Seminar series ‘Critical Approaches to Race – CAR’, coorganised by ULB (REPI, GERME, LAMC, AIDS and Sexualities Observatory) and VUB (BIRMM). Coordination: Leila Mouhib, REPI, Professor at Science Po ULB.
The Critical Approaches to Race (CAR) lecture series was created in 2021 with the ambition to offer an academic space for young researchers in which to present their work, whether in progress or completed, and enrich their reflections. The CAR seminar invites to an approach combining decolonial and postcolonial theories and Critical Race Theory through the questioning of phenomena linked to race and racism in different contexts.
This is the first university seminar organized in Belgium on Critical Race Theories, a mainly English-speaking multidisciplinary field of study aimed at analyzing not only the forms of racialization and racism in human societies (Western and non-Western), but also the forms of subjectification that racialized people resort to in the face of racialization.
For the year 2025-2026, VUB and ULB have joined forces to make the CAR seminar a central space for academic exchanges on the racial question in Belgium around the presentation and discussion of scientific research, mainly carried out by doctoral and postdoctoral students but also by experienced academics, coming from Belgium and abroad.
The CAR seminar is open to all and will occur monthly between September 2025 and June 2026.
2025-2006 Programme
Programme 2025-2026
Session d'ouverture | 24 SEP 2025 ULB - Pianofabriek, Rue du Fort 35, Saint-Gilles
Titre : Diffusion de “Tout contact laisse une trace” (ZinTV 2024) suivie d’une discussion
23 OCT 2025 - ULB Solbosch Campus (meet at the picket line)
Teach-out for Palestine
Amit PUNI | 13 NOV 2025 - ULB, bâtiment S, 12e étage, salle Rokkan
Title: “British Indian Educational Success: A Critical Race Theory counter-story to the Rishi Sunak celebration of racial triumph”
Eline MESTDAGH | 4 DEC 2025 - VUB, BsoG, Pleinlaan 5, -1 floor, room Lisbon/Rome
Title: “Registers of Dissent. Mobilizing Memory for Racial Justice in Belgium’s ‘Decolonial Moment’ (2010-2021)”
Thamy AYOUCH | 26 JAN 2026 - ULB, bâtiment S, 12e étage, salle Rokkan
Titre: "La race sur le divan: perspectives intersectionnelles"
Amal MIRI | 12 FEB 2026 - VUB, BsoG, Pleinlaan 5, -1 floor, room Lisbon/Rome
Title: “Blurring Ethnic and Cultural Boundaries: Narratives of Migrantised Artists and Producers in the Cultural Scene in Flanders””
Shanshan LAN | MAR 2026 - ULB, bâtiment S, 12e étage, salle Rokkan
Title: “’I don’t know how to be submissive!’: racial privilege, gender predicament and shifting positionality among white western women married to Chinese men”
Sarah GERWENS |23 APR 2026 - VUB, BsoG, Pleinlaan 5, -1 floor, room Lisbon/Rome
Title: “The Postracial Discursive Contract: Complicity and Collaboration in the (un)hearing of race”
Sophie-Marie NIANG | 7 MAY 2026 - ULB, bâtiment S, 12e étage, salle Rokkan
Titre: “Repenser l’Hexagone dans la production culturelle noire contemporaine”
Amalia DE ROOVER | 11 JUN 2026 - VUB, BsoG, Pleinlaan 5, -1 floor, room Lisbon/Rome
Titlez: “The Role of DEI Policies in Reducing the Ethnic Gap in Higher Education”
This is the first university seminar organized in Belgium on Critical Race Theories, a mainly English-speaking multidisciplinary field of study aimed at analyzing not only the forms of racialization and racism in human societies (Western and non-Western), but also the forms of subjectification that racialized people resort to in the face of racialization.
For the year 2025-2026, VUB and ULB have joined forces to make the CAR seminar a central space for academic exchanges on the racial question in Belgium around the presentation and discussion of scientific research, mainly carried out by doctoral and postdoctoral students but also by experienced academics, coming from Belgium and abroad.
The CAR seminar is open to all and will occur monthