Wintersemester 2022/23 "Let's talk about racism"- Antirassismus und Intersektionalität im Gespräch
Let's talk about racism - Anti-Racism and Intersectionality in Conversation
Prof. Dr. Martina Pamanabhan, Chair of Critical Development Studies - Southeast Asia
Anti-racism is theory and practice to counter discrimination in the city and at the university. In the traditional lecture series Diversity, Gender & Intersectionality under the auspices of Vice-President Prof. Dr. Christina Hansen and the University’s Women's Representative Prof. Dr. Andrea Sieber and in cooperation with the Department for Diversity and Gender Equality, this winter is all about anti-racism and how we can understand it theoretically and live it practically in everyday university life, but also in e.g. the climate protection movement. Speakers from all over Germany and the UK will offer insights into the latest research on racism in international development cooperation, in educational institutions in Germany, and on how we can unlearn racism. The academic view will be joined by the perspective of civil society actors, such as the magazine makers OF COLOR. As a "Christmas present", Passau citizens and students will discuss their concrete approaches to anti-racist solidarity.
All these insights are based on intersectionality as a theoretical approach to analyse the entanglements of inequality through gender, class, ethnicity/nationality and age, among others. The university as a site of social change provides the space for debates on structural and institutional discrimination while seeking change. The diversification and decolonisation of teaching and research are challenges not only in everyday academic life. We will discuss with academics, civil society organisations and students how this can be achieved in Passau, throughout Germany and internationally. The theory and practice of anti-racism is the focus of this lecture series, which consciously relates academic analysis and social engagement.
We explore the theory and practice of intersectionality and decoloniality with regard to the case of the University of Passau to understand its importance for higher education and research. Drawing on feminist theory and research praxis we explore intersectional approaches to understanding social relations at our university from different standpoints and how this is interwoven into decoloniality. Based on student projects and our joint learning in winter term 21/22 we introduce to intersectionality as a concept and practice and how social movements have mobilised an intersectional perspective both before and since the term was coined. We investigate our own experiences as international and German students at the intersections of gender, age, caste, ethnicity, race and class through autoethnography and a net-mapping exercise. By doing so, we encounter how intersectionality as a lens operates to destabilise colonial ways of seeing. By presenting the results of the research and teaching project, we demonstrate why intersectionality is important to the political process of decolonising our very own University of Passau.
Daniela Melissa Escarria Parra is a Colombian lawyer passionate about human rights and international law. After graduating in 2019, she was awarded the Helmut Schimdt scholarship offered by DAAD. Thanks to this, she is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Governance and Public Policy at the University of Passau. Additionally, she is currently highly interested in Critical Discourse Analysis and Intersectionality to pursue social justice.
Joeta Ndwiga is currently pursuing her M.A. in Development Studies at the University of Passau. She is passionate about exploring solutions that have social and environmental impacts on her community and society, and her professional experience has revolved around food security, capacity building of farmers groups, and implementation of irrigation development projects in the national and county governments in Kenya. Her study concentration focuses on rural development, gender and development, sustainability development, and intersectionality, specifically in this research she employed the autoethnography research method to reflect on her personal experiences of microaggression as an international student of color and how they have impacted and shaped her student life. She is currently conducting her Masters’ thesis research on Solidarische Landwirtschaft - Passau, as an alternative shift in the food system.
Ferdyani Atikaputri is DAAD Helmut-Schmidt Programme scholarship holder and active student at M.A. Development Studies University of Passau. Prior coming to Passau, she was a professional development worker managing sustainable development projects with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and government of Indonesia. She continues expressing her interest in development sector through community engagement and research. She is currently active in an Indonesian community, Rumah Aman Kita (RUANITA) that focus on mental health, gender equality, and women empowerment for Indonesian living abroad. In this research, she elaborates intersectionality and net-map approach to analyze the involvement of actors in higher education system and students’ well-being during COVID-19 pandemic.
Nicole Borges Steeb (M.A. Governance and Public Policy) holds a vast interdisciplinary and international background situated at the intersection of social change and political processes. Despite a Bachelor in European Studies (Catholic University Of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) with a focus on European languages, history, and culture, she is constantly connected to her second home country Brazil (both physically and) through her research topics. In her autoethnography, she investigates her time as an exchange student in Colombia (Universidad de Antioquia). The experience as a whole demonstrates the need for an intersectional and decolonial approach inside universities in both the physical and epistemological space.
