CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS
Black multiplicities, African multiplicities? Theorising Migration, Identity, and Blackness from European perspectives
Minerva Fast Track Group Migration, Identity and Blackness in Europe • Inaugural Workshop
Dates: Monday 18 November – Wednesday 20 November, 2024
Location: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (Göttingen, Germany)
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
The Migration, Identity, and Blackness in Europe Research Group invites applications for 2-3 workshop contributions from scholars based in Europe (including the UK). The workshop aims to provide a platform for researchers, artists, and activist scholars to engage in discussions on the multifaceted experiences of African, African diasporic and Black individuals and communities in Europe. With this workshop, we aim to push theoretical and empirical work on the multiplicity and heterogeneity of Blackness and African identities in Europe and from European perspectives.
The general focus is on Black and African diasporic communities and their lived experiences, as emerging from first-hand explorations and relationships, but there is openness to exploring how Blackness and race take shape at more theoretical and abstract levels. The workshop is organized around three thematic areas:
- African and African diasporic identities in/ and Europe: Multiplicities of African-ness and African identities, from broad Pan-Africanism to the specificities of African culture, religion, language, indigeneity, etc. as they evolve beyond, alongside, in relation to, and against Europe. This theme seeks to explore how people experience and define their identities as Africans in terms that are not specifically racialized.
- Black Diasporic Identities: Understanding how intersecting identities develop and evolve in relation to lived experiences and creation of diaspora communities that are established within Europe. This theme seeks to explore how Black people experience and define their other identities and their ways of being Black.
- Blackness and Racializations in European Spaces: How race, racialization, and Blackness have evolved alongside colonialisms past and present, racism and discrimination, and shifting formations of European whiteness. This theme seeks to explore race itself, how racialization unfolds and is experienced and defined.
Application Process: The workshop is open to emerging and established academics including doctoral students. To apply, please submit a brief biography (100-150 words), a statement decribing why you want to participate in the workshop (max 100 words), and an abstract (250-300 words) to Dr. Madeline Bass (bass@mmg.mpg.de). This is an in-person workshop, so we ask that you confirm your ability to travel to Göttingen.
Timeline: Applications are due Wednesday, October 2nd. We will inform participants of our final selection by October 7th.
Funding: We will cover travel and accommodation costs for selected participants.