Race, Racialisation, and Racism in the European Context: Crossdisciplinary Perspectives
24–26 September 2025, Department of Philosophy, Free University of Berlin

Venue: Habelschwerdter Allee 30, Lecture Hall (Vortragsraum) 

Discussions of race and racism in philosophy are often shaped by US-centric frameworks, where the “colour line” and the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow serve as central points of reference. The European context, however, presents a different set of dynamics that do not always align with these approaches.

This international workshop brings together philosophers, historians, and social scientists to explore the social metaphysics of race and racialisation in Europe. Key themes include:

– how racial hierarchies emerge and function beyond the black/white dichotomy,
– the role of antisemitism, antiziganism, and anti-Muslim racism in European racial formations,
– the precarious racialisation of groups such as Eastern Europeans,
– the tension between colour-blind eliminativism and the need to address racialised injustice,
– and the potential of ‘racialisation’ (as opposed to ‘race’) as an analytical framework.

Schedule:

Wednesday, 24 September 2025 – Graduate Conference (Institute for Philosophy, FU Berlin)
18:00 – 19:15 Keynote: Urs Lindner (Duisburg-Essen) – Racialisation beyond Race: Challenges and Prospects

Thursday, 25 September 2025 – Workshop Day 1
10:00 – 10:15 Welcome
10:15 – 11:30 Esa Díaz León (Barcelona) – Social Constructionism Revisited
11:45 – 13:00 Aleksandra Lewicki (Sussex) – Ambiguities of Racialisation: East–West Inequalities and Mobilities in Europe
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch Break
14:30 – 15:45 Marcello Maneri (Milan-Bicocca) – An Analytical Framework for Denaturalizing Research on Ethnoracial Issues
16:00 – 17:15 Leda Berio (UCD), Daniel James (TU Dresden), Steffen Koch (Bielefeld), Alex Wiegmann (Granada) – Because I’m not a NAZI?!? Race Talk and Sociolinguistic Variation
17:30 – 19:00 Keynote: Lawrence Blum (UMass Boston) – Second Thoughts on “Racialisation” in Philosophy and Social Science

Friday, 26 September 2025 – Workshop Day 2
10:00 – 10:15 Welcome
10:15 – 11:30 Joanna Karolina Malinowska (Poznań) – White by Default: US ‘Race Talk’ and the Biologisation of Whiteness in European Health Equity Research
11:45 – 13:00 Magali Bessone (Paris 1) – Racial Justice and Reparations
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch Break
14:30 – 15:45 Murad Idris (University of Michigan) – What Hinges on Anti-Palestinian Racism?
16:00 – 17:15 Reza Mosayebi (Bochum) – Reductive Conceptions of Race and Racism?
17:30 – 18:30 Roundtable – Racialisation, Racism, and Racial Justice in Europe
 with Manuela Bojadžijev (HU Berlin), Robin Celikates (FU Berlin), Anna Danilina (TU Berlin), and Leerom Medovoi (University of Arizona)

Organisers:
Leda Berio (University College Dublin), Robin Celikates (FU Berlin), Daniel James (HU Berlin), Steffen Koch (Bielefeld), and Urs Lindner (Duisburg-Essen).

Participation is primarily in-person, but online access will also be available via Webex. Further details will follow.

Please register by writing to: chiara.sacchetti@fu-berlin.de