In academia, it is refreshing to see scholars from various backgrounds face the challenge of talking about race and racism in their respective fields, and though having taken place in the familiar setting of a university conference room, the presentations held differing perspectives and possibilities within interdisciplinary exchange.
The BGHS lounge was a site of new acquaintances and a growing network of eager scholars, guests of the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology’s Annual Seminar Conference, enthusiastically awaiting the start of a fruitful discussion. Every year the Ph.D. students of the BGHS come together to organize a conference for international researchers to present their projects and receive feedback. This year was the 11th Annual Seminar, titled “The Making of Mankind: Tracing Race & Racism” in cooperation with the collaborative research center (SFB) 1288 “Practices of Comparing.”
The construction of race plays a crucial part in the processes of the making of mankind and focusing on how we, as researchers, approach this topic from many different disciplines and angles, was the goal of the gathering. This interdisciplinary discussion commenced with an exploration of the practices of comparing and what actors do when they compare. In cooperation with the collaborative research center (SFB) 1288 “Practices of Comparing,” Prof. Dr. Angelika Epple, Spokesperson of the SFB, gave the welcome address. The welcome address was the perfect starting point in looking at the topic and thinking about how comparison plays a role in the making of mankind. Humans compare everything, but the axis or perspective from which we base this comparison gets at the intrinsic value of exploring how people compare and how social constructions and categorizations endure. Professor Dr. Thomas Welskopp also gave a warm welcome to the participants as the Deputy Director of the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology.
The goal of the conference was to bring together doctorate students and post-docs with projects connected to race and the construction of racism, to receive feedback, and ultimately, to have new insights on how they can approach a topic that is submerged in the Eurocentric ideals it was constructed around. The most invigorating part of the conference was the variety of perspectives that the keynote speakers offered. From post-colonial thought questioning enlightenment ideals (NIKITA DAWN (Gießen)), to a historian viewing of caste and race from a single analytical category (DEMETRIUS EUDELL), to race as integral factor of global mobility in the World-System of sociology (MANUELA BOATCĂ).
Some scholars who study Immanuel Kant suggest there is evidence that he renounced his earlier views on race, but Nikita Dawn questioned the so-called evidence and indicated that while his view did change his racist views in his later work, he is not absolved from his earlier view, which created quite a spirited debate. The question of how caste and race are related was discussed by Demetrius Eudell including information on a journal titled Anti-Caste, an anti-racist journal in England that was an interesting point to the conversation. Lastly, the sociological perspective in the Keynote lineup was delivered by Manuela Boatcă in her presentation on the role that race continues to play, especially when it comes to “premium citizenship” and how it correlates with whiteness. Coming from different academic backgrounds, the keynotes were asking different questions and approaching the topic from different angles, which made the conference have a wonderful sense of fresh perspective.
Six panels throughout the conference gave academics the chance to discuss their own topics, each panel was structured thematically, starting with the foundation of knowledge production. Ranging from the paradox of enlightenment thought to the debate between monogenesis and polygenesis, the panel offered a foundation on how knowledge was produced through the classification of animals and then the classification of humans in the natural sciences. In the process of examining the role of animals in nature, philosophers of the enlightenment debated upon the role of humans in nature as well as the genesis of humankind. To then jump to present day, the construction of such categories has influenced the creation of public policy in which genetics informs identity in Brazil.
Looking at enlightenment thinkers, such as Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, DEVIN VARTIJA (Utrecht) explored the paradox of enlightenment thought as the spring of modern racism by emphasizing difference while also looking at a common humanity. As scientists classified animals and their place in nature, the role of man became an important discourse in the debate on the origin of man, through arguments of monogenesis and polygenesis, SOPHIE BITTER-SMIRNOV (Graz), investigated how research on hybridity impacted the debate. Showing how categorizations of race impact people today, TATIANE MUNIZ (Porto Alegre) presented her research on institutional narratives on health in Brazil and how DNA technology is used in creating public policy.
