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About

The Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (CERS) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Leeds. It was founded by Professor Ian Law in 1998. The centre was built on the success of the Race and Public Policy Unit, an internal grouping within the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. It has a long established international reputation for theoretically-informed and policy-relevant research on racism, ethnicity and migration.

Our centre engages the fields of race and ethnicity, decoloniality, migration and diaspora in a conversation in order to identify and unpack current trends in the global and political order, and thus enable us to contribute to better and more adequate understandings of our globalised world. Our research identifies and examines, amongst many others, historical and existing racial and ethnic inequalities, social injustices, racism, discrimination, coloniality, Islamophobia, ethno-centrism, anti-migrancy, xenophobia, as well as movements and ideas which challenge these.

Our members include over forty academics, practitioners, research staff and postgraduates working across a range of disciplines in Leeds, the UK and globally.

Our Centre is primarily a vehicle for building interdisciplinary research and collaborations within the University of Leeds and with non-academic partners in order to develop research interests and ideas, generate joint research activities and projects, and attract research funds and graduate students.

We bring researchers with shared interests and expertise together, and enable and facilitate regular contact through seminars, postgraduate forums, workshops and bulletins.

Our core research themes are:

>Decoloniality and Anti-Racism

>Diaspora and Migration

>Islamophobia

CERS Executive Board:

Ipek Demir

Johanna Loock

Claudia Radiven

Anamik Saha

 

CERS International Advisory Board:

Associate Professor Jean Beaman (University of California, USA)

Professor Robin Cohen (University of Oxford, UK)

Professor Akwugo Emejulu (University of Warwick, UK)

Professor Fatma Muge Gocek (University of Michigan, USA)

Professor Sari Hanafi (American University of Beirut) President of the International Sociological Association

Professor Barnor Hesse (Northwestern University, USA)

Professor John Holmwood (University of Nottingham, UK)