Diversity Day 2022

For the sixth time, we are joining the nationwide "Diversity Day" initiated by Charta der Viefalt on 31st May 2022. This year's Diversity Day will focus on "Racism" and will take place in the form of various events between 31st May and 2nd June 2022. All members and affiliates of the University are welcome! More information will follow in the next few weeks.

start page special

  • 31st May 2022: Leuphana's start page special on Diversity Day including the interviews

Programm

  • Tuesday, 31st May 2022, 5-6.30pm: The Metamorphoses of the Concept of Racism - and Related Challenges of a Field of Research (C40.606)
  • Racism in university teaching - reflection workshop for teachers
  • Thursday, 2nd June 2022 5.30pm-7pm: Uncovering racism in the German education system. Eingeschrieben - Zeichen setzen gegen Rassismus an deutschen Hochschulen (hybrid: C 40.154 and ZOOM.)

Good to know

  • Lüneburg: Black Lives Still Matter – demonstration on 25th May 2022
  • bookcase of the anti-racism department (AntiRa)
  • Podcast "Feuer&Brot" is guest at lunatic Festival 2022 (3rd and 4th June)
  • collection of materials on the topic of racism
  • note on accessibility
  • support in case of discrimination

Contact

  • Contact persons

Programm

start page special

31st May 2022: Leuphana's start page special on Diversity Day including the interviews

The Leuphana homepage is once again dedicated to the nationwide Diversity Day. At www.leuphana.de, three articles will be published on 31 May that explore the multi-layered topic of "racism" from different perspectives.

"Creating a community where everyone feels safe and understood". The Young Afro Collective Lüneburg creates a "safe space" for Black students at Leuphana and campaigns against racism and for intersectional justice.

"Racism is not the same everywhere and at all times" Prof. Dr. Serhat Karakayalı encourages us to break away from a rigid concept of racism. The professor for Migration and Mobility at the Faculty of Cultural Studies in an interview.

"Making Racism discussable and audible" Dr Aysun Doğmuş and Dr Friederike Dobutowitsch talk about racism in teaching, necessary reflections and perspectives.

Thursday, 2nd June 2022 5.30pm-7pm: Uncovering racism in the German education system. Eingeschrieben - Zeichen setzen gegen Rassismus an deutschen Hochschulen (hybrid: C 40.154 and ZOOM.)

lecture with Dr. Emily Ngubia Kessé

Dr. Kessé interviewed Black Students and Students of Color in Berlin and Brandenburg in order to understand how racism was performed in the academy. She believes that finding one's voice is the first right step towards decolonization and regaining one's authority and presence in a world structured by racism, Cissexism and Ableism. She will present some of her findings, as well as provide a theoretical framework for understanding the entrenchment of racism within western European Higher Education.

The Speaker:
Dr. rer.medic. Emily Ngubia Kessé is a neuroscientist in the field of gender studies, with a strong focus on PostColonial studies and Critical Race Theory. She obtained her PhD in 2012 at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin with a thesis titled „Experimenting with Gender in Neuroscience “. Her research focus is on gender and neuroscience, power relations in knowledge production and racism, with an emphasis on repressive mechanisms in the education sector. Her most recent publication this May together with Prof. Anelis Kaiser and Prof. Oliver Rollins is titled “A discussion on the notion of race in cognitive neuroscience research”. Books authored: Stille Macht. Silence und Dekolonisierung (2018), Eingeschrieben - Zeichen setzen gegen Rassismus an deutschen Hochschulen (2015). She is currently a Lecturer at the Johannes Kepler University of Linz and a Research Associate for Gender Studies in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) at the University of Freiburg.

Registration for the event is not necessary. hybrid: C 40.154 and ZOOM. The speaker is connected via ZOOM. All members and affiliates of the University are welcome to attend. The event will be held in English.

ZOOM access data for this event:

Meeting-ID: 964 1901 4961
Kenncode: 194147

Tuesday, 31st May 2022, 5-6.30pm: The Metamorphoses of the Concept of Racism - and Related Challenges of a Field of Research (C40.606)

lecture with Prof. Dr. Serhat Karakayalı

In German, the word "racism" was probably first used by the sexologist and activist of the homosexual movement Magnus Hirschfeld - he was still referring to the National Socialist racial policy that was highly topical at the time of publication. Since then, the term has been reinterpreted and reworked several times. The lecture takes such conflicts of interpretation about the scope and theoretical basic assumption of the concept of racism as a starting point for an analysis of social negotiation processes. Among other things, the question will be addressed why the term has been so resisted in the sciences, especially in Germany, where racism was state doctrine during the National Socialist regime, or how the term came to rise internationally from the 1960s onwards. Against the background of such historical reconstructions, a classification of current controversies around the term will be undertaken.

