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At our joint event, the Bauman Institute and the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (CERS) in the School of Sociology and Social Policy (SSP), Leeds, we welcomed the launch of Liquid Racism: Brexit, Education and Road Culture (Bristol University Press, 2025). For more info click HERE.

Date: 12 March 2025
Time: 12.30-13.45
Place: Social Sciences 12.21/12.25
Speaker: Professor Michaela Benson, University of University
Title: Hong Kongers, Ukrainians and the coloniality of migration and citizenship: new humanitarian visas and the making of ‘good migrants’ for ‘Global Britain’
Click HERE for the recording of the event

Understanding the Middle East: Rethinking Violence, Diaspora and Peace
Panelists: Professor Robin Cohen (University of Oxford) and Professor Sari Hanafi (American University of Beirut)
Date: Tuesday 14 January 2025
Time: 1-3pm
Place: University of Leeds
Places are limited. If you would like to register for the event, please click this link.

Co-authors: Professor Anamik Saha (CERS), Dr Francesca Sobande and Professor Gavan Titley
Date: Wednesday 27 November 2024
Time: 4pm – 6pm
Location: 1.17 and 1.18, Clothworkers Building North.
All are welcome. See HERE for more.

CERS is pleased to announce its forthcoming event to coincide with Islamophobia Awareness Month. See HERE
Panel speakers are:
Dr Waqas Tufail
Dr Tajul Islam
Dr Claudia Radiven
Chair: Johanna Loock

Speaker: Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper, Queen Mary, University of London
Date: Wednesday 16 October 2024

See HERE for more.

The White Rose Collaboration Network is led by Dr Joe Turner (York) and also by Dr Lucy Mayblin (Sheffield lead) and Professor Ipek Demir (CERS, Leeds lead). The partnership critically examines 'The UK-Rwanda Partnership as the ‘End of Asylum’: Externalising Borders, Offshoring and Resistance’.

Speaker: Professor Ben Carrington
Date: Wednesday 5th June 2024
Tea, Coffee and Cake: 2.30-3pm
Symposium: 3-5pm
RSVP: Places are limited. If you would like to attend, please complete the Booking Form. Booking will close on 29 May 2024 or earlier if no spaces are left.

The 3rd Critical Muslim Studies Conference focused on the theme of "ReOrienting the (Global) South". The conference took place at the University of Leeds, 24th - 26th June 2024.

CERS is delighted to announce our Black History Month (BHM) 2023 event and speaker details:
Speaker: Dr Jean Beaman, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Title: Towards a Reading of Black Lives Matter in France: Diasporic Connections and Global Social Movements
Date: Monday 16 October 2023
You can watch the recording. See HERE for more.

In 2022 Professor Ipek Demir joined the Decolonising Steering Group of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM). In 2023 The Steering Group launched the Decolonising Midwifery Toolkit at the RCM Annual Conference having worked on this task and developed the toolkit over a year. This toolkit is now rolled out to many institutions in the UK and will significantly shape midwifery education and practice in the UK and beyond. See here.

The Second International Conference on Critical Muslim Studies engages with the Muslim question in relational and comparative framing, a theme that is central to the development of Critical Muslim Studies. ReOrienting the Muslim Question intersects with wider explorations of social ontologies explored under themes of ‘race’, gender, class, and religion.
For more info, please see here.

The Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (CERS) at the University of Leeds is delighted to announce our Black History Month (BHM) event and speaker details.
Speaker: Dr Kennetta Hammond Perry
Title: ‘Black Futures Not Yet Lost: Black Abolitionism and the Politics of History’
Date: Thursday, 27 October 2022
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing info about joining the meeting.

Workshop 'Migrant workers in agriculture, sustainability and justice in Europe and UK'. This international workshop is co-organised by Dr Johanna Schenner (Cornell University) and Dr Roxana Barbulescu (CERS, University of Leeds). Date: 15th of March 2022, Time: 11.00-16.00 GMT, 6.00-10.00 EST. Click here for more info and to register for this online workshop.

SPECIAL EVENT: Thursday 17 March 2022, 3-4.30pm UK time, organised by CERS and the Bauman Institute.
Authors Gurminder Bhambra and John Holmwood will present their recent book 'Colonialism and Modern Social Theory'. Respondents: Manual Boatcă, S.Sayyid, and Adrian Favell. Pls register on zoom if you would like to attend.

