Seminar with Dr. Anders Neergaard, Professor in Sociology at Linköping University, Director of the Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO)

About the Anti-Racism Working Group Series

The Anti-Racism Working Group (ARWG) will hold its inaugural series of seminars 12-1 pm the fourth Friday of each month beginning in 2021. The series aims to recognize the structures and practices of racism within our field and confront it through the platforming of anti-racist efforts in Sociology and beyond. We invite academics, activists, and artists to share their experiences, research, reflect on recent work, and join in conversation.

Everyone is welcome. Students are particularly encouraged to attend and participate. For the foreseeable future, all seminars will take place over Zoom. To join our group email list and receive Zoom links please contact one of the organizers Siddartha Aradhya, siddartha.aradhya(a)sociology.su.se, or Vanessa Barker, vanessa.barker(a)sociology.su.se.

Abstract

This discussion is based on a combination of three of my experiences within the academia: academic activism; studying and theorizing racism, and; trying and failing to be an antiracist activist within the academia. I have always seen the academia, as all societal institutions, as an arena for social struggle. Of course it is structured by the practices of the academia – teaching and researching, but activism within the academia is for me to develop collective forms of teaching and research practices exploring difficult issue, searching and in dialogue developing knowledge and in line with Marx 11th thesis on Feuerbach “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it” trying to contribute. The second experience is the focus on studying and theorizing racism. Using the concepts of exclusionary racism (restrictionist movements) and exploitative racism, my project is to contribute in a collective effort to make social science accept that structural racism exist, even in Sweden (to use Allan Preds [2000] title). From this follows the third experience on acknowledging that racism is also part of the academic fabric and taking on the challenge of being an antiracist activist in a setting that is commonly idealized as being outside society and neutral knowledge seeking and disseminating institution. The two texts contribute in different aspects in developing and challenging my thoughts on these three experiences, and also reflect my search for collective forms for antiracist activism, teaching and research.

Readings

Bonilla-Silva, E. (2015). More than Prejudice: Restatement, Reflections, and New Directions in Critical Race Theory. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 1(1), 73–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649214557042

DiAngelo, R. (2011). White Fragility. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3(3), Article 3. http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/view/249