Fatima El-Tayeb and Nicolaas Barr discuss how European identities are constructed through “racial amnesia” and how the concepts of whiteness, gender, and religion are mobilized in European politics. They might address questions such as: can you decolonize Europe? Why do white Europeans believe they are colorblind? What is the relationship between the so-called refugee crisis and Europe’s colonial legacy? How are religion, gender and sexuality connected to the rise of right-wing movements? What role do trans-community coalitions play in movements of resistance? Is a multi-religious Europe possible? What is queering ethnicity?

Fatima El-Tayeb is Professor of Literature and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her work deconstructs structural racism in “colorblind” Europe and centers strategies of resistance among racialized communities, especially those that politicize culture through an intersectional, queer practice. She is the author of three books and numerous articles on the interactions of race, gender, sexuality, religion and nation. She is active in Black feminist, migrant, and queer of color organizations in Europe and the US.

Nicolaas Barr is the director of study abroad and part-time lecturer for the Comparative History of Ideas Department at the University of Washington. His teaching and research focus on the question of how to make sense of, and respond to, forms of domination, especially as exemplified in the Holocaust. He examines antisemitism in relation to the wider contexts of white supremacy and ongoing forms of racialization in Europe. He recently translated Tofik Dibi’s coming-out memoir Djinn.

Over the past year the Colloquium on Transcultural Approaches to Europe has advanced crucial conversations on world language and literature study on our campus, through an interdisciplinary, multi-departmental speaker series focused on issues of race, identity, colonialism, and migration within a broad European context. In this series the Department of Germanics, The Department of French and Italian, and The Department of Scandinavian Studies are featuring leading scholars whose research focuses on migrant and minoritized cultures within Europe.

For questions or more information, please contact S. Kye Terrasi, kterrasi@uw.edu