News
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I am a Viking! DNA, popular culture and the construction of geneticized identity - Daniel Strand CEMFOR
ABSTRACT
In this article, we analyze how genetic genealogy reshapes popular notions of historical identity, as it facilitates a genetically informed understanding of ethnicity and ancestry. Drawing on interviews with Swedish, British and American individuals who have employed genetic ancestry tests (GATs) to prove ancestral connections to Vikings, we explore how the desire to “be a Viking” is articulated through a convergence of pre-existing discourses around Vikings and DNA. By combining signs from genetic science and popular depictions of Vikings, our interviewees create a new discourse of geneticized Viking identity. In this new discourse, socio-historically constructed ideas about Vikings are naturalized as the innate qualities of individuals who possess a certain genetic composition. Images of “the Viking” once created for political, cultural or commercial purposes are revived in new embodied forms and can start to circulate in new social contexts, where they, by association, appear to be confirmed by genetical science.
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Insecure housing situation drives Roma migration - by Dominic Teodorescu & Irene Molina, International Journal of Housing Policy
Building or improving one’s own home is a strong motive for Roma who migrate from one European country to another. Their everyday life is marked by extremely precarious housing conditions, racism and forced nomadism. These findings have emerged in a new study based on interviews and fieldwork in Sweden and Romania.
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Roma street-workers in Uppsala: racialised poverty and super precarious housing conditions in Romania and Sweden - Dominic Teodorescu & Irene Molina
Using a combination of a political economy approach for the analysis of housing with a postcolonial approach to mobility patterns of the racialised and impoverished Roma in Europe, we reflect on the relationship between racialisation and the precarious living and housing conditions of the Eastern European Roma who move from the poorer to the richer countries of the European Union.
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Open Call: Black Feminism in the Nordics/The journal Astra: The guest editor for this special issue is Jasmine Kelekay, CEMFOR.
Special Issue 1/2021: Black Feminism in the Nordics
In the midst of a global pandemic, a worsening global economic crisis, and an increasingly far-right political climate, the Black Lives Matter movement has mobilized more people in the United States than ever before and millions more around the world. This past summer, the movement spread to all corners of the world, including the Nordic countries. Black activists in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland mobilized and organized protests not only to show solidarity with Black Americans but also to highlight anti-Black state violence and structural racism in the Nordics. This has brought anti-Black racism into mainstream debates and served as a reminder of the relevance of the Black Lives Matter-movement for the Nordic countries. Behind much of this work – just as with the Black Lives Matter-movement in the U.S. – are Black (queer) women. Yet at the same time, the violence against Black women and trans* people, as well as Black women’s leadership in antiracist and feminist movements, continue to be overlooked. -
Dagbok från Brasilien: Fascismen utifrån och inifrån - Patricia Lorenzoni, researcher at CEMFOR
Diary from Brazil Fascism from the outside and inside (The book is in Swedish).
Under de gångna månadernas globala pandemi har Brasilien blivit en bild av politiskt kaos och ständigt stigande dödstal. Hur kunde det bli så i ett land som för bara tio år sedan ännu andades politiskt hopp och ekonomiska framsteg? Våren 2019, under Bolsonaros första månader som president, är Patricia Lorenzoni i Brasilien. -
May-Britt Öhman forskare på CEMFOR – Sveriges koloniala teknik och återvinnande av samisk identitet: Intervju vid Antirasistiska Akademin (ARA)
May-Britt Öhman researcher at CEMFOR - Sweden's colonial technology and recovery of Sami identity: Interview at the Anti-Racist Academy (Antirasistiska Akademin, ARA). The interview is in Swedish.
I denna intervju har May-Britt Öhman ett samtal med Adrián Groglopo om den koloniala situation som Samerna genomgått i Sverige. Utifrån en berättarteknik om egna minnen och upplevelser om vad som kännetecknar den koloniala situationen för samerna, berättar May-Britt om sin uppväxt i en tystnad om samisk bakgrund och kulturarv. -
Petition from Researchers Regarding the Fires in Moria, Lesvos
Following the fires that have burnt the Moria camp in Lesvos to the ground, we want to express our deepest concern with the developments in the Greek Aegean Islands over the past couple of years. We would also like to point out that the fires in Moria should be seen not as an isolated incident but rather as a direct consequence of the EU’s migration and border policies.
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"0,01%: Genetik, ras och åtskillnadens metodologi" - Article in Fronesis by Daniel Strand
"0.01%: Genetics, race and the methodology of differentiation". Over the last century, genetics has had a problematic relationship with the question of human "races."
The article is available in Swedish here -
Publication - "Shame on the church of Sweden’: Radical nationalism and the appropriation of Christianity in contemporary Sweden”
"Shame on the church of Sweden’: Radical nationalism and the appropriation of Christianity in contemporary Sweden”, by Per-Erik Nilsson, in Critical Research on Religion (SAGE).
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Publication: "French Populism and Discourses on Secularism",
"French Populism and Discourses on Secularism", by Per-Erik Nilsson, and Published by Bloomsbury.
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Publication: “Burka Songs 2.0: The Discourse on Islamic Terrorism and the Politics of Extremization in Sweden”
“Burka Songs 2.0: The Discourse on Islamic Terrorism and the Politics of Extremization in Sweden”, in Journal of Religion and Violence, by Per-Erik Nilsson, associate Professor in Sociology of Religion and as director and senior researcher at the Center for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism (CEMFOR).
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”Rasismen fanns innan rasbiologin” - Intervju med Professor Mattias Gardell at EXPO
"Racism existed before race biology" - Interview with Professor Mattias Gardell, EXPO.
Vad säger forskningen? Rasism är ett system som sorterar människor och ger dem olika status och möjligheter. Denna maktordning har funnits i drygt 500 år, långt innan idén om biologisk rasism dök upp. Det säger professorn Mattias Gardell. -
Lynchningar av svarta var ett offentligt folknöje - Aftonbladet Kultur by Professor *Mattias Gardell, CEMFOR
Mattias Gardell writes about America's dark history, where lynching has been commonplace since the days of slavery. "Lynchings of blacks were a public pleasure" - Aftonbladet Kultur by Professor Mattias Gardell, CEMFOR
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"Det finns rasism inom den svenska polisen också" - "There is racism within the Swedish police too" Interview at UNT *Jasmine Kelekay, researcher at CEMFOR
"There is racism within the Swedish police too"
Racism within the US police has been a hot topic lately. But according to Jasmine Kelekay, researcher at CEMFOR, racism also exists within the Swedish police. (simultaneous translation into English) -
NEWS! City Walks on the History of Racism in Uppsala
During this fall CEMFOR offers city walks on the history of racism in Uppsala. The purpose of this city walk is to raise awareness of Uppsala's history of racism. We intend to show the global and local history of racism through a selection of places, including the location for the State Institute for Racial Biology and which effects its activities have had for the development of racism worldwide.
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"Jämlikhetsdata laddad fråga inom Akademin" - Professor Irene Molina ger sin syn på saken i Tidningen Curie
Vid Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism (CEMFOR), Uppsala universitet, har forskare kartlagt afrosvenskars situation på arbetsmarknaden genom att utgå från folkbokföringsregistret.
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ENTREVISTA A SHAHRAM KHOSRAVI "Son las fronteras las que empujan a la gente hacia una ilegalidad forzada"
El antropólogo Shahram Khosravi habla con 'Público' sobre la realidad de la migración y sobre la desigualdad que esconden las fronteras militarizadas de Europa.
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Religionsprofessorn, Vetenskaplig ledare för CEMFOR, Mattias Gardell intervjuas i SVT: ”Finns en framväxande antimuslimsk rasism”
SVT - Religionsprofessorn: ”Finns en framväxande antimuslimsk rasism”
Publicerad 8 februari 2019 -
The Literature Festival will be returning in March - Professor Mattias Gardell from CEMFOR is one of the Authors who visit the festival in March 30-31 Uppsala/UNT.
Maja Lee Langvald, Carsten Jensen, Lone Aburas, Lev Rubenstein, Iman Mersal, Burcu Sahin and Mattias Gardell are some of the authors who visit the festival from 30 to 31 March. Cultural-critical voices from Denmark and meetings with five of Egypt's most important female poets are one of the things that visitors can expect. Uppsala Nya Tidning (UNT) 2019-01-25.For more information in UNT is available in Swedish here -
"Inbilla dig inte att du vet något om muslimer". The researcher Mehek Muftee reviews 3 books - Sydsvenskan Kultur
"Inbilla dig inte att du vet något om muslimer" ("Don't imagine that you know anything about Muslims"), Sydsvenskan Kultur/21 januari 2019.
The entire review can be read in Sydsvenskan, the Swedish newspaper here.
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"The president who symbolizes the revenge of the privileged" Patricia Lorenzoni, DN Kultur
Presidenten som symboliserar de privilegierades revansch Patricia Lorenzoni, DN Kultur 2019-01-03. ("The president who symbolizes the revenge of the privileged").
"Mönstret blir tydligt. Bolsonaros starkaste fästen finns dels i de förhållandevis välmående delarna av landet, dels i de områden som med järnhand styrs av storgodsen. Den nya auktoritära högern i Brasilien är inte någon folklig missnöjesyttring. Den är de privilegierades revansch. Bedriften ligger i att ha lyckats kanalisera en mer allmän politisk vanmakt för att direkt tjäna de privilegierades intressen".
The text is in swedish and the whole can be read here
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Stolen Time - Shahram Khosravi Radical Philosophy
The most remarkable reason for deportation I have seen is from 1914, when a Russian Jew was deported from Sweden after six years. A short sentence in the police report, explaining why he should be deported, reads: ‘He was a bad shoemaker.’ It was not enough to be a labourer; one had to be a good labourer. In the same year, two other Russian Jews were deported because one lacked ‘a sense of rightness’ and the other one had ‘venereal diseases’. 1 The religious undertones concerning chastity, virtue and the Protestant work ethic that were used to justify deportation of these three men are obvious. Almost a century later I witnessed how the Protestant ethic was also used to rationalise rejection of an asylum seeker. In 2007 I accompanied a young man who had been living in Sweden without a residence permit for a period of several months to a meeting with a lawyer to formulate an asylum claim. I helped with translation. The lawyer asked what he would say if the authorities asked why he had not sought asylum when he had arrived in Sweden several months earlier. The young man said he would lie and say that he just arrived. The lawyer got upset and said: ‘We in this country are Protestant, and we do not lie.’ The man was later deported.
Read more here
Image: Shahram Khosravi, Idomeni railway station (2018). -
Mattias Gardell and Mehek Muftee, Researchers from CEMFOR on "Human Rights Days 2018", 16-17 November
Mattias Gardell and Mehek Muftee, Researchers from CEMFOR on Human Rights Days 2018, 16-17 November, during the following seminars:
1. Moskéers utsatthet i Sverige (The Vulnerability and Safety of Mosques and Muslim Congregations in Sweden 2018) The report can be downloaded here or here
Mattias Gardell, Mohammed Temsamani, Tanja Viklund
Friday 16/11, 12:30 - 13:00 Stora scen
Myndigheten för stöd till trossamfund2. Ny rapport om vertikal och horisontell segregation på arbetsmarknaden (New report on vertical and horizontal segregation in the labor market).
Mattias gardell, Sima Wolgast
Friday 16/11, 13:00 - 14:00 C6
Länsstyrelsen i Stockholms län - CEMFOR Uppsala universitet3. Kärlek som blir våld – om radikalnationalism och hatet mot muslimer (Love that becomes violence - about radical nationalism and hatred against Muslims).
Mattias Gardell, Patrik Hermansson
Saturday 17/11, 11:30 - 12:30 T1
Mänskliga rättighetsdagarna och Föreningen Ordfront4. Hate, threats and violence - A Muslim woman's everyday life
Hajar El Jahidi, Kadidja Bedoui, Mehek Muftee
Saturday 17/11, 13:00 - 14:00 C7
Ibn Rushd Studieförbund -
"Lyfter politikens påverkan på Skogsamernas situation" - Arkeologen och forskaren Gunilla Larsson (CEMFOR) Sameradion & SVT Sápmi
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Vardagsrasism - SR Karlavagnen - Intervju med Professor Irene Molina CEMFOR
Hur är det att bli utsatt för vardagsrasism? Professor Irene Molina medverkar och kommenterar utifrån forskningen. Lyssna här
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CEMFOR before the election
On Sunday 9th of September the parliamentary election takes place in Sweden. Before the election day is due, Irene Molina from CEMFOR gives a lecture at Folkets Husby on housing policy and segregation.
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New survey: The Vulnerability and Safety of Mosques and Muslim Congregations in Sweden 2018
The Vulnerability and Safety of Mosques and Muslim Congregations in Sweden 2018. A new empirical study about Muslim congregations' exposure to physical attacks, threats and intimidation, based on a survey on 106 Muslim congregations in Sweden.
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New edition of Unveiling the French Republic by Per-Erik Nilsson
A second edition is released in October 2018.
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Video recordings from our seminars at Almedalen
On the 6th and 7th of July, CEMFOR participated in the annual Almedalen Political Week with a program consisting of public seminars and lectures on several relevant topics. Our researchers, alongside panelists with wide-ranging expertise, discussed critical aspects of today’s political situation in relation to racism.
You can watch our seminars and lectures from Almedalen 2018 by clicking the headlines. (All in Swedish speech)
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"An assault on Swedish democracy: Threats and violence targeting Muslim congregations is an issue of human rights and democracy", writes Mattias Gardell in Aftonbladet
Attacks on mosques and Muslim communities are attacks on fundamental human rights and the constitutional law that upholds the Swedish government.