Undoing Racism

Podcast What happens when one of the world’s most renowned universities of science and technology begins to examine its own colonial history? And who carries this work intellectually, emotionally, and institutionally? In this episode of Missing Chapters, Anja Nunyola Glover speaks with historian and doctoral researcher Sarujan Theivendran about the colonial entanglements of ETH Zurich, racism and classism in higher education, and the question of who is perceived as naturally belonging in academic spaces.Sarujan Theivendran has been a doctoral researcher at the Chair of Modern World History at ETH Zurich since August 2025, where he works on the SNSF-funded project Engineering Empires from the Margins: Global Techno-Colonialism and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (c. 1860–1980). His doctoral research examines global entanglements and disciplinary transformations within geology, focusing on the careers of ETH geology professor Albert Heim and his son Arnold Heim, a geologist who worked internationally in the petroleum industry. He holds an M.A. in Contemporary History from the University of Fribourg, where his master’s thesis examined Swiss development cooperation in Sri Lanka (1961–1982), and has professional experience in archives and museums.Together, we discuss:his path into academiaclassism, racism, and belonging in higher educationprecarious academic working conditionsthe colonial entanglements of ETH Zurichthe role of counter-archives and memory politicswhy the natural sciences cannot be understood separately from colonial historyrepresentation and responsibility within academic institutionsfunding cuts, political shifts, and the future of anti-racist researchWe discuss why colonial history is not a marginal footnote to the history of science, but central to understanding how knowledge, institutions, and global structures of power have been shaped.? Content note: This episode discusses racism, colonial violence, structural inequalities, and forms of exclusion in higher education.This episode is part of the project Transforming Educational Spaces: Addressing Racism, Embedding Intersectionality at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies.Book recommendation from this episode:Tauben Fliegen Auf by Melinda Nadj Abonji

Podcast In this episode of Missing Chapters, we publish the keynote "Racism and Universities of Teacher Education: Institutional Entanglements and the (De-)Stabilisation of Hegemonic Knowledge Orders" by Oxana Ivanova-Chessex, delivered at the national conference "Racism and Higher Education". Universities of teacher education train teachers on behalf of the state, making them key sites where legitimised knowledge about education, schooling and society is produced and passed on.At the heart of the keynote lies a double bind: these institutions reproduce hegemonic knowledge entangled in colonial, racialised and capitalist orders that stabilises Switzerland's national self-image. Yet the emancipatory promise of education can also find expression within these orders. Speaking from the position of "outside in the teaching machine" (Spivak), the keynote analyses struggles over knowledge orders and asks how critiques of racism can be institutionally anchored.In this episode: Universities of teacher education as sites of state-legitimised knowledge productionColonial, racialised and capitalist entanglements of educational knowledgeSwitzerland's national self-imageThe emancipatory promise of educationCritiques of racism in teacher education 

Podcast In this episode of Missing Chapters, we publish the keynote "Qui pense la Suisse ?" ("Who thinks Switzerland?") by Anne Lavanchy, delivered at the national conference "Racism and Higher Education". Starting from the question in its title, the keynote examines whiteness in academia – a hegemonic, often invisible position that contributes to the unequal distribution of privilege. The university comes into view both as a workplace and as a site of knowledge production.The keynote centres on the material effects of structural racism on academic careers and on epistemic violence in knowledge production. It shows how universities perpetuate power relations and how notions of "excellence" obscure the unequal distribution of privilege. It also asks why the social sciences so rarely subject their own knowledge orders to critical analysis.In this episode: Whiteness as a mechanism for distributing privilegeStructural racism in academic careersMerit and "excellence" as academic ordering principlesEpistemic violence and hegemonic knowledge productionThe self-reflection of the social sciences 

Podcast In this episode of Missing Chapters, we feature the keynote «Overproblematised and Underrepresented: Muslim Women in Academic Spaces» by Faten Khazaei, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Northumbria University. The keynote was delivered at the national conference «Racism and Higher Education». Khazaei examines the contradictory position of Muslim women in academic spaces: while they are often rendered visible as a “problem” in public, political, and institutional discourses, they remain underrepresented as knowledge producers. She focuses on anti-Muslim racism and the ways in which universities reproduce racialised epistemic orders and hierarchies through diversity policies and extractive research practices.The keynote asks how universities can move beyond symbolic representation towards more inclusive, plural, and power-critical forms of knowledge production.This episode explores:The contradictory visibility of Muslim womenAnti-Muslim racism and academic belongingRacialised and colonial knowledge ordersCounter-terrorism, diversity policies, and extractive researchPossibilities for structural transformation 

Podcast Wir unterbrechen unsere Sommerfolgen, um den Fall Jason Arday zu thematisieren. Wir fragen nach der Verantwortung der unterschiedlichen Akteur:innen: unter anderem von Hochschule, Medien und Gesellschaft und danach, wie diese Verantwortlichkeiten miteinander verflochten sind. Wir fragen nach den Entstehungsbedingungen - institutionellen, strukturellen, individuellen – ebenso wie nach den möglichen Implikationen des Falles. Wir fragen nach den verschiedenen Formen von Diskriminierung, unter anderem Ableismus, Rassismus, Ageismus, die den Kontext strukturieren. Wir fragen, ohne Antworten geben zu können, oder das zwingend zu wollen, aus tiefem Bedauern und der Überzeugung, dass gerade komplexe und schwer durchschaubare Situationen nicht zum Anlass genommen werden sollten, wichtige Fragen auszuklammern. Der Fall zeigt die Wichtigkeit auf, Hochschulen als Orte zu verstehen, die von Mächten geprägt entstehen, jedoch auch selbst Macht ausüben, gesellschaftliche Diskurse prägen, unter anderem als Orte der Wissensproduktion. Im Rahmen unsere Projektes erscheint im März 2027 die Publikation “Missing Chapters – Hochschulen als rassifizierte Räume verstehen”, die sich mit ebensolchen Fragen auseinandersetzt. Wir sprechen in dieser Folge auch darüber, wie auch ihr Teil dieser Publikation werden könnt. In dieser Folge geht es um: Den Fall Jason Arday und das komplexe Geflecht institutioneller, medialer und gesellschaftlicher Verantwortung Die Verschränkung von Diskriminierungsformen wie Rassismus, Ableismus und institutionellen Machtverhältnissen Unsicherheit und die Schwierigkeit, sich innert der diversen Debatten zu orientieren Die geplante Publikation: «Missing Chapters – Hochschulen als rassifizierte Räume verstehen» und unseren Call for Contributions Wie lässt sich Verantwortung denken, wenn institutionelle Strukturen, rassifizierte und ableistische Machtverhältnisse, mediale Debatten und gesellschaftliche Diskurse ineinandergreifen? Und wie können wir mit komplexen Situationen umgehen und ihre Ambiguität tolerieren? Buchempfehlungen in dieser Folge: Julian ist eine Meerjungfrau – Jessica Love Children of blood and bone – Toni Adeyemi Decolonizing anthropology: An introduction – Soumhya Venkatesan 

Article As part of the swissuniversities project “Transforming Educational Spaces: Addressing Racism, Embedding Intersectionality”, the accompanying publication Missing Chapters – Understanding Higher Education Institutions as Racialised Spaces will be published in March 2027.The publication brings together perspectives on higher education institutions as racialised spaces and seeks to contribute to a critical examination of the conditions of knowledge production, belonging, and institutional change. It centres questions of which experiences, forms of knowledge, and perspectives become visible within higher education contexts, which remain marginalised, and what possibilities emerge for anti-racist and intersectional transformation.To make this plurality of voices visible, we invite contributions to selected chapters of the publication through this Call for Contributions. The call is open to individuals and collectives from academia, the arts, activism, and other areas of society who engage with the publication’s themes and wish to contribute diverse forms of knowledge and storytelling. Detailed information on the thematic areas, possible contribution formats, and participation requirements can be found in the call below.

Podcast In this second summer episode of Missing Chapters, Jovita dos Santos Pinto speaks about «Knowledge Production in Switzerland’s ‘Postcolonial Moment’: A Critique from a Black Feminist Perspective”. From a Black feminist perspective, dos Santos Pinto examines how colonial power relations continue to shape knowledge production. At the heart of her keynote is Switzerland’s «postcolonial moment”: growing public engagement with its colonial entanglements since 2020 and the question of how existing power relations are reproduced within institutions. Drawing on examples, she shows how epistemic silencing, extractivism, and dehumanization operate, and explores transformative forms of knowledge and relational practices that emerge within, against, and beyond university structures.In this episode:Colonialism as a material relation of exploitation and dispossessionThe historical entanglement of Swiss universities with colonial projectsBlack feminist perspectives on knowledge, power, and differenceContinuities of colonial knowledge ordersAnti-racist and transformative knowledge production

Podcast We are kicking off our summer episodes with the keynote «Le rôle de l’Histoire dans l’analyse, la déconstruction et la lutte contre le racisme» by Izabel Barros, a doctoral researcher at the University of Lausanne. The keynote was delivered on 27 March at the national conference «Racism and Higher Education» in Bern. Drawing on her research into enslaved women on a Brazilian plantation owned by a Bernese patrician family in the 19th century, Barros demonstrates why examining colonialism, enslavement, and Switzerland’s involvement in colonial relations is essential to understanding racism today. By making enslaved women visible as historical subjects, she opens up new perspectives on Swiss history and challenges which stories are remembered and which are left out.The keynote explores how colonial continuities shape systems of knowledge, institutions, and universities, and understands history as a tool for anti-racist, feminist, and decolonial knowledge production.In this episode:Switzerland’s entanglements with colonialism and enslavementEnslaved women as historical subjectsColonial continuities in society and higher educationAnti-racist, feminist, and decolonial knowledge production

