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Race, gender and sexuality at Bebel Platz

The first teaching day of my Erasmus Visit to the Transdisciplinary Gender Studies Institute at the Humboldt University in Berlin got off to a good start yesterday. The first session was held at Bebel Platz, opposite the main building of the University on the famous Unter den Linden. We met the students and picked up a megaphone and went to the Platz where we settled on the steps of the Church. Amused tourists passed by, literally walking over the students to get into the church. The point of all this?

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Bebelplatz 'night of shame' memorial

I am speaking today on ‘Race, Gender, and Sexuality’ at 16h00 in Bebelplatz, Berlin, the site where Nazis burned ‘un-German’ books in the 1930s.

ALL WELCOME!

Shoes in Berlin 2006

I am engaged in an Erasmus Teaching Visit to the Institute for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies at the Humboldt University from June 15-19. Due to a national education strike being called in Germany this week, the seminars will be held in public spaces on the Humboldt University site.

The first seminar will address Race, Gender and Sexuality (Wednesday June 17th at 16h00) and The Concept and Construction of Race including a short reading from my book, Racism (Friday June 19th at 12h45).

I will also be speaking on Europe and the Silence about Race at the Centre Marc Bloch on Monday June 22nd at 3pm. More information here.

ALL WELCOME

“Lentin’s book is not only an accessible survey of scholarly writing on the nature of racism but is also a powerful intervention in its own right.”

Arun Kundnani of the Institute of Race Relations, and author of the excellent The End of Tolerance, has written a thoughtful review of Racism: A Beginner’s Guide here.

Paperback | 192 pages | ISBN 978-1-85168-543-1 | Aug 2008

Buy the Book

Despite the long struggle to eliminate racism, it is still very much with us. In fact, since 9/11, racism appears to be on the rise, making it more important than ever before to understand the meaning of race and the effect it has on society.

Alana Lentin maps the emergence and development of ideas about race through political history right up to modern debates about multiculturalism and Islamophobia, and considers the implications of a ‘post-racial’ society at a time when science has placed genetics over culture. Provocative and intelligent reading for the newcomer and expert alike, this invaluable resource exposes the roots of racial thought and demonstrates why it has remained crucial to our everyday lives.

“I’ve learned an enormous lot from Alana Lentin’s book. I only regret that a guide like this was not in existence when sixty years ago I started to study that phenomenon, one of the most insidious and complex of our times.”
Zygmunt Bauman, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds

“Clearly and convincingly written. Alana Lentin offers a very good springboard from which students can launch a critical examination of racisms.”
David Theo Goldberg, Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute

“This book brings some valuable clarity into a theme that often generates a lot of confusion.”
Stephen Castles, Director and Senior Researcher at the International Migration Institute, Oxford University

“An excellent and up to date introduction to one of the world’s most enduring forms of injustice.”
Les Back, Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths College