic of Portugal).