On April 16, 2024, Dr. Bontu Lucie Guschke will give the lecture "The Persistence of Sexism and Racism at Universities" as part of the CEWS Colloquium. The lecture will be held in English.
Lecture content & Speaker
#MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, and related social movements have over the last years continuously shown us that sexism and racism persist in our societies, our workplaces, and our universities and that we need to invest time, care, and resources into understanding how the sexism and racism that so many continuously experience is reproduced.
This presentation discusses how sexist and racist harassment and discrimination are reproduced in workplaces at universities. Building on empirical research that integrates discourse and affect analysis to focus on the interplay of individual- and structural-level factors, it details how harassment and discrimination are facilitated in a context of in/ formality which prevails at universities, leading to a continuous reproduction of inequality. Drawing on dis/organization theory as well as queer and Black feminist understandings of vulnerability, autonomy, and discrimination, it is further discussed how harassment and discrimination remain imperceptible and unspeakable.
On this basis, implications for organizational practice are discussed that recognize anti-harassment and anti-discrimination as ongoing, relational organizational practices and address the affective ambiguities of harassment and discrimination.
Dr Bontu Lucie Guschke is a researcher in the area of queer and anti-racist feminist theory. She earned her PhD degree at the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School. Her research interests include intersectional feminist organizational analyses, queer feminist and norm-critical theory, anti-/racism research, feminist epistemologies and the interplay of discourse and affect analysis. She wrote her PhD dissertation on ‘The persistence of sexism and racism at universities - Exploring the imperceptibility and unspeakability of workplace harassment and discrimination in academia.’
CEWS-Kolloquium with Dr. Bontu Lucie Guschke, 16. April 2024, 14-15h, online via Zoom
Registration for the colloquium at: https://www.gesis.org/cews/news-events/cews-kolloquium
EMPOWERED! Disarm racism, unleash strength!
Empowerment workshop for students who have experienced racism
Racism is a pattern of discrimination and an expression of social power relations (see DIMR, 2023)1. It manifests itself in discriminatory practices, thought patterns, as well as structural, institutional and social inequalities. Racism negates the human dignity of certain social groups and is fundamentally opposed to the idea of human rights (cf. DIMR, 2023). Racialized and migrant social groups encounter restrictive racism in their everyday lives, which triggers feelings of incapacity to act, anger, sadness and despair for many of those affected.
Racialized/migrant students also encounter racism and discrimination based on their actual or ascribed origin at university, for example in the form of racist remarks made by fellow students and lecturers in lectures, exercises, exams, etc. In order to be able to deal with discriminatory everyday situations, the empowerment workshop offers a safe space to develop strategies for action, empower each other and promote collective strength. The workshop aims to find resource-oriented solutions that enable students to develop individual options for action. The workshop deals with manners and develops skills that students are given as a tool to be prepared in critical situations and to strengthen their ability to act. Recognizing, naming and classifying racist situations will be taught.
The empowerment workshop is held in German and can also be offered in English-German if required with the support of the participants.
The maximum number of participants is limited to 15. We ask for the understanding of students who have not been allocated a place and will endeavor to continue offering similar events.
Target group:
The workshop is aimed at students who experience racism and is open to Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPoC), FLINTA*, people with migration history/s.
Date:
28.02.24, 17:00 - 19:30h, PK 4.2 (old building, barrier-free).
Leader:
Sabrina Rahimi - social worker, mediator, anti-racism trainer, empowerment trainer and lecturer with a focus on criticism of racism
Organizer:in:
Diversity Office of the Technical University of Braunschweig
With the support of ANTIFA/-RA-Referat of AStA
Registration:
Informal email to: diversity@tu-braunschweig.de
1 German Institute for Human Rights (DIMR) 2023. Racial discrimination. Available at: www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de/themen/rassistische-diskriminierung [27.11.23]