InterPhil: CFP: Race and Ethnicity in Africa and Europe
__ Call for Papers Theme: Race and Ethnicity in Africa and Europe Type: International Conference Institution: Center for Maghrib Studies, Arizona State University Political Academy Tutzing Location: Tutzing (Germany) Date: 30.9.–1.10.2022 Deadline: 1.4.2022 __ The Center for Maghrib Studies at Arizona State University will be organizing a conference in collaboration with the Political Academy in Tutzing, Germany on “Race and Ethnicity in Africa and Europe.” The dates are set for September 30 to October 1st, 2022 and it will be held in Tutzing. Race and racism are deeply complex notions in Africa and Europe historically and contemporarily, as they are in other parts of the world. For a long time, scholars have insisted that notions of racism have been exported from Europe to Africa. Yet, recent research shows a more complex development. The racial hegemony of “whiteness” and the dispossession of minorities in Africa not only preceded the Western conceptualization of race and racism but also emerged before these analytic discourses came to exist in Western Europe. Even so, there are several parallels between Africa and Europe in the themes and arguments pertaining to the nature of being racially marginalized or victimized by racism. We have conceived this conference to pursue the ongoing work of new epistemological approaches to how we recognize racism and activist scholarship in the field of race, colorism, and anti-black racism in Africa and Europe. In this context we would also like to focus on the development of anti-Semitism in Europe since debates on “blackness” were very much limited in Europe before 1945. Yet, one could argue that anti-Semitism can be seen as a proxy for debates on “whiteness” in Europe before the end of World War II since Jews were denied the same racial quality as “purely white” (especially Northern) Europeans. What is more, European concepts of “whiteness” were, for a long time, directly connected to Christianity. The racial categories carry with them implicit and explicit notions and images about “otherness” that provide a justification for the social and individual hierarchical treatment of a specific group. Examining racial/ethnic differences is important because it enhances the understanding of the dynamics that create significant diversity in outcomes. Generally speaking, our conference aims at debating similarities and differences of racial concepts in Africa and Europe. Furthermore, it analyzes the history of transfer and interconnection between the two regions. As a result, we hope for new insights in the development of the concepts of race and racism. In our conference we would like to address the following questions: - How can we rethink the existing notions of race and racism? - How did they develop over time, especially between the 18th and 20th century? - Does race travel between Europe and Africa? This question helps shift the focus from parochial conceptions to useful understanding of concepts of race. - In which way are racial concepts bound to time and place, especially when we consider the differences of concepts of “whiteness” between Europe (e.g. when it comes to Jews) and Northern Africa (when it comes to Black Africans)? - What role did “whiteness” play in Europe’s quest for global hegemony and how did the marginalization of “whites” of non-European descent play a role? We kindly invite scholars to apply for our conference. Please submit an abstract of your paper on Africa or Europe (max. 300 words) by April 1st, 2022, to: tagungsassiste...@apb-tutzing.de Organizers Dr. Chouki El Hamel Center for Maghrib Studies at Arizona State University Email: cho...@asu.edu Dr. Michael Mayer Political Academy, Tutzing Email: m.ma...@apb-tutzing.de Conference website: http://centermaghribstudies.org/a-conference-on-race-and-ethnicity-in-africa-and-europe/ __ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/interphil@list.polylog.org/ __
InterPhil: CFP: Decolonial Remains
__ Call for Papers Theme: Decolonial Remains Subtitle: Scrutinizing African Studies in Africa and the Unfinished Business of Decolonization Type: 60th Anniversary Conference Institution: Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan Location: Ibadan (Nigeria) Date: 16.–20.7.2022 Deadline: 31.3.2022 __ Africa-based institutes of African studies occupy pride of place in the history of decolonization on the continent and its diaspora. Prominent among them is our Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan (IAS-Ibadan). Decisively established to challenge epistemological and curricular assumptions that were coloured by colonial education, IAS- Ibadan has come a long way in facilitating new prospects of knowing that resonate with African dynamics. Its model has also inspired the operations of other such institutes subsequently established across the continent to mainstream African knowledge systems into the rich confluence of Black studies by way of enriching the global intellectual enterprise. Indeed, in its 60 years of existence, IAS-Ibadan has attained iconic milestones in the realization of this mandate. Nonetheless, there are subsisting components of the task that continue to challenge scholars across the continent to reflect critically and scrutinize such areas of theoretical and empirical inquiries aimed at sustaining the decolonization agenda. Our 60th anniversary conference theme is inspired by the broader conceptual discourse of ‘postcolonial remains’ (Robert Young 2012), which contends that much as the project of the postcolonial appears to have outlived its relevance to the extent that it should be logical to declare it dead and have its ‘remains’ buried and forgotten, the ‘postcolonial remains’ nevertheless precisely because there are still many unfinished tasks in the unpacking of colonial violence and memory together with their resonance in the present. Taking ‘decolonial remains’ as a strand of ‘postcolonial remains’, this conference seeks to investigate the various ways in which the production of knowledge for the epistemological liberation of Africa and the African diaspora stands to offer a generative moment in the reinvention of the continent and its diaspora for development. What are the attainments of African Studies since the rise of decolonial consciousness in epistemology in the 1950s? What are the blind spots of the decolonial efforts? How can African epistemologies be mobilized in the 21st century for development? What are the futurist orientations of decolonization in African Studies? What are the theoretical and empirical implications of these assumptions for the production of knowledge and their transformation into epistemologies? These questions and more will constitute the focus of the conference conceived to celebrate Africa’s foremost centre of decolonization at 60. The conference will