Mid-term conference

Early application deadline for submitting abstracts: 1 May.
Extended application deadline for submitting abstracts: 1 June.

1-2 September 2016

University of Warsaw

The ESA Research Network 31: Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism invites submissions of papers for its two yearly mid-term conference. The conference will be held from 1 to 2 September 2016 at the University of Warsaw.

We will hold sessions that focus on various practical, theoretical and methodological aspects of research on antisemitism and racism, also in a comparative framework. The conference aims to bridge a divide between the understanding of antisemitism and of racism, while exploring correspondences and affinities, but also differences and contrasts.

Besides papers on general theoretical approaches to antisemitism, racism and ethnic relations, we are interested both in nationalist / racist and in cosmopolitan / humanitarian responses to migration in general and the current refugee crisis.

Our special concern lies in (but is not limited to) the following issues and questions:

- Theoretical approaches to the actuality of antisemitism, Islamophobia and racisms as a part of nationalist reactions towards migrants.
- What is the meaning of the concept of defending “fortress Europe” in current European discourse? Which actors refer to “defending Europe” and how is this reflected in everyday language?
- Nationalist framing of “violence” as “defense”.
- How do postcolonial and cosmopolitan theories frame recent migration phenomena to and around the European Union? How do we define “migration” in the era of refugee crisis?
- What is the role of previous generations of migrants in framing discourses? How (if at all) does the presence of previous generations of migrants in countries influence civic responses and political initiatives concerning refugees as well as their social support?
- Events in the years 2015 & 2016 in chosen European countries in sociological perspective,
- What challenges do the recent migrations pose to the discourses on European identity?
- What responses to the situation of refugees are being delivered in the context of a crisis of EU values?
- Can we use the concept/label of “economically motivated migration” as a tool of questioning credibility of migrants and refugees?
- What are the material conditions and the social, political and historical contexts shaping variations in antisemitism and racism, across time and across different European and global contexts?
- What is the role of relationships between antisemitism, racism and xenophobia in the actualization / revision of nationalist ideologies?
- Current refugee crisis in Europe in the face of ethnic relations and the traditions of xenophobia in different countries – xenophobia and Islamophobia seen as two different, but in many respects intertwined sociological attitudes,
- Reconsideration of practices of »multiculturalism«; recurrence of the socio-political approaches of »integration« and »assimilation«
- Differences between “migrants” and “refugees”, the nature of the nationalist and racist attacks on both groups, anti-multicultural discourses in Europe
- What challenges to research do the new practices of multiculturalism and anti-multiculturalism pose?
- Rebirth of nationalist movements and ideologies in Western and Central-Eastern Europe: current trends, similarities and differences, different intellectual traditions of nationalist movements, different national variations of nationalist ideologies, attitudes towards migrants, refugees, strangers
- Antisemitism as a matrix structure for nationalist xenophobic attitudes towards strangers in Europe
- Different manifestations of racism, revisions of nationalism and the (European) left and right
- How is colonial racism reflected in the attitudes towards migrants?
- Gendered dimensions of migrations today

During the sessions, each speaker will have 20 minutes. All presentations will be made in English.

Please send an abstract including institutional affiliation to the local committee of the mid-term conference through the form on the conference website: esa-refugees2016-rn31.eu or directly to the e-mail address: esa.refugees2016@gmail.com.

This conference is generously supported by Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw, and by the ESA Executive.