«Le rôle de l’Histoire dans l’analyse, la déconstruction et la lutte contre le racisme»

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 enslavement
• Enslaved women as historical subjects
• Colonial continuities in society and higher education
• Anti-racist, feminist, and decolonial knowledge production