Comparison is about looking at differences and similarities based on a certain point of reference as well as the actor’s knowledge of the world. Therefore, both the second and third panels focused on the ethics of comparison, the second in practice, and the third in literature. Comparison may seem like an innocent act that we, as humans, do all the time without thinking. However, we compare and categorize based on similarities and difference informed by social practices and those categories can then shape perspective and influence behavior. SARAH LEMPP (Bayreuth) demonstrated how comparisons are put into practice in Brazilian verification committees for affirmative action to determine whether someone has identified themselves "correctly" on their application for federal public service jobs. In a historical comparison between the United States and Brazil, JOÃO VICTOR NERY FIOCCHI RODRIGUES (Philadelphia), examined how race and citizenship are intertwined and how legal status and the right to migrate are racialized.
A national literary canon is meant to reflect a nation and its most crucial contribution to literature. However, there is an underlying hierarchy in society that is displayed by who is included and who is not. SENJUTI CHAKRABORTI (Calcutta) analyzed who is not included, namely the African American community, as well as how black characters are represented in the canon by American novelists like Ernest Hemingway and Mark Twain in juxtaposition to how Toni Morrison represents race in her work. A unique hierarchy of values is also displayed in Travel literature, in which JULIAN GÄRTNER (Bielefeld) showcased Alexis de Tocqueville’s account of the United States, and later Algeria, that illustrated an interesting development in perspective on race that contradicts in how inequalities and injustices are viewed and compared, or lack thereof.
The fourth panel really brought structural racism in education into perspective. Especially in viewing the classroom as sites of tension, how do teachers and students experience discussions on race and racism? What kind of pressures or feelings of exclusion do students of color feel in academia? SHEILA RAGUNATHAN (Frankfurt) interviewed students of color in German feminist classrooms to consider how emotions can shape bodies of action. High school history teacher and Ph.D. student, DENNIS RÖDER (Augsburg) presented his research on the shifting meanings of ‘race’ and how broader contexts and historical perspectives are needed to trace the use of the word in German history lessons.
When presented with a completely new environment, almost instantly, is comparison used to situate what you know of your environment with a new one. Through travel and contact zones, panel 5 took the conference guests through projects that explored these contact zones within various fields. Through contemporary European film, BURRHUS NJANJO (Cologne) focused on two contemporary films, A United Kingdom (2016) and Venus Noir (2010), as films that reflect not only power relations in a colonial context in different stages of history but also how race is articulated in these films. ROBRECHT DE BOODT (Leuven) presented his research on the colonial mindset in literature, particularly in The Green Heart of Africa by Sylva de Jonghe, which gave the pseudo-scientific discourse a literary platform to legitimize cultural and racial differences that were encountered through these contact zones. Traveling backward through time, the panel ended the journey through contact zones in the middle ages with CHRISTIAN HOFFARTH (Bensheim) and his submission on the earlier roots of racist thought usually associated with modern European imperialism but started earlier in his analysis of medieval travel literature.
The last panel ended the week with a fascinating discussion on the entanglements of space and the discourse surrounding race. The link between space and race in the Comunas Negras in Ecuador researched by TATHAGATO GANULY (Delhi) looked at how race plays a role in conflicts over the space that the community considers a part of themselves in Northern Esmeraldas. As one walks through historic European Cities like Hamburg, it may be known what a Hansa City is, but what is not instantly reflected is the riches reaped from colonialism, which built the city, this is exactly what MERYEM CHOUKRI (London) surveyed in her presentation on the lasting presence of colonialism. While the first presentations had the audience contemplate space as a physical realm in which social constructions like race is played out, the last presentation by L. KATHERINE SMITH (Gunnison) took the discussion to a fantastical literary space, tracing the perception of whiteness through 19th century theories such as “hollow earth” and “the open polar sea” in utopian novels.
The conference concluded with a reflection on the expectations of such a conference and what had made the experience unique. Why is the topic of race and racism so challenging? It depends on which questions are being asked. What do we do now? Continuing to explore and having the conversations through the network this conference has created and look beyond academia to see how the public domain can be reached. The conference organizers wanted to bring the socially relevant topic of the conference into the public and to extend it through an artistic perspective in order to represent the diversity of the confrontation with race and racism. Performance artist Taiwo Jacob Ojudun presented the brute violence of the colonial division of Africa by the Berlin Conference (1884-85) and its aftermath in a video installation. Graphic artist Diana Ejaita pointed to a specifically European racism experience in her prints, in which she deals with May Ayim's "blues in black and white," the series is entitled "To May Ayim." The evening program was a favorite among participants and a great way to include the public in the conference.