Podcast In this episode of *Between the Lines*, we are heading into our summer break and taking the opportunity to reflect on holidays, rest, and the conditions under which breaks are possible in the first place. We discuss the difference between holidays and time free from paid work, the fact that care work continues even during the holidays, and the expectations associated with summer as a time of rest and relaxation. We also offer a preview of the upcoming conference episodes and what to expect after the summer break. This episode explores:Holidays and time off workCare work and the question of why it never takes a breakThe idea of summer as a time for rest and readingAn introduction to the upcoming conference episodesWhat does it actually mean to have time off – and what are the conditions that make rest possible?Book recommendations featured in this episode:Elefanten im Garten – Meral KureyshiOroppa – Safae al KhannoussiWind, der uns heimträgt – Hemley Boum

Podcast What does it mean to work within institutions that are simultaneously sites of power and transformation? And how are diversity, knowledge, and the public negotiated in an increasingly mediatized world?This episode explores how institutional structures both enable and constrain diversity work. It examines the relationship between representation and structural change, as well as the role of media and academia in reproducing or challenging existing power relations. The conversation also considers the significance of activist engagements and positionalities within academic contexts.What kinds of change are genuinely possible within existing institutions? And how can diversity and justice be embedded sustainably beyond symbolic measures? In this episode of Missing Chapters, we speak with Dr. phil. Yuvviki Dioh about:Institutions as sites of responsibility, power, and transformationDiversity policies in the context of structural change and symbolic performativityMedia and academia as sites of hegemonic knowledge productionForms of academic activism in relation to claims of neutrality and questions of positionalityWorking as a Diversity Agent in SwitzerlandNavigating conflict, visibility, and freedom of expression within so-called "diverse institutions"Representation at the intersection of symbolic inclusion and structural transformation

Podcast Postcolonial critique is often treated as a concern only for those directly affected by racism and colonial legacies. Yet institutional change is not a peripheral issue - it is a structural responsibility. Who bears responsibility when institutions not only reflect social inequalities, but actively help (re)produce them? And why are postcolonial perspectives still so often treated as concerns primarily for those affected by racism, rather than as a central challenge for society, academia, and culture as a whole?Postcolonial critique draws attention to the historical continuities of colonialism, power, and knowledge production, asking how these continue to shape institutions, public debates, and collective understandings of society in the present. At stake is not only representation, but also the question of whose voices are heard, which forms of knowledge are recognized as legitimate, and how social participation is structured.In this episode, we speak with Patricia Purtschert about:the beginnings of postcolonial debates in Switzerland (2005–2008)economic and cultural-theoretical approachesaccusations of “culturalism”institutional resistance to changeTheater Bern as a site of public contestation and negotiationthe responsibility of white majoritieswhy diversity of perspectives is an epistemic necessityTogether, we discuss what it means to reimagine universities and cultural institutions—and why transformation is particularly important for those who have historically benefited from existing structures.Content note: This episode discusses colonial legacies and institutional racism.Patricia Purtschert's book recommendation: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo.

Article Non-FictionColin, P. (mit Quiroz, L.). (2026). Pensées Décoloniales: Une Introduction Aux Théories Critiques d’Amérique Latine (1st ed). La Decouverte Editions.hooks, bell. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge.Segato, R. L., & McGlazer, R. (2022). The Critique of Coloniality: Eight Essays (English edition). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.Varatharajah, S., & Hilal, M. (2024). Hierarchien der Solidarität. Wirklichkeit Books.FictionAbulhawa, S. (2024). Mornings in Jenin. Bloomsbury.Evaristo, B. (2020). Girl, Woman, Other. Penguin Books.Hardcastle, D. (2025). Language of Limbs. Verve Books.Lorde, A. (2019). Sister Outsider. Penguin Books.MemoirsOgette, T. (2026). Trotzdem Zuhause (1. Auflage). Penguin Verlag.Pāmā. (2014). Karukku (Mini Krishnan, Hrsg.; L. Holmström, Übers.; Second edition). Oxford University Press.

Podcast Between the Lines: Episode 2 How often do racist incidents happen in moments when someone simply wants to exist? Right before a conference. In a sauna. While getting changed. And suddenly, someone asks you about your experiences with racism.In this episode of Between the Lines, we talk about these moments — and about how deeply racism permeates the everyday lives of those affected. Even in spaces that are meant to offer safety, calm, or connection.We reflect on:racism in educationemotional labor and visibilityrepresentation and responsibilitythe question of why these conversations so often happen precisely when people are just trying to catch their breathThis episode is personal. Not theoretical. Not detached. But rooted directly in lived experience.Book recommendations featured in this episode:Trotzdem zuhause: Tupoka Ogette (she/her) (Event tip: On May 31, 2026, the launch event for the new publication will take place at Kaufleuten Zürich.)A Language of Limbs: Dylin Hardcastle (he/they)Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom — bell hooks

Podcast In dieser Episode von "Missing Chapters" spricht Anja Nunyola Glover mit Océane Haja Maréchal, Lehrerin, Präsidentin und Mitgründerin der AFEEDA – Verein für dekoloniale und antirassistische Lehrpersonenbildung sowie Unterricht. Wie lässt sich Antirassismus in die Ausbildung von Lehrpersonen integrieren?Und warum reicht es nicht aus, Rassismus als individuelles Problem zu behandeln?Die AFEEDA wurde 2022 von afro-diasporischen Studierenden in der Primarlehrpersonenausbildung gegründet. Sie setzt sich für eine antirassistische Pädagogik ein, die strukturelle Ungleichheiten, Mechanismen der Rassifizierung und die Kolonialität von Wissen in Ausbildung und Unterricht thematisiert.Wir sprechen über:strukturellen Rassismus im schulischen Kontextdie Ausbildung von Lehrpersonen an den Pädagogischen Hochschulen (Vaud, Freiburg, Wallis)institutionelle Verantwortungdie Illusion von Neutralität in der Schuleantirassistische Workshops und ihr Drei-Phasen-Modellbestehende Widerstände und laufende TransformationsprozesseOcéane's Buchempfehlung:Pensées décoloniales - Une introduction aux théories critiques d'Amérique latin (Taschenbuch, französische Ausgabe, 9 März 2023), von Philippe Colin und Lissell Quiroz

Article Racism is not a marginal phenomenon or an isolated deviation from social norms; rather, it is a deeply embedded structural principle that runs through social, political, and institutional systems. This insight formed the starting point of an academic conference at the University of Bern, which examined the relationship between racism and higher education, opening up not only analytical perspectives, but also raising concrete questions about responsibility, transformation, and institutional practice.The fact that the event was fully booked within a very short time and ultimately attracted over 200 participants is more than a mere organizational detail. It signals a collective demand for change and a growing awareness. The high level of participation - particularly among women and genderqueer individuals directly and adversely affected - underscores that this is not an abstract debate, but one that deeply shapes many people’s lived realities.UniAKTUELL covered the conference and reflects on the day in a new blog post. Link to the article: Thinking together about racism at universities

Podcast In this first episode of Missing Chapters, we speak with Anukriti Dixit, postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Bern (IZFG), about what it means to produce feminist, decolonial, and anti-racist knowledge within Swiss academia. Starting from her experience of moving from India to Switzerland, this conversation explores how knowledge, institutions, and everyday interactions are shaped by power, culture, and structural inequalities.In this episode, we discuss:Decolonial knowledge production in Western academiaExperiences of arriving in Switzerland as a researcher from the Global SouthEveryday exclusions and academic culturePositionality and perspective in knowledge productionThe tension between lived experience and institutional frameworksBook recommendations from the episode:A Critique of Coloniality: Eight Essays – Rita Segato(Originally written in Spanish, recently translated – described as a “kind of bible of decoloniality”)Karukku – Bama(An autobiographical narrative addressing caste, inequality, and lived experience)

Podcast Missing Chapters #1: Wer spricht – und wer fehlt? Der Podcast begleitet das Projekt «Bildungsräume transformieren: Rassismus angehen, Intersektionalität verankern» und versteht sich als Plattform zur kritischen Auseinandersetzung mit Wissensproduktion im Hochschulkontext. Im Zentrum stehen historische Kontinuitäten, rassismuskritische Perspektiven sowie Strategien des Widerstands und der Transformation. Ziel ist es, Forschung, Aktivismus und Praxismiteinander ins Gespräch zu bringen und Perspektivensichtbar zu machen, die im Hochschulkontext bisher häufig marginalisiert werden. Die Podcast-Folgenbegleiten die thematischen Schwerpunkte des Projekts und tragen zur Verstetigung rassismuskritischer Diskurse bei.Mit der ersten Folge «Between the Lines» wird dieses Anliegen konkretisiert: In diesem Format spricht das Projektteam über die aktuelle Arbeit, über Freudenmomente ebenso wie über Hürden, die sich im Prozess ergeben. Ziel ist es, Einblicke darin zu ermöglichen, wie Antirassismusarbeit an Universitäten praktisch umgesetzt wird, Zusammenhänge zu kontextualisieren und Themen aufzugreifen, die in anderen Folgen keinen Platz finden – also auch das auszusprechen, was sonst oft nur zwischen den Zeilen lesbar bleibt.