Panel: structural racism at university

We provide an insight into the connection between racism and academic educational institutions. People with experiences of migration and or racism report on structural racism and forms of discrimination at the University of Bern. In addition, we give an insight into the resources that the university has. Questions in focus: What is the situation, what is being done and what can still be improved? Snacks and drinks will be provided for further discussions afterwards.

• India James-Licher is a third-year medical student at the University of Berne. She completed a Bachelor of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto in Neuroscience and German Literature in 2020. Back in Switzerland she started the first student group for People of Color from the African Diaspora at the University of Berne with two friends and fellow students. Her interests are in the ‘Afropean’ position in health care, urban society, as well as in literature. She is interested in the history and meaning of People of Color in different contexts. Her position as a Person of Color is especially rooted in the North American context, where she was born, however, she is interested in the ways it is different in other contexts, such as in Europe and especially, in Switzerland. In her opinion there are discrepancies among countries when it comes to their ideas of race and racism through history and language, allowing for some experiences between groups to be more common in some environments than in others. She hopes to first and foremost help bridge the gap of what racisms means in institutions, such as universities.
• Shaina Adin  was born and raised in Zurich. She did her bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology at the University of Zurich and changed to the University of Bern for the master’s in Public Management and Policy. She was interested in the topic of migration and integration, therefore choose to work for an organization that had the task to integrate asylum seeking people and migrants, after her bachelor. Migration and integration are often not so far away from racism, and Shaina began to engage more actively in this subject. Together with India James Licher and Noah Uche they founded Students of Color of the African Diaspora (SCAD). The first association at the University of Bern for Students of Color. Their goal is to strengthen the community of color and create awareness and space for encounters and exchange at the University.
• Dr. Anukriti Dixit is a postdoctoral scholar at the Interdisciplinary center for gender studies (ICFG) at the University of Bern. Her doctoral dissertation was concluded at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and involved problematizing India’s anti-Sexual Harassment at workplace policies. Her areas of interest include poststructuralist policy analysis, feminist and intersectional policy analysis, postcolonial and decolonial methodologies and epistemic injustice. She was a Swiss government excellence scholarship awardee (2019-2020) and a Ford foundation grantee under the ‘small grants for feminist research’ fund administered through the Institute for Social Sciences Trust, in 2018.
• Estefania Cuero is a diversity coach with a focus on antiracism and decolonization and a PhD Student at the University of Lucerne. She has a MA in Human Rights and Cultural Diversity from the University of Essex and work experience in international organizations and NGOs. Furthermore Estefania is a member of the Swiss Young Academy.