Some of the panels were a bit short on time and more time for conversation would have been very nice as well as some more interactive parts like small workshops could have really explored the topics and increased the feedback that presenters could have received, but my criticisms are quite small in my general view of the conference. It was very pleasant to be a mere bystander of the conference and thought the presentations to be quite diverse and not just concentrated on a certain perspective or field. I found the conference to be very informative and offered me personally a great plethora of perspectives, which really made me excited to think about my own project and all the possible questions I could ask myself about how race, racism, and the structures constructed from colonialism play a role in my project but also how it persists in the present. There are many open questions to ponder, but that is the point of such an event, not to leave with answers, rather a curiosity to ask the questions we didn’t think to ask before, or merely learn. §
Conference overview:
Keynote
Nikita Dhawan (Justus Liebig University Giessen): What difference does difference make?
Panel "Knowledge Production"
Devin Vartija (Utrecht University): Natural Equality and Racial Inequality: An Enlightenment Paradox?
Sophie Bitter-Smirnov (University of Graz): Are There Hybrid Human Beings? Polygenism and Monogenism in the Context of Hybridism, Domestication and Man’s Place in Nature, 1750–1900
Tatiane Muniz (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul): The materialization of race on institutional narratives around health
Keynote
Demetrius L. Eudell (Wesleyan University): Race and Caste: Toward a History of Comparison
Keynote
Manuela Boatcă (University of Freiburg): The Centrality of Race to Inequality Across the World-System
Panel "Ethics of Comparison – in Practice"
Sarah Lempp (University of Bayreuth): Doing Race via Comparison: Classification Work in Affirmative Action Practices in Brazil
João Victor Nery Fiocchi Rodrigues (University of Pennsylvania): Slavery, State Formation and Citizenship: a comparative historical analysis of the United States & Brazil
Panel "Ethics of Comparison – in Literature"
Senjuti Chakraborti (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta): De-racing the literary canon: Representing race in Toni Morrison’s "Recitatif"
Julian Gärtner (Bielefeld University) Comparisons and chains: Narrative ways of constructing race in Tocqueville’s Democracy and Beaumont’s Marie
Panel "Structural Racism & Education"
Sheila Ragunathan (Goethe University Frankfurt): Feminist Classrooms as Sites of Tension: Links between Pedagogy, Affect and Relations of Power
Vildan Aytekin (Bielefeld University): Inclusion: Organizing incompatible logics within school
Dennis Röder (University of Augsburg): Back to the future: The invention of the category “racism“ and its shifts in meaning between the 1920s and 1960s. Didactical potentials for the German History classroom in the 21st century
Panel "Travel & Contact Zones"
Burrhus Njanjo (University of Cologne): “Contact Zones”: Representing race, science and Power relations in the movies Vénus noire (2010) and A united Kingdom (2016)
Robrecht De Boodt (K. U. Leuven): Validation by Proximity: Medical and Racial Discourse in Sylva de Jonghe’s ‘Green Heart of Africa'
Christian Hoffarth (Institut für Personengeschichte, Bentheim): Like marvels, like monsters: Experiences of otherness and the emergence of racial thought in medieval European travel writing
Panel "Race & Space"
Tathagato Ganguly (University of Dehli): Making Race, Making Space/Place: Comunas Negras and Extractivism in Northern Esmeraldas, Ecuador
Meryem Choukri (University of London): Can Hamburg be decolonised? Notes on colonial amnesia, postcolonial remembrance and racism
L. Katherine Smith (Western Colorado University): Constructing Race at the Ends of the Earth: The Hollow Earth and Open Polar Sea Theories in 19th Century American Literature
Concluding discussion
Sabine Schäfer (Bielefeld University)