The Importance of Allyship and Empowerment in the Decolonization of Research Partnerships – A Workshop

Organiser: Danielle Isler (University of Bayreuth)

The saying 'Silence is Violence' has been around at least since the second Black Lives Matter wave in 2020. Inaction in the face of racism can be just as bad as effectively perpetrating racism. Failure to actions in certain situations are not as harmless as they seem. This is demonstrated, for example, by the fact that the Swiss Penal Code lists several crimes of omission. When people who identify as White remain inactive in the face of racism, it is often because they do not know how exactly to respond, in other words how to be allies. This workshop focuses on allyship an empowerment of BIPoC* in research partnerships. It begins with a theoretical section about the historicity of racism and follows with exercises on allyship and empowerment.

*BiPoC is an acronym that stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The term PoC includes all people who are not White and are affected by racism.