Exploring ‘racisms and resistance’

ABERTAY University will host a conference seeking to bring together activists and researchers from various disciplines to discuss the changing landscape of racisms and borders.

Topics for exploration at the Borders, Racisms and Resistance Conference i n Dundee will include the rise of ethno-nationalism and immigration controls, post-Brexit racism and xenophobia.

Organised by Abertay criminology lecturer Dr Monish Bhatia, the event — running today and tomorrow — will also discuss responses to the refugee crisis and asylum politics.

The visibility of racism and its links to struggles around multiculturalism, citizenship and belonging will feature on the agenda, as will a look at how immigration now occupies a prime position in debates on both the left and the right.

Dr Bhatia said: “New modes of resistance have emerged i n response to contemporary state racisms — Black Lives Matter, anti-raids networks, and demonstrations against detention and deportations have sought to challenge not only the violence of the state but, at times, the notion of the border itself.

“This conference also aims to reassert Scotland’s place in these global shifts, challenging assumptions of Scottish exceptionalism, and taking seriously Scotland’s role in historical and contemporary racisms.”

Other themes set to be put under the microscope at the event will include surveillance and Islamophobia.