Call for Papers: Workshop on Anti-Racism in Education, 7-8 November 2023, Amsterdam
The ongoing and pervasive impact of intersectional and multilayered racism on the members of minoritized communities has recently opened wider public, media, and scholarly discussions across various disciplines on how to confront and eradicate ideologies, norms, and practices that (re)produce racialized inequities and social hierarchies. The question of anti-racism in education has particularly received attention due to the complex function of educational institutions, which both serve to sustain racialized hierarchies (Gerrard et al., 2021) as well as offer possibilities for liberation and justice (Freire 1968, 1996; Bell hooks 1994). Research underlies the lack of qualifications and knowledge among institutional actors and change agents seeking to engage in anti-racism advocacy as well as the structures and policies that stand in the way of racial justice (Lentin 2004; Gillborn 2006). In addition, evidence as to how anti-racist practices and forms of thought can be enacted to transform and disrupt oppressive racial power relations and norms in contexts of education remains limited. Identifying relevant knowledge of anti-racism practices requires collaboration and engagement with stakeholders, marginalized communities, institutions, and scholars and the integration of various approaches, methods, and materials.
This workshop organized by IMISCOE Standing Committee Education and Social Inequality aims to bring together scholars working on anti-racism in education to facilitate the exchange of current knowledge and practices on this topic and inspire future collaboration among scholars, stakeholders, and affected communities. Selected papers will be submitted for a special issue.
We invite researchers from all disciplines (sociology, education sciences, political sciences, anthropology, psychology…) to submit an abstract of a maximum of 500 words for research papers on topics related to anti-racist theory and practices in education including, but not limited to, the following themes;
- Anti-racism practices of institutional actors (e.g., teachers, staff, leaders…)
- Curriculum and critical anti-racist and social justice pedagogies
- Socialization agents involved in anti-racism in education (e.g., parents, communities…)
- Student anti-racism activism and advocacy (e.g., student organizations…)
- Intersectional approaches to anti-racism (e.g., feminist, Indigenous, queer theories…)
- Institutional barriers and opportunities to enact anti-racism (e.g., policies, practices, norms…)
Keynote Speaker:
David Gillborn, Professor of Critical Race Studies, University of Birmingham, UK.
'White Lies: racism in education policy and theory'
Please send your abstracts to the organizers of this workshop: F. Zehra Colak (
Practical details
The workshop will be hosted by the Sociology Department of the Free University of Amsterdam between the dates of 7 and 8 November 2023. IMISCOE Standing Committee Education and Social Inequality will be covering all the accommodation and travel costs during the 2 days that the workshops are taking place.
Important dates
Submission deadline: 30 August
Notification: 15 September
REFERENCES
Alana Lentin. (2004). Racism and Anti-racism in Europe.
Bell Hooks (1994). Teaching to transgress. New York/London: Routledge.
David Gillborn (2006) Critical race theory and education: Racism and anti-racism in educational theory and praxis.Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education 27.1 (2006): 11-32.
Jessica Gerrard, Arathi Sriprakash, Sophie Rudolph (2021). Education and racial capitalism. Race, Ethnicity and Education