Anna Kolb absolved the first state examination in 2019 in primary school didactics with a focus on politics and society at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Then, she decided to expand her knowledge and skills in extracurricular education. Since the winter semester 2020/21, she has therefore been studying the research oriented Master's degree in Education and Educational Processes at the University of Passau with a focus on educational management. Her Interests and main areas of study are educational inequality, equal opportunities, innovations in the education sector. Moreover, she conducted a research project in a seminar on intersectionality, where she used autoethnography to address the following question: To what extent are her experiences at university shaped by her own positioning and upbringing as a working class child.
Literature
Bhambra, G. K. (2014) ‘Postcolonial and decolonial dialogues’, Postcolonial Studies. Taylor & Francis, 17(2), pp. 115–121. doi: 10.1080/13688790.2014.966414.
Icaza, R. and Vázquez, R. (2018) ‘Diversity or Decolonisation? Researching Diversity at the University of Amsterdam’, in Bhambra, G. K., Gebrial, D. and Nişancıoğlu, K. (eds.) Decolonising the University, London: Pluto Press, pp 108-128
Session in German
In this lecture the concept of intersectionality and the critique of racism in the practice will be shown. As a platform for the critique of racism, the magazine "of Color" stands for the empowerment and representation of Bi_Poc and is addressed to Bi_Poc and to everyone who wants to learn about the critique of racism. In July 2022 the second print edition about the concept of intersectionality was published. How does the concept of intersectionality in the practice look like? Where are the limits of the intersectional work of "of Color"? What is the vision behind this platform? These questions will be discussed and answered in this lecture.
Pia Ihedioha studies elementary school education at the University of Passau. Outside of her studies she works as a teacher of civic education and did workshops focusing on antiracism and empowerment. She is a co-founder of the magazine "of Color". "of Color" is a platform for the critique on racism and represents Bi_Poc in the media. Since 2020 Pia volunteers together with a team of 10 members to create the vision behind "of Color".
Session in German
We experience the world intersectionally and at the same time we see others as members of a category - man, woman, black, young, old. Many of these categories are binary and the debates around people who are trans* (trans* gender, trans* race) highlight that very many people in Western culture are unsettled by ambiguity. Research shows that racialised thinking is so deeply socially embedded that even people who are blind from birth perceive others as racialised subjects. The visual "evidence" of human differences that Western culture, including science, relies on, must therefore be rethought.
So can we see in a way that resembles our own intersectional experience as bodies in the world? To answer this question, we need to understand how social categories emerge from visual clues and the extent to which categories shape our visual perception. In the search for ways to see differently - intersectionally - I draw on both academic, interdisciplinary sources and artistic practice in my talk. This can help us to make 'seeing through culture' explicit and thus open the space for more intersectionality.
Prof. Dr. Magdalena Nowicka is Head of the Department of Integration at the DeZIM Institute and Honorary Professor at the Institute for Social Sciences at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Nowicka is a sociologist with an interdisciplinary background in political and cultural studies from Poland and Germany. Her research interests are Transnationalism of migrants in diversity, conviviality and racism.
She has published on racism in the context of immigration and Brexit ("I don't mean to sound racist but ... " Transforming racism in transnational Europe, published in Ethnic and Racial Studies 41, 2018) and on the intersection of racism and masculinity (with Katarzyna Wojnicka, Understanding Migrant Masculinities through a Spatially Intersectional Lens, published in Men&Masculinities 2021). Her most recent publications include the book Revisualising Intersectionality (Palgrave, 2022, with Elahe Hashemi Yekani and Tiara Roxanne).
CANCELLED
Session in German
We all live in a society that has (re)produced racist practices and discourses for centuries. Therefore, it is almost impossible not to have racist knowledge. However, recognising this (learned) knowledge, bringing it into one's own consciousness and reflecting on it repeatedly is possible and the goal of racism-critical practice. But can this knowledge ever be completely discarded?
This lecture offers an introduction and overview of racism-critical migration education and its development. The focus will be on current positions, previous discourses and the interplay between theoretical points of contact and practical educational work in the immigration society.
Zehranur Manzak, graduate in education (Univ.), is an education consultant at the youth education centre in Lower Franconia and is in charge of the couragiert unit. As part of her work, she designs seminars and works as a trainer with different groups who want to further their education in the context of a migration society and who want to be sensitised to rasism-critical moments. She is also a systemic ounsellor and works with family dynamics and biography work.
ONLINE
While almost a century has passed since WEB Du Bois wrote about the global colour line and it is 50 years since Guyanese Marxist scholar and activist Walter Rodney wrote How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, it is only very recently, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, that many organisations involved in international development have begun talking for the first time about racism in development. Much of this discussion has not gone beyond considering the need for greater diversity among the personnel of these institutions who are located in the Global North. In this lecture, I suggest that racism needs to be understood materially, and as operating globally, structuring the global inequalities and patterns of exploitation, extraction and accumulation within which development is embedded, and inseparable from ongoing processes of imperialism. I consider some of the forms of embodied racialised violence in development, which are always also gendered. And I suggest that we must recognise sources of resistance to these racialized structures of global capital accumulation in political and social movements taking place across continents, in which other kinds of worlds are being envisioned and fought for.
Kalpana Wilson is a Lecturer in the Geography Department at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research explores questions of race/gender, labour, imperialism, fascism and reproductive rights and justice, with a particular focus on South Asia and its diasporas. She is the author of Race, Racism and Development: Interrogating History, Discourse and Practice (Zed Books, 2012) and co-editor of Gender, Agency and Coercion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). She has written widely on themes of international development, revolutionary social movements and reproductive justice. She is a founder member of the campaigning organisation South Asia Solidarity Group.
Session in German
ONLY ONLINE
The climate crisis does not affect everyone equally, quite the opposite. It differentiates according to race, gender, geographical location, socio-economic background, age, physical limitations and many other categories. Using the example of Black, Indigenous and Women of Colour (BIWoC), this lecture shows that, on the one hand, marginalised groups are particularly affected by the climate crisis and, on the other hand, it is precisely BIWoC who not only take on leading roles in the climate movement, but from whose specialised knowledge, based on their intersectional oppression, their (survival) struggle and their way of producing and passing on knowledge, the climate movement can learn in unexpected ways. Contrary to what is often assumed, the climate movement in a broad sense is not "too white", it is actually Black, Indigenous and People of Colour who have been shaping this movement for decades. It is time that they receive the recognition and appreciation they deserve. A brief analysis of the origins of intersectional feminism in Black feminisms and Black women's struggles is followed by theory-based and intersectional feminist guidelines for the climate movement gained through interviews with BIWoC climate activists. These guidelines are a proposal to help the climate movement to have a vision, to take into account the interconnectedness and interdependence of global challenges in its protest; to recognise that these have different implications for marginalised people and to prioritise the protection of people as well as the environment. To confront the climate crisis, radical systemic change is needed, climate justice is the strategy to be applied and intersectional feminism provides the perspective to implement it.
Sheena Anderson explores intersectional perspectives and how they can promote greater global justice and responsibility. She wants to contribute to the hearing and visibility of marginalised voices and question discriminatory structures. She gained work experience at the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung BW in the area of strengthening democracy and as a freelancer in political education work. She also completed further training as an anti-bias multiplier. In the course of her studies, she specialised in peace and sustainability, intersectionality, war and gender, post-conflict states and international law. She is an activist with the Black Earth Collective in Berlin and has been working at the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy since 2020.
Session in German
As a "Christmas present", we will discuss with Passau citizens and students their concrete approaches to anti-racist solidarity. Till Hoffmann from Passau, organiser of the Eulenspielfestival, reports on his involvement in the Bellevue de Monaco in Munich, a house project with refugees that has nationwide appeal. Perdita Wingerter, chairwoman of the active and multi-award-winning association „Gemeinsam leben und lernen in Europa“ (Living and Learning Together in Europe) in Passau gives insights into what anti-racist work can look like on the ground in our small university town. Together with them we discuss where there is still room for improvement at the University and in the city and what needs to be done to make Passau safe for everyone.
Till Hofmann, born in 1970 and raised in Passau, is a culture and concert organizer. He runs cabaret and music stages in Munich and Vienna, operates a label and is responsible for festivals with the Eulenspiegel Flying Circus.
He is also founder and chairman of the social cooperative "Bellevue di Monaco" for refugees.
Perdita Wingerter is the managing director of the non-profit association "Gemeinsam leben und lernen in Europa" (Living and Learning Together in Europe), which successfully implements a variety of projects and actions to combat racism and xenophobia and to promote tolerance and diversity. In addition, as the owner of IQM Wingerter, she works as an independent project consultant and lecturer. As an expert on the topic of volunteering, integration and equal opportunities as well as on the topic of combating racism and xenophobia, she regularly gives seminars and/or lectures at regional, national and European level.
Session in German
Session only online
Racism is political and the political is shaped by racism. In many parts of German society, homogeneity advocates and diversity enthusiasts are irreconcilably opposed to each other. Lorenz Narku Laing analyses the post-homogeneous society and shows that racist politics are part of the core business of homogeneity advocates. His postcolonial critique examines the deeper reasons for this and at the same time provides a critical intervention in (political) scientific research. It becomes clear that racism is much more than discrimination and disadvantage: Racism is a political ideology.
Prof. Dr. Lorenz Narku Laing is a Professor of Social Sciences and Racism-Research at the Evangelische Hochschule Rheinland-Westfalen-Lippe. Dr. Laing is founder and managing director of Vielfaltsprojekte GmbH, certified diversity trainer and racism researcher. In 2020, Dr Laing was honoured as 30 under 30 of the #GenerationGrenzenlos by the Hertie Foundation. He received the Zeppelin University Award for Excellence in Teaching and his latest project on discrimination in sports won the Innovation Award for Volunteerism from the State Government of Bavaria. In 2022, his book on "Political Racism" was published by transcript-Verlag. As a diversity consultant, he accompanies Dax corporations, TV stations and theatres.
Session in German
Based on an analysis of exemplary work materials of the school subject geography, it will be shown to what extent stereotypes can be reproduced and sometimes categorised in the sense of postcolonial othering even and especially in lessons that stand for global learning and education in sustainable development. Based on this, the necessity and potential of education critical of racism and postcolonial perspectives in the classroom are reflected upon. Selected interview excerpts with teachers will be used to outline the extent to which awareness of various dimensions of discrimination should be raised, especially in the first phase of teacher training at university. In doing so, intersectional interrelations with other areas will also be addressed.
Trigger warning: In the first part of the lecture, few examples (text and image) are shown that can evoke negative emotions.
Dr. Andreas Eberth studied geography, German language and literature studies and educational science at the University of Trier. From 2014-2022, he was a research assistant in the Didactics of Geography department at the Institute for Didactics of Science at Leibniz Universität Hannover. In the winter semester 2022/2023, he is representing the professorship for Didactics of Geography at the Justus Liebig University of Gießen. His work focuses on education for sustainable development/global learning, visual geographies, education critical of racism and postcolonial perspectives in education as well as regionally in East Africa.
Session in German
Based on empirical surveys of welcome initiatives within the framework of the BMBF joint projects "Welcome Culture and Democracy in Germany", the brochure "Democracy and Participation in the Migration Society" that was developed in the project will be discussed. The analysis of the post-migrant German society and the embedded racism, sexism and heteronormativity represent the methodological starting point of the lecture. How can racism, sexism and heteronormative orientations be unlearned? How is this unlearning connected to raising awareness and acknowledging privileges? In the lecture, a multimethod, racism-critical, and diversity-sensitive approach is presented and discussed as an anti-essentialist approach.
Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Tuider has held the chair of Sociology of Diversity with a special focus on the dimension of gender since 2011. Her work and research focuses on gender and queer studies, cultural and postcolonial studies, the critique of racism and migration research. She is influenced by social inequality studies and social movements in Latin American countries. She was also on the board of the "Fachgesellschaft Geschlechterstudien" and has realised several BMBF-funded research projects, including the joint project "Willkommenskultur und Demokratie in Deutschland" (Welcome Culture and Democracy in Germany).
CANCELLED
Can Higher Education respond to the possibility of an ethical life that is not structurally implicated with the suffering and the consumption of the life of earth and others? In this lecture, I will set some of the elements of decolonial feminism that can help us to address the erasure of experiences that can teach us about overcoming the destruction of the earth and of ways of knowing and forms of knowledge.
Dr. Rosalba Icaza is a decolonial feminist and Full Professor of Global Politics, Feminisms and Decoloniality at the Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University of Rotterdam. She is member of the Red Transnational Otros Saberes (RETOS), co-convenes the transnational learning group "Nurturing (each) Other” and collaborates with Suumil Mookt’an in Sinanche, Yucatan, Mexico.
After a semester with current and theoretical input on anti-racism and intersectionality, we will have the chance to discuss possibilities and needs for shaping the University together with Vice President Prof. Dr. Christina Hansen. The specific occasion is the Diversity Audit that the University is currently undergoing. This is a concrete window of opportunity to address structures and processes, but also informal routines and speechlessness in the face of multi-layered discrimination. Prof. Dr. Karsten Fitz and Prof. Dr. Karin Stögner, who have each organised successful lecture series on intersectionality from the sociological and Americanist perspectives, are also involved. We want to use all the insights, flashes of inspiration and productive rage from the passionate lectures and debates at "Walk the talk" to spark short- and long-term change at our University and beyond in our city, and to dream on with our eyes wide open. We are counting on YOUR contribution, wherever you stand on this topic.
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