Event Series "Racism in Academia"

Date

Topic

Format

Speaker
 

1

2 December 2020

What we mean when we talk about Race¹

^{See video recording of the talk}

Opening lecture

Andrea Lailach

2

19 January 2021

Racism in film: "Coded Bias"²

^{See video recording of the event}

Film screening + discussion

in collaboration with Zebra Kino Konstanz

Speakers/discussants:

• Sarah Chander, AI and non-discrimination (European Digital Rights, Brussels)
• Asanda Saule Ngoasheng, gender and racial justice activist (Centre for Rights and Justice, University of Sussex)
• Violeta Ivanova-Rohling, machine learning and quantum computing (Zukunftskolleg, University of Konstanz)

3

2 February 2021

In the shoes of the African Scientist: The strive towards global acceptance

<sub>Abstract: Higher education primarily functions to shape the intellectual mindsets and capabilities of individuals through its philosophical, epistemological and ontological techniques and approaches.   Without doubt, higher education plays a critical and pivotal role in influencing the tenets of society by reflecting global universalities and diverging perspectives. However, the educational culture, even in the context of globalisation, is heavily embedded in inequalities which are played out in brute contexts of race and racial disparities. This panel discussion examines the challenges of African scientist and people of African descent in their quest for global acceptance in academia. The discussion seeks to answer the following questions:
1. How does race influence academic culture in a globalised context and what are the implications on the African Scholar?
2. How do African scholars or scholars with African descent experience racism in academia?
3. What strategies can be effective forms of resistance to the problems of racism or racial inequalities in academia?</sub>

^{See video recording of the event}

Roundtable discussion

Speakers:

• Dr. Senayon Olaoluwa (University of Ibadan)
• Dr. Maria Martin (University of California)
• Dr. Victor Araujo (University of Zurich)

Moderation:

Abena Yalley

5

14 April 2021

Unravelling unconscious bias

_{In this event, Dr Pragya Agarwal discusses the science of how our biases are formed, and how we are all biased. She will discuss how stereotypes are formed, why benevolent stereotypes are harmful, and how these manifest in the form of microaggressions, what the impact of microaggressions are, and why it is so important to address the implicit and subversive forms of biases. Beyond race and gender, Dr Agarwal will also discuss a range of other biases such as age, accent, names, etc, and technology. Dr Agarwal is a behavioral and data scientist, and the author of ‘Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias’ and ‘Wish we knew what to say: Talking with children about race’ both published last year, and she is the founder of a research think-tank ‘The 50 Percent Project’. Her next book (M)OTHERHOOD: On the choices of being a woman is out on 3 June. She hosts the podcasts ‘Outside the Boxes’ and ‘Wish We Knew’ to accompany the book of the same name.}

_{See event website.}

Workshop

Pragya Agarwal

Moderation:
Cornelia Klocker, Felicia Afriyie

Lavi Israel,
artist (Congo)

Moderation:

Abena Yalley

7

10 June 2021

Diversity @ Uni KN - Past, Present & Future

_{This is a workshop to collect feedback and suggestions about the diversity work at University of Konstanz with Dorothea Debus (Vice Rector for International Affairs, Equal Opportunity and Diversity) and Marion Woelki (Director Equal Opportunity Office).
Further reading regarding current measures can be found on this website.}

Talks & Working groups

• Dorothea Debus (Vice Rector for International Affairs, Equal Opportunity and Diversity)
• Marion Woelki (Director Equal Opportunity Office)

Decolonizing Race: Perspectives from Latin America and beyond

_{Much of the discussion on race, racism, and anti racism in Europe and North America relates to theories and practices concep-tualized in the USA, a land affected by the legacies of
slavery and racism. However, this context generates a particular
view of racism that can be complicated by local speci-ficities in other contexts. Latin American intellectuals have challenged “Northern” epistemologies through a decolonial approach: knowledge can be derived from different vantage points and from different traditions. Moreover, in a diverse continent as South America, indigeneity, mestizo identity, and legacies of slavery constitute an assemblage of diverse understandings of race, often contrasting with the US, but also in dialogue with the latter. Are North American perspec-tives of race hegemonic?
How can we understand race and racism if we change the vantage point and look from the South? (How) can that help debates in Europe? Join us at this discussion about race and racism from a decolonial perspective, featuring thinkers from
Latin America and beyond.}

_{Find more information on the event website.}

Panellists:

- Graziella Moraes Silva (Associate Professor in Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland)
- Sérgio Costa (Professor for Sociology of Latin America at Freie Universität Berlin and Co-Director of the M. S. Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America [mecila.net])
- Leonildes Nazar
- Jonathan W. Warren (ethnographer, heterodox sociologist, and digital story-maker who has spent the past thirty years researching race matters in Brazil, the US, Vietnam and Germany)

Moderation: Gruia Badescu

_{Everything Passes Except the Past takes an artistic and discursive approach to coming to grips with a colonial past that remains present in museums, public space, and image archives. The contributions to the project which is now available as a book, propose visionary theoretical, practical, and ethical foundations for future museums based on artistic and curatorial remediation of ethnographic collections. They also cover the role of colonial films in our collective and national memory, as well as the challenges and perspectives of tearing down or replacing monuments and renaming streets.}

_{In this event, Jana Haeckel, the coordinator of the project and Bianca Baldi, one of the contributing artists, introduce the project and their work, followed by a comment by Kirsten Mahlke and room for audience questions.}

_{Find more information on the event website.}

in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Brüssel

Speakers:

- Jana Haeckel (coordinator of the project)

- Bianca Baldi (artist)

Moderation: Cornelia Klocker

11

9 February 2022

Southernising and decolonising criminology: discussions and perspectives

&

The abolition of slavery in Spanish South America (1810-1870): interamerican dialogues and experimentations

_{Find more information on the event website.}

Public talks

Máximo Sozzo (Professor of Sociology of Law and Criminology at the National University of Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina)

Magdalena Candioti (Researcher of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) at the Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana “Dr Emilio Ravignani” and Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Sciences, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina)

12

winter term 2021/22

Panel discussion

tba

13

summer term 2022

Being Black in Germany

Panel

tba

14

tba