The Centre for Ethnicity & Racism Studies (CERS), University of Leeds is holding an event to mark Islamophobia Awareness Month.
‘How the World Responded? The War On Terror & Islamophobia’
Speakers: Dr Paul Bagguley (CERS, University of Leeds), Claudia Radiven (CERS, University of Leeds), AbdoolKarim Vakil (Kings College London). The event is organised by: Izram Chaudry (CERS, Leeds) and Sheheen Kattiparambil (CERS, Leeds). Date: 25th November 2021.

Welcome: Dr Ipek Demir, Director of CERS
Introduction and Chair: Aminah Ahmed, Managing Editor of LHRJ
Speakers: Jonathan Kennedy, Phoebe Eleanor Sheppard and Farida Augustine
This online event will be hosted via Zoom on Friday 22 October 2021, 5-6.15pm (UK time)
Please register for the event: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lhrj-x-cers-the-importance-of-black-history-in-education-tickets-186246477227

We, at the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (CERS), invite you to a seminar talk on Covid-19 and race.

Speaker: Professor Matiangai Sirleaf, University of Maryland (USA)
Title: 'COVID-19 & the Racial Valuation of Diseases'
Date: 21 October 2021, 3-4.15pm (UK time)
In order to register for the event:

To coincide with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations for the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds, this event - supported by the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies - provides an opportunity to reflect on the rich heritage of critical social policy developed within the School. Emeritus Professor Fiona Williams OBE has been central to the development of critical approaches within social policy and her new book takes stock of the progress made so far and what needs to happen next. Panel Discussants are Dr Daniel Edmiston and Dr Roxana Barbulescu.

We welcome you to the Policy Briefing which will be launched on Tuesday 13th July, 12:00 – 13:30

Organisers: Dr Markéta Doležalová (CERS, University of Leeds), Dr Roxana Barbulescu (CERS, University of Leeds), Dr Noreen Mirza (University of Manchester), Mr Nicu Ion (Councillor in Elswick, Newcastle)

In order to register for the event:

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (CIGS) and the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism (CERS) at Leeds invite you to a ‘Symposium on Femonationalism’. The seminar will be delivered by Sara R. Farris with responses from Adrian Favell and Ipek Demir
“Symposium on Femonationalism”
Chair: Karen Throsby (Leeds)
12.00 – 1.30pm Wednesday 26 May 2021

"Feeding the Nation: seasonal migrant workers and food security during the COVID-19 pandemic" is a research project examining the recruitment and experiences of seasonal agricultural migrant workers. Launched in October 2020, the project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19.

"Northern Exposure: Race, Nation and Disaffection in 'Ordinary' Towns and Cities after Brexit" is a major social science project, funded by the ESRC, which will examine the implications of Brexit on race relations, new migrations and Northerners’ sense of place and belonging.

"Faith and Secularism in a Close Encounter: The Contextualisation of Divine Healing by Pentecostal Africans in Germany" is a new research project led by Dr Abel Ugba. The steady increase in the number of African immigrants in Germany since the 1980s has translated into more African Pentecostals in the country. Taking divine healing as a key component of the religiously-constituted moral and sociocultural universe of Germany’s African Pentecostals, this project aims to critically analyse the complexities and challenges of adopting and adapting this practice in the secular and regulated environment in Germany.

CERS members S. Sayyid, Ipek Demir and Walaa al Husban spoke as part of the panel at this event co-organised by CERS and Leeds Human Rights Journal.

This two year project was funded by the European Commission – Directorate of Justice, and brought together experts from across Europe.

A Counter-Islamophobia Toolkit, authored by CERS members Prof. Ian Law, Dr Amina Easat-Daas and Prof. S. Sayyid, was published in September 2018 and is available to read on the website (link below).

This August 2019 policy briefing by the Runnymede Trust and The Commission on Diversity in the North (hosted by CERS) highlights the growing racial and ethnic diversity in towns and cities in the north of England, and calls for racial inequalities to be tackled as part of any inclusive economic growth agendas for the North.