By james art May 9-10, 2025 | Cluj/Kološvar, Romania
Call for documents
Deadline for sending abstracts: January 13, 2025
The Tom Lantos Institute, Birmingham Law School (University of Birmingham), Sapientia University and the Romanian Institute for the Study of National Minorities are jointly organizing an international conference on “Decolonizing the Minority Rights Discourse” to be held at Sapientia University, Romania on 9 10 May 2025 The conference aims to bring together scholars from a wide range of disciplines but with a common interest in issues of decolonial and minority rights. Early career researchers are particularly encouraged to participate.
Background
Despite formal processes of decolonization, colonial connotations such as the “standard of civilization” or the perceived inability of certain people to manage their own affairs continue in subtler forms to inform, shape and govern current global affairs and institutions to the detriment of already marginalized communities. In recent years, calls have been made to proactively seek ways in which the colonial legacy can be reversed and how colonial ties can be severed, if at all possible. As part of this “decolonization” agenda, it is necessary to explore what a decolonization project would look like in the area of minority rights.
The mainstream discourse on minority rights embodies a series of normative biases and assumptions that ignore the centrality of power relations, the subaltern, political economy, hegemonic global governance structures, and patriarchy, among others, to minority conceptualization and protection. As a result, some of the basic concepts such as the definition of minority, statehood, discrimination, violence and protection are often archaic, one-dimensional and marked by colonial understandings. Hence, there is an urgent need to decolonize the foundational principles in contemporary minority rights discourse. In doing so, it is imperative to critically examine the relations of power and subordinate agents in minority rights work and, in this regard, expose the kind of discourse they produce (Shahabuddin, 2023).
For example, the very concept of minority needs to be critically re-evaluated through decolonial lenses to reveal the sense of ‘otherness’ and/or ‘backwardness’ embedded in the concept. Also, the decolonial project requires a critical examination of the reification of the state itself, as part of a much broader notion of decolonizing the state as a precondition for decolonizing minority rights discourse. A decolonizing minority rights agenda must also include the often neglected aspect of minority resistance. Moving beyond the elitist discourse of minority rights and minority protection within institutional sites, the decolonial project requires a sharp focus on learning from ordinary practices. It is in the daily struggles of minorities to protect their lives and livelihoods that true decolonization takes place. In this regard, the project must critically engage with the perception and role of law in protecting minority rights and reflect on how legal concepts and categories themselves can be instruments of oppression in some cases. This will then help highlight the strategic use of law as a site of contestation and also explore other possible languages of resistance, such as social movements, outside the realm of law. In decolonizing minority rights discourse, it is also vital to take seriously the political economy of violence and to reveal how minorities suffer economic marginalization at multiple levels by powerful states, international financial
institutions, post-colonial states and national and transnational corporations. Compared to civil and political rights, this is a rather ignored area in the contemporary discourse on minority rights, requiring adequate attention. Similarly, the role of history and knowledge production, political symbolism, alternative notions of advocacy and participation, and the concept of culture and the power relations embedded within it are inextricably linked to the project of decolonizing minority rights discourse. The conference is designed to offer an opportunity for much-needed discussion and debate on these issues, and to identify and explore other innovative ways to decolonize contemporary minority rights discourse.
Conference topics
We welcome proposals from all regions and from all relevant disciplines with any research approach as long as they focus on decolonial issues and minority rights. Reports may fall under one or more of the following indicative topics:
- Debates on definitions and categorization of minorities
- Historiography and Knowledge Production
- Eurocentrism and minority rights discourse
- Intra-European Hierarchies of Development and Minority Rights Discourse
- Statehood and the “minority question”
- Imperial, post-immigrant and autochthonous minorities
- Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
- Decolonization, Minorities and the Postcolonial State
- Minority Protection Beyond Protectionist Rhetoric
- Promises and perils of the right to self-determination
- Resistance and social movements
- Effective participation and minority agency
- Ethics of activism
- Role of law and legal institutions
- A Political Economy of Minority Oppression
- Intersectorality
- Minorities and Global Governance
- Transitional justice and reparations
- Minority Rights and Climate Justice
Application processes
Please submit an abstract of your paper using this online form by January 13, 2025. Successful applicants will be notified by February 3, 2025.
It is our intention to publish an edited volume of selected conference papers. We welcome draft papers (around 6,000 words), preferably at least two weeks before the conference.
Logistics
The registration fee for the conference is 100 euros. This includes participation in all conference sessions and lunches and tea breaks during the conference. Participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation arrangements.
A limited number of scholarships are available to fully or partially cover travel and accommodation costs and registration fees. Preference will be given to participants from the Global South and countries from Eastern and Central Europe.
Contact: All inquiries should be sent to: [email protected]