33rd International Conference of Europeanists, June 16-18, 2027, Leiden University
The problems prioritised in EU law remain overwhelmingly situated within a colonial perspective that pays little or no attention to those who live their lives at the margins of Europe and European integration—communities of colour comprising European Union citizens from former colonized parts of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean as well as other minority ethnic communities such as the Roma in Eastern Europe.
This omission is problematic for two reasons: first, the lack of engagement with the lives of Black Europeans results in Black Europeans not engaging with the EU – internal alienation undermines European integration breeding segregation and lack of social cohesion which arguably feeds right-wing rhetoric. Second the euro-centric worldview embedded in the legal DNA underpinning European integration seems ineffective in the face of the many internal and external realities facing 21st century Europe.
Criminalisation of migration, scapegoating of asylum seekers and ever higher budgets for border controls have failed to reduce the appeal of xenophobia to European electorates. Racism, racist harassment and violence remain high across the EU bringing the Commission to the conclusion that its Action Plan on racism did not go far enough. Externally, geo-political realities have shifted dramatically: Europe must contend with Russian military aggression, Chinese mineral dominance, an isolationist USA determined to ‘Make America Great/White Again’ and a global South no longer convinced by the language of ‘partnership’ used in trade and development. It is no longer safe to imagine that a euro-centric overseas policy, based on exploitative and extractive relationships, will deliver prosperity and security – national or mineral – in Europe.
In short, post-WWII international structures are being dismantled as democratic backsliding continues apace, making this a good time for Europe to re-imagine – intellectually and in practice – its relationships with Black Europeans and the “global South”, especially as the global realities of climate change, recently declared ‘an existential problem of planetary proportions,’ have raised deep questions about the wisdom and long-term viability of the prevailing ‘European way of life.’ The declared commitment to sustainability calls for a shift: surely a transition to sustainability can only be successful if it is simultaneously a transition in worldview? More generally, shifts are required to re-imagine power, production, labour, migration, and so many aspects of modern life.
This symposium will bring together papers that engage with decolonial theory and apply this to different types of challenges facing in the EU. Decolonial theory brings a new perspective to the EU with practical implications for integration in the internal market and external EU law. A decolonization of EU law in theory and method can tackle the blind spots and deficits – eg. “whiteness” – in the ontology and epistemology of EU law, both the way it tells stories about itself and the stories that are seen as important to tell. Externally, “decolonial thinking challenges the hegemony of Eurocentric perspectives and promotes dialogue with other ways of thinking outside the dominant paradigms rooted in the Global North.” A key task is to explore how decoloniality offers an antidote to these challenges.
The CRN on Decolonial Theory and De-/Coloniality invites papers for the following 3 panels:
Panel I: Decolonial Theory and Concepts
What are the concerns and concepts offered by decolonial theory? What does this approach offer to studies of the EU? What is the value of doing this and how does it support re-imagination of forms of knowledge, knowledge production, correction and dissemination as well as diversification of scholarship in Europe? How might identification and understanding of the imprint of colonialism in its varied iterations on the EU constitution create the knowledge basis for re-imagination and renewal – how might the public approach to immigration across the EU change if a) the extent of European colonisation and b) the varied contribution of peoples from the colonised territories to European war and re-construction were common knowledge?
Panel II: Principles
What principles should support these purposes? This panel will consider key principles under-pinning the decolonial approach, demonstrating that decolonial theory is not an abstract exercise but has practical consequences for how power, prosperity and connection are imagined.
Conviviality has been suggested as a key principle, as has cognitive justice. A further principle is democracy. Colonisation was inherently anti-democratic – it took away all rights, including enjoyment of basic human rights and equality, from those who were colonised. Even as the EU member states signed the ECHR, they breached every provision in it because they possessed colonies. Thus a decolonial approach can also be a basis from which to re-invigorate the study of democracy – in all of its deficits, surfeits, tyrannies – and its links to anti-discrimination, equality and the rule of law.
Papers will reflect upon these and other principles that could guide the work of decolonial re-imagination.
Panel III: Decolonial Methodology
What methodological innovations does decolonial theory offer for re-imagination across a troubled world? Papers in this panel will focus on methodology, identifying strategies and techniques of investigation that can be used in different disciplines to address research questions informed by decolonial theory. For example, coloniality could be used as an historical analytical lens in decolonising EU law, whereby the evolution of EU law is grounded in colonialism (to ask, for example whether the absence of integration in the global South is an innocent development or active policy?) or as a theory to evaluate coloniality in current EU law and policy. Papers will highlight tools and methods that can be used to develop research on decoloniality.
Please send submissions to Prof Iyiola Solanke (iyiola.solanke@law.ox.ac.uk) by October 16th 2026
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