privilege multidisciplinary approaches that facilitate conversations across a broad spectrum of disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, medicine, and engineering, among others, to generate robust engagements. Submissions are invited in any area of research relating to decolonization and ‘decolonial remains’ in Africa. Panel proposals and individual papers touching on the following topics are particularly encouraged, but other submissions related to the general theme of the conference will be considered: - African Epistemologies and Development in the 21st Century - African Studies and Decolonial Consciousness Since 1950s - African Studies in Africa: Cairo to Cape - African Diaspora and Decolonization Dynamics - Decolonization, Public Health and Pandemics - African Women at the Frontiers and Intersections of Decolonization: Struggles, Theories and Calls to Action - Sexualities and the Discourse of Decolonial Remains - Colonial Violence and Memory - Colonialism, Coloniality and Postcoloniality - Decolonization: Rethinking Assumptions - Decolonization and the Digital: Realms, Meanings, and Discourses - Decolonial Vistas and Visualities: African Art and Museology in the 21st Century - Global Academic Publishing and Decolonial Remains - Global Public Health: Power and Barriers to Traditional African Medicine and Belief Systems - IAS-Ibadan and Decolonization Theory: History, Diaspora, Literature and Future - Institutions of Decolonization in Africa - Knowledge Boundaries: Interdisciplinarity, Multidisciplinarity and Decolonization in Africa - Knowledge Production and Epistemological Liberation - Literature, Postcolonial Theory and Decolonization - Memory, Decolonization, and Futurity - Non-Human Animal Epistemologies - Performing the Decolonial: Selves, Identities, Narratives - Popular Culture and Media in Africa - Practices of Decolonization: Continuities and Discontinuities - Southern Theories for the 21st Century and Beyond - Theorizing Decolonization:
InterPhil: CFA: Summer School on Endangered Theories
__ Call for Papers Theme: Endangered Theories Subtitle: Standing by Critical Race Theory in the Age of Ultra-Violence Type: CES Summer School Institution: Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra Location: Coimbra (Portugal) Date: 18.–22.7.2022 Deadline: 30.4.2022 __ The idea of proposing the summer school ‘Endangered Theories’ stems from three concurrences. The first one has been unfolding worldwide, from the United States to Europe and Australia, right-wingers’ desire to restore a conservative social order has manifested in a concerted attack against what they purport Critical Race Theory (CRT) is. By positing what is defacto a niche of critical legal theory as either a harmful pedagogy for white pupils, or a form of anti-white racism, or, at best, as a highly divisive ideology, a disparate array of enraged right-wing parents, pundits and politicians, have successfully leveraged the latest salvo against anti-racist social movements, Black Lives Matter (BLM) in primis. In the USA, no less than twenty-two states have sought to pass legislation banning or limiting the teaching of race and racism in schools or universities. In Australia, where the attack against CRT was mounted by the same politician who rallied against the teaching of gender in schools, it renewed the legitimacy of the white hegemonic status quo. In France, it has lent a new rationale for state representatives to oppose scrutinizing its national history, political values and identity. In Italy, where the far right and radical right politicians have been rallying against migrants and no-border activists for years, it re-asserted that the ‘nation’ is ‘white and ‘in danger.’ The second occurrence has taken place in Europe, where both the Black Lives Matter movement and racial inequities that the Covid-19 global pandemic brought in sharp relief led to the launch of the Action Plan Against Racism (APAR) in the spring of 2020. As the chair of The European Network Against Racism (ENAR), Karen Taylor, stated in the wake of its launch, APAR constitutes the very first European normative document that ‘explicitly acknowledges the existence of structural, institutional and historical dimensions of racism in Europe’ as well as the necessity of addressing them by adopting a critical race and intersectional approach. Not incidentally, the attacks against CRT are taking place at the same time as anti-racist organisations put renewed pressure on the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to enforce the recommendations of APAR, including involving racial and ethnic minorities in European policymaking, and redressing European national histories of colonialism, enslavement and genocide. The third occurrence has unfolded in Portugal. Following a string of racially motivated crimes that culminated in the murder of Bruno Candé in July 2020, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatović, issued the Memorandum on combating racism and violence against women in Portugal. In this document, Mijatović urged the Portuguese government to ‘acknowledge the legacy of the repressive structures put in place by past colonial policies’ and to identify and correct ‘ingrained racist biases and their present-day ramifications’. Heeding this request, the National Plan Against Racism and Discrimination (NPARD) was launched in 2021 presenting ‘intersectionality’ and deconstruction of ‘stereotypes’ as its guiding principles. Albeit nowhere in the NPARD is clarified how exactly CRT will inform the anti-racist interventions of the state, well-known right-wing pundits have systematically attacked CRT inspired scholarship and activism. Because of these occurrences, CRT has been in the public eye, at the same time, as a dangerous political ideology and as a suitable tool to redress racism. In the first instance, CRT has operated as an empty signifier, by which right-wingers have conflated affirmative actions with multiculturalism, wokeism, identity politics, political correctness, and cancel culture. In the second instance, CRT has worked as an anti-racism tool, by which activists have advanced their demands for social justice. Either way, no comprehensive explanation has been offered about what CRT is, how it distinguishes itself from and/ or relates with other theoretical paradigms concerned with race and racism and, more importantly, if and how it accounts for the various ways in which racialized minorities have been oppressed from country to country in Europe. The summer school ‘Endangered Theories’ addresses these questions through a programme that mixes introductory lectures on relevant theoretical paradigms concerned with the intersections of power relations and social divisions that are structured by race, gender, class, and nationality with lectures that illustrate their application in European nations (e.g., Ital