Prof. Dr. Serhat Karakayalı is a sociologist and wrote his dissertation on the genealogy of illegal migration in Germany. His research focuses on voluntary engagement for refugees, cosmopolitan concepts of solidarity and civil society as a site of political socialisation in the migration society. He was head of a project on anti-Semitism in the immigration society in Berlin and curator of an exhibition on modern architecture in the colonial context of North Africa.
From 2020, he headed the "Migration" department at the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research, which is also home to the Racism Monitor commissioned by the German government.
Since July 2021, he has been Professor of Migration and Mobility at the Faculty of Cultural Studies at Leuphana University.

Registration for the event is not necessary. All members and affiliates of the university are welcome to attend.

Racism in university teaching - reflection workshop for teachers

Event of the Leuphana Teaching Service in cooperation with the Equal Opportunities Office.

Thursday, 2nd June, 2-5.30 p.m.
Speaker:Dr. Aysun Doğmuş

Racism can be effective in university teaching in various ways, for example through the teaching/learning material we use, through our language and also perspectives we try to convey. Sometimes students point out to us the (re)production of racism in our teaching practice. This inevitably triggers a pressure to act, which we can bypass or use productively for possible learning processes. The workshop provides a collaborative reflection space for teachers. After a dialogical introduction to racism theory and its critical relation to teaching, experiences from teaching practice will be exchanged, reflected on and individually suitable options for action will be explored on the basis of selected cases.

Further information on the page of the internal further training.

Good to know

On Wednesday, 25th May 2022, the second day of death of George Floyd, the "Junge Afrokollektiv Lüneburg" (JUA) calls for a demonstration under the motto “Black Lives STILL Matter”. The demonstration will start at 4:00pm at Clamartpark.

Here you can find the call.

bookcase of the anti-racism department (AntiRa)

The bookcase of the anti-racism department (AntiRa) has a selection of anti-racist literature available for borrowing. The bookcase is located in the AStA multifunctional room (MuFuZi- building 9, 1st floor). Access can be requested from the AStA office team (also in building 9. 1st floor). This is open Monday and Tuesday 10am-4pm and Wednesday-Friday 10am-1pm.

An overview of the books can be found here.

Podcast "Feuer&Brot" is guest at lunatic Festival 2022 (3rd and 4th June)

This year podcast "Feuer&Brot" is a guest at the lunatic Festival 2022! In the monthly Girlfriend Talks by speaker Maximilliane Häcke and Alice Hasters, author of "What white people don't want to hear about racism but should know", the two look at contemporary phenomena and deal with self-evident facts in language, film, music and representation. Questioning social and cultural narratives is a major focus.

collection of materials on the topic of racism

 The collection of materials will be posted shortly.

note on accessibility

If you encounter barriers on this website or have individual needs related to the Diversity Day 2022 events, please let us know in good time so that we can support you.

Both events take place in the central building. This is located on Universitätallee (->map) and offers barrier-free access. The side entrance has a door opener. The door of the main entrance opens automatically.

Venue C.40.154: The staircase or one of the lifts in the foyer lead to the 1st floor. When leaving the lift, turn left and go past the toilets through the anteroom (group study room). The door is marked with an arrow. Go through this room into the room behind it to the foyer. At the very back, to the right of the pillar, is room 154. Toilets including a barrier-free toilet are on the first floor near the lift.

Venue C.40.606: The room is on the 6th floor. It is recommended to use one of the lifts in the foyer. Once on the 6th floor, turn left when exiting the lift and walk straight ahead. Behind the door is room 606. Toilets including a barrier-free WC are located on the sixth floor near the lift.

support in case of discrimination

On our page "Support in case of discrimination" you will find information on anti-discrimination work and counselling at Leuphana. Beyond the Equal Opportunities Office, there are various support and assistance services you can reach out to in case of discrimination.

Contact

Valentina Seidel
Consultant for Gender and Diversity, Equal Opportunities Office
vseidel@leuphana.de