2013
International seminar
Silence about Race/Reconfigurations of Racism
European University Viadrina, Frankfurt Oder: 7-8 January 2013
This seminar, organized by the European University Viadrina, centred on the question how ‘race’ relates to the operations of social power in particular contexts and what the critical purchase and effectiveness of analytical concepts of racism can be. It provides a forum for debates which will combine conceptual reflections with case studies exploring the diverse conjunctures of talking about racism in European countries.
2012
Policy seminar
Working in the Field of Racism and Discrimination: Perspectives and Experiences
SFI, Copenhagen: 2 October 2012
This seminar, organised by the Danish Centre for Social Research, aimed at discussing different approaches from policy making, political activism and academic research to racism, anti-racism and discrimination. Presentations by:
• Tina Gudrun Jensen, SFI
• Morten Casper Rostgaard Spies, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration
• Niels-Erik Hansen, the Documentation and Advisory Centre on Racial Discrimination (DRC)
• Nanna Margrethe Krusaa, the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
Conference session
The Semantics of (Anti-) Racism in Policy Development: Debates on Difference and Integration in Education, at the Twelfth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations
University of British Columbia, Vancouver: 11-13 July 2012
Silvia Maeso (CES), Marta Araújo (CES), Tina Jensen (SFI), María Martínez (UPV), Ángeles Castaño (US), Fernando Martínez (US), Simona Pagano (EUV), and Katy Sian (ULeeds) presented the TOLERACE research main approach and policy-oriented research, and the case studies and main findings on the sphere of education.
International workshop
Contemporary Configurations of Racism and Eurocentrism: Debates on Academic and Political Discourses and Practices
Casa da Escrita, Coimbra: 22 -23 May 2012
This workshop, organized by the Centre for Social Studies, gathered 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. The main objective of the workshop was 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.
Debate
Racism at the UniverCity: Debates and Challenges
Sala Arte à Parte, Coimbra: 21 May 2012
This round table, organised by the Centre for Social Studies, aimed to discuss and unravel situations of racial and ethnic discrimination at the University, and those affecting the everyday life of students in the city, and to evaluate the effectiveness of current anti-racist and anti-discrimination institutional mechanisms. The debate was promoted in partnership with social and student movements that struggle against discrimination in Portugal.
Participants:
• Viviane Carrico (Association of Brazilian Researchers and Students)
• Paulina Mendes (University of Bayreuth/UC)
• Joaquim Pires Valentim (University of Coimbra)
• Julia Suárez-Krabbe (Roskilde University/CES)
• Mamadou Ba (SOS Racismo)
Workshop
CERS/ULeeds Showcase
University of Leeds: 12 April 2012
Various scholars from the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies presented their recent and forthcoming books, followed by a short discussion of the TOLERACE research findings and of new activities and developments going on in the centre.
Conference
Human Mobility and Social Diversity Conference
Bilbao: 11-13 April 2012
Beatriz Cavia, David Gómez, Ignacio Irazuzta and María Martínez (CEIC/UPV) presented the paper ‘Intercultural policies in a multicultural neighbourhood: experiences in three primary schools in San Francisco, Bilbao’ focused on an analysis of intercultural policies in the sphere of compulsory education in the Basque Country. More specifically, the paper examines three schools in Bilbao that shows a particular ethnic distribution of the pupils, illustrative of the ways schools manage cultural diversity; the complexities of the linguistic models and imaginaries about the ‘other’ in the education system.
Conference session
Re-centering Racism in Academic and Political Debate at the 40th IIS World Congress: After Western Hegemony: Social Science and its Publics
New Delhi: 16-19 February, 2012
This session, organised by Silvia Maeso and Marta Araújo (Centre for Social Studies), focused on the ways in which social sciences have been both (re)producing and challenging a Eurocentric conception of racism, taking into account its changing relationship with two target-audiences: policy-makers and political activists. Regarding the former, the session aimed to generate a broader debate on evidence-based policies, considering the history of colonial governmentality. Regarding political activism, this session aimed at exploring how different contexts are configuring the relation between the academia and social movements (and challenging the figure of the academic as expert), as well as how activists are making use of academic knowledge in political struggles and strategies.
2011
Seminar
The Reception of Post-Colonial and Decolonial Discourse in Europe, by Montserrat Galcerán Huguet (Complutense University of Madrid)
CES Coimbra: 15 November 2011
In this seminar Montserrat focused on how post-colonial/decolonial discourse has been received in Europe. Starting from the disruptions it produces among European intellectuals, she reflected on two main issues questioned by this discourse: capitalism and historic time. Regarding the first one, she considered the epistemic shift accomplished by modern philosophy and its defence of universal human reason; regarding the second one, she focused on Chakrabarty's critique of historic time and its European-imperial matrix.
Conference
RESPECT Conference: Debating Toleration: Attitudes, Practices and Institutions
University of Pavia: 3-5 November
Silvia Maeso (CES), Marta Araújo (CES) and Katy Sian (University of Leeds) participated in this conference organized by the RESPECT research project (http://respect.iusspavia.it). The TOLERACE project’s main conceptual proposals and provisional findings were presented by Silvia Maeso; Katy Sian presented the communication: ‘(In)Tolerance and (Anti)Racism in Employment: Muslims in the UK’.
Workshop
European Pluralism: Religions, Tolerance and Values. Insights from European Research supported under the 7th Framework Programme
Brussels: 6 October 2011
Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Silvia Rodríguez Maeso (CES) participated in this workshop, organised by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, aimed at discussing future collaborations with three other projects: ACCEPT pluralism, RELIGARE and RESPECT.
