Accounting for Racialization: Legitimacy, Visibility, and Discursive Practices
Panel convened by the working group “Speech and Normativity on matters of race and racism”
French Collaborative Institute on Migration (ICM-Integer)
The concept of racialization has been increasingly used by scholars of race relation studies and by anti-racism activists to describe processes of racial ascription and racial framing by institutions and during social interactions. This panel seeks to further these scholarly conversations by examining different contexts at how the meaning of racialization and de-racialization is negotiated, contested, and imbued with normative significance. Of particular interest are the ways in which (de-)racialization becomes an object of controversy and debate. This illustrates how the legitimacy to define and discuss racial issues is itself a matter of negotiation and debate.
This panel will address the construct and circulation of racialized qualifications, and examine issues of authority in discussing and representing racialized experiences. We are particularly interested in exploring how these qualifications are understood, employed, and contested by different actors, including racialized minority groups, the media, public institutions, policy makers, pundits, and academics.
We invite scholars to contribute to this dialogue by presenting research that engages with the construction and negotiation of racialized identities in different national and situational settings; the emergence and use of directly or indirectly racialized categories; the impact of public discourse and policy language choices on the ways in which issues related to racialization are framed and addressed; and the academic controversies surrounding the concept. By fostering a dialogue between different approaches and contexts, this panel seeks to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how racialization is negotiated across multiple spheres of social life.
We welcome empirically grounded contributions based on qualitative or quantitative research from all social science disciplines. Abstracts must not exceed 250 words and should include a title, a clear explanation of the research context, the central research question, the methodology employed, and some preliminary findings or expected results. In addition to the abstract, please provide author name(s), affiliation(s), and contact information.
Please submit your proposal to Noemi Casati (