Digital conference “Understanding Institutional Racism in Comparative Perspective: From Lesson-drawing to an Agenda for Change” on 20 April 2021, 3 – 7.30 pm organised by the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights at the University of Luxembourg and the NGO LëtzRiseUP
The brutal killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in May 2020 triggered a wave of global protests under the emblematic banner of ‘Black Lives Matter’, drawing renewed attention to longstanding issues of racial injustice and inequality both in the United States and internationally. In Luxembourg, questions of racial discrimination were prominently brought on to the national agenda by a 2018 report of the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency surveying the experiences of people of African descent in 12 EU member states and published under the title ‘Black in the EU’. The survey reported comparatively high levels of perceived discrimination in the case of Luxembourg.
Against this background, the half-day online conference “Understanding Institutional Racism in Comparative Perspective: From Lesson-drawing to an Agenda for Change” on 20 April 2021 aims to further the national reflection on issues of racial discrimination. Organised by the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights at the University of Luxembourg and the NGO LëtzRiseUP, the conference brings together a number of leading international experts on questions of institutional racism to present their understanding of the problems and the challenges going forward.
The presentations will allow both for a deepened understanding of different national experiences and of the transversal lessons that may be drawn across those cases and potentially applied in the context of our own distinctively multicultural society.
Programme
15:00-15:15
Introduction by Professor Robert Harmsen, UNESCO Chair in Human Rights, University of Luxembourg
15:15-16:15
At Least We Don’t Do That Here’ How Europe Mis(Understands) Black America, Professor Gary Younge, Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester
16:30-17:15
Black Lives Matter, Social Justice, and the Limits of Multiculturalism, Professor Debra Thompson, Associate Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in Racial Inequality in Democratic Societies, McGill University
17:30-18:30
BLM:A Transnational Movement that Changed the Dutch Landscape, Professor Halleh Ghorashi, Professor of Sociology, VU Amsterdam
18:30-19:30
Combating Racism in the Land of MultiKulti, Sandrine Gashonga, Antiracist and Intercultural Trainer and Consultant
Download the conference programme
Please register here: https://unilu.webex.com/unilu/onstage/g.php?MTID=ec3723b9daec61e30a231afaa6b5d1ce3