Workshop

Migrant and Minority Activism: Between protest movements and everyday engagement

where
Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS)
Mohrenstr. 60
10117 Berlin
Workshop

Migrant and Minority Activism: Between protest movements and everyday engagement

where
Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS)
Mohrenstr. 60
10117 Berlin

Co-organised by ZOiS and the EASA Anthropology of Social Movements Network

At a time of Black Lives Matter and the proliferation of migrant, refugee and minority protests across the world (Polish women’s, Belarusian, Palestinian, Roma and Sinti, to name just a few), as well as local and regional initiatives by minorities, migrants and refugees, we would like to bring together scholars who combine a focus on migrants or minorities with that on protest, resistance, activism, social engagement, and other related themes. We are interested both in the most visible struggles and everyday forms of activism, emerging activism, prefigurative politics, and other efforts of migrants and minorities, which often escape public and academic recognition.

This two-day interdisciplinary workshop will take place at the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) in Berlin as well as online – links to the online rooms can be found in the programme below.

  • Why do some migrants and members of minorities engage in public protest while others do not?
  • To what extent are migrants and minorities involved in protest and activism for causes beyond those important for ‘their own’ migrant/minority community?
  • Is it a marginal phenomenon or something widespread but not well visible?
  • How do protests of migrants and minorities take place online and offline, especially during the covid pandemic?
  • How do we best research migrant and minority activism?
  • What do we gain, and what are we lose when focusing on large movements and community organisations?
  • What can we learn by instead focusing on less visible forms of activism?
  • What is the interplay between activists from different migrant groups, secondgeneration migrants, ethnic minorities, and the ‘majorities’?
  • Finally, what are the unique roles played by those who experience multilevel discrimination and marginalisation - for instance, migrants and members of ethnic minorities who at the same time pertain to sexual minorities, who are non-citizens, sex workers, unhoused, or incarcerated.