Race and Racism in Europe Research Network Constitution

A) Mission Statement 

Since the 1980s, there has been a growing literature on the subject of race and racism in Europe, including scholarship by Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, David Theo Goldberg, Philomena Essed, Trica Danielle Keaton, Neil MacMaster, Pap Ndiaye, Erik Bleich, Tyler Stovall, Gloria Wekker, Terri Givens, Fatima El-Tayeb, and Stephen Small. This literature has opened up topics and approaches such as: cultural studies; racial formation as a historically and geographically embedded process; race, empire, and colonialism; European-specific articulations and manifestations of racism; everyday racism; intersectional oppression; and racial capitalism.

With this research network, we aim to clearly delineate our analytical work on race and racism from the social and political repertoires we study. Race is a social construct to be interrogated; the existence of racism in Europe is but the starting point for an analysis of its material and ideological structure, its social embeddedness, its various articulations, and its impact on lived experiences.

The Research Network on Race and Racism in Europe has three main goals: to facilitate the transatlantic networking of scholars who study race and racism in Europe; to support graduate students and early-career scholars studying race and racism in Europe; and to host high impact roundtables and panels with mass appeal at annual conferences.

B) Network membership eligibility requirements 

The research network is open to academics, independent scholars, activists, and policy practitioners working in the field of race and racism. Graduate students and early-career scholars are especially welcome.

C) Leadership offices, terms, election intervals, requirements for candidate eligibility, and responsibilities 

The research network leadership consists of two Co-Chairs elected to a two-year term and a Board of up to four persons elected to two-year term(s) that begin on 1 July. Elections will take place in the preceding March. There are no limits on successive terms that can be served. 

The outgoing Co-Chairs will serve as ex officio board members for a period of one year to provide advice to their successors.

Responsibilities include: 

  • relations with the CES Executive Committee 
  • communications with members, including maintenance of the membership roster
  • overseeing the research network panel selection process for CES annual conferences
  • host a business meeting and reception at each conference to promote networking
  • organize a mentorship breakfast wherein graduate students and early-career scholars are paired up with senior colleagues to discuss research and/or the job market.
  • drafting and submitting the annual report to the CES Executive Board 

The Co-Chairs should possess advanced postgraduate training, hold a permanent position at a university or similar research institution, and have published on the subject of race and racism in Europe.

D) Commitment to engaged scholarship on race and racism in Europe

The Research Network on Race and Racism in Europe rejects the premise that scientific rigor is only obtained through neutrality. The Research Network welcomes research agendas that marry scientific rigor with a normative commitment to identify, interrogate, and oppose racism.

E) Commitment to interdisciplinary research 

The Research Network on Race and Racism in Europe seeks to be genuinely interdisciplinary in nature, drawing upon insights provided by various disciplines including political science, sociology, law, history, anthropology, geography, and economics.

F) Commitment to methodological pluralism and a non-essentialized understanding of race

The Research Network on Race and Racism in Europe supports productive, constructive dialogue across methodological approaches. This sensitivity to the diversity of approaches used to better understand race and racism in Europe is nevertheless paired with the expectation that scholarship approach race as the social construct it is.

G) Commitment to geographic and generational diversity 

The Research Network on Race and Racism in Europe aims to bring together junior and senior scholars from both sides of the Atlantic. To assist with this, the Research Network hosts a mentorship breakfast wherein graduate students and early-career scholars are paired up with senior colleagues to discuss research and/or the job market, with an eye to fostering transatlantic research connections.

H) Process for amending or altering the constitution 

This constitution can be amended following an e-ballot directly before or after the annual conference and/or annual meeting. 

I) Dispute resolution 

Disputes involving elections and the operation of the Immigration Research Network should be referred to the CES Executive Committee.