Conference
TOLERACE International Seminar
University of Seville: 4 October 2011
Boaventura de Sousa Santos (CES), David Goldberg (U. of California), Linda Herrera (U. of Illinois) and Isidoro Moreno (U. of Seville) presented and discussed some of the project’s concepts, objectives and provisional findings, such as the ‘post-racial’ context and its consequences on the understating of racism and anti-racism; the relation between Eurocentric academic production and the dominant conceptualisation of racism.
Conference Poster
XII National Congress of Anthropology – Spain
León, 9 September 2011
Ángeles Castaño and José María Manjavacas presented a poster on the TOLERACE project.
Conference
Rethinking the Modern: Colonialism, Empire & Slavery, international conference organised by the British Sociological Association – Theory Study Group
Birmingham: 11-12 July 2011
Silvia Maeso (CES) and Marta Araújo (CES) presented the paper: ‘The formulation/critique of ‘Portuguese soft colonialism’: ‘race’, nationhood and the politics of academic narratives’
Workshop
Islamophobia at the Schools?
European University Viadrina, Berlin: 27 June 2011
Professor Werner Schiffauer (EUV) coordinated this workshop involving 16 participants from various fields (academics, teachers – Muslims and non-Muslims –, diversity trainers, Muslim pupils, and representatives from anti-discrimination organizations) participated. The first session was focused on the discussion of results from Schiffauer’s research in the educational field unravelling structures and mechanisms of Islamophobia in everyday school life. In the second session, the experiences of a diversity trainer and a school teacher and employee at the Berlin Institute for School and Media, regarding the challenge of Islamophobia at schools were discussed.
Seminar
The Legacy of the Black Panther Party: What about the Children?, by Ericka Huggins (Political activist, poet and professor; former member of the Black Panthers)
CES, Coimbra, 30 May 2011
Ericka Huggins discussed the history and legacies of anti-racist political struggles and community work in the United States – with a specific focus on education - engaging with her experience in the Black Panther Party.
Policy meeting
CES/UC researchers meeting with the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
CES Lisbon: 16 May 2011
The UN Working Group: Mirjana Najcevska – Chair, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Monorama Biswas – Bangladesh, Verene Shepherd – Jamaica, Richard Clarke – Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, met with CES/UC researchers to discuss the situation of people of African Descent in Portugal. Preliminary findings of the TOLERACE research were discussed with the Working Group, focusing on the multiple implications of the dominant imaginary about an assumed Portuguese ‘soft’ colonialism and the paradigm of ‘integration as assimilation’ prevalent in current policy making that precludes a sound discussion of racism and anti-racist policy approaches.
Seminar
Immigration, Collective Memory and National Identity in France, by Gérard Noiriel (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales)
CES Coimbra: 12 April 2011
Professor Noiriel argued for an understanding of why immigration has been a silenced element in contemporary French historiography. Discussion focused on the relation between immigration and national identity, and its relation to contemporary configurations of racism.
Workshop
Anti-Racism, Postcolonialism and Political Mobilisation in Contemporary Europe: A Debate with Partie des Indigènes de la République
CES Lisbon: 19 March 2011
Houria Bouteldja and Sadri Khiari, representatives of the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic in France, discussed the present political context regarding racism, Islamophobia, the decolonial strategy and the relation between anti-racist movements and the academia, with researchers from the TOLERACE consortium: Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Frank Peter, Hakan Tosuner, Silvia Maeso, Marta Araújo and Paula Meneses, and two members of SOS Racism - Portugal: José Falcão and Mamadou Ba.
2010
Conference
Tolerance and Racism
Almedina bookstore, Coimbra: 26 November 2010
Series of conferences on the idea and practice of ‘Tolerance’, organised by APPACDM – Coimbra. Silvia Maeso (CES) presented the talk entitled ‘Tolerance and (anti-)racism’.
Debate
Racism in Popular Culture
CES Coimbra: 25 November 2010
Marta Araújo, Silvia Maeso and Ana Rita Alves (CES) presented a vídeo and chaired a debate on ‘Racism in popular culture’, within the Science and Technology Week activities.
Seminar
Racial Neoliberalism and the Crises of Multiculturalism, by Alana Lentin (University of Sussex) with comments by Marta Araújo
CES Coimbra: 16 November 2010
Alana Lentin discussed the policies seeking to counteract the perceived failure of multiculturalism in Europe today pose culturalist solutions to problems deemed to originate from an excess of cultural diversity. The debate focused on the importance of analysing the notion of post-race within a wider analysis of the profound rejection of politics of which it has, and continues to be, definitive.
Training activity
The Location of (Anti-)Racism in the Academia and Policy Developments: Challenging the Discourse on Integration and Social Cohesion
SOS Racism – Portugal training sessions, Tocha: 31 October 2010
Silvia Maeso (CES) and Marta Araújo (CES) collaborated in this training activity involving young anti-racist activists. Some preliminary findings of the TOLERACE research on academic literature and policy developments were discussed.
International workshop
European Pluralism: Religions, Tolerance and Values. Insights from European Research supported under the 6th and 7th Framework Programmes
Berlaymont Building, Brussels: 18-19 October 2010
Silvia Maeso (CES) and Marta Araújo (CES) presented the TOLERACE research project: analytical approach and the policy questions the project addresses.
Index of presentation
List of participants
Conference session
Session 16: Racial Discrimination in Europe – 10 Years On
International Sociological Association - World Conference, Gothenburg: 17 July 2010
Silvia Maeso (CES) and Marta Araújo (CES) presented the paper ‘The understanding of racism and anti-racism in contemporary Europe: the EU’s public discourse’ in this session coordinated by a researcher from the EU – Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA); Maeso and Araújo discussed the TOLERACE critical perspectives on the FRA’s understanding of racism and how it is shaping its monitoring activities.