​
BLACK IN/VISIBILITIES CONTESTED
7th Biennial Afroeuropeans Network Conference
> SELECTED PANELS
Thematic Line / Theorizing Blackness and Racial Europe
Blackness and the Afterlife of Slavery
Maciré Bakayoko / macire.bakayoko@hotmail.com
Patience Amankwah / pppatience@yahoo.de
Selamawit D. Terrefe / sterrefe@tulane.edu
Sheba Wiafe / sheba.wiafe@aol.de
Language for paper submission: English
Short abstract
How does one contest one’s invisibility and visibility when the most salient political and theoretical paradigms to address one’s position are deliberately withheld? Emerging through the discourse of Black/AfroEuropean studies and praxes, this panel works within both Black internationalist and transdisciplinary Black Studies frameworks for thinking through the radical implications of Black experience: that the Black phenomenology of social death, as well as Black social life lived within negotiating constant “captivity,” provides a critical theoretical lexicon for addressing antiblackness as a persistent global political phenomenon.
​
Noir(e) en France: Theorizing and anchoring blackness in a “colourblind” country
Short abstract
This panel seeks to define contours of blackness in 'colourblind' France, by illuminating the barriers that keep concepts difference and identity outside of French discourse. From the reticence to anchor race in the French language, to the normalized use of American-English words and concepts, to the lack of recognition of France’s imperialist history, France’s brand of universalism has firmly maintained Blackness at the door of the Republic. The untold story of slavery and colonialism, as well as the powerful race-blind ideology tremendously affect the country’s ability to recognize racial identity and exclusion.
​
Resisting Racial Spain
Insights from the research group on Afro/ black praxis, thought and activism in Spain
Esther Mayoko Ortega / estherem@gmail.com
Mahdis Azarmandi / mahdisazarmandi@depauw.edu
Language for paper submission: English
Short abstract
As as result of institutional representation of afro/black voices and research this interdisciplinary research group ‘Grupo de Investigacion de Pensamiento, Practicas y Activismo Afro/Negro’ is a response and challenge to current racialized border regimes in Spain. These regimes refer to both institutional borders within academic institutions, the borders drawn between insiders and outsiders of the Spanish Nation as it is tied to Spanish whiteness and of course the constant reconfiguration of the national border itself. In this panel speakers will discuss the idea and purpose of the research group, it's broad research focus and how contesting dominant knowledge production is tied to a broader goal of decolonizing Spain.
​
The anti-racist know-how in the 21st century: potentialities (?) and limits of the identity grammar
Danielle Pereira de Araújo / daniellearaujo@ces.uc.pt
Language for paper submission: English and Portuguese
Short abstract
The purpose of this panel is to bring together people interested in reflecting on and problematizing the theoretical-conceptual frameworks of anti-racist know-how in the 21st century. The field of political action and the conceptual framework with which much of the European anti-racist movement (and in other regions of the black diaspora) has worked is still heavily influenced by the colonial grammar. This implies that concepts such as interculturality, multiculturalism, diversity, tolerance and integration are widely used in the anti-racist struggle, deprived of the historical context in which they emerged, and which reiterate the racial division of the modern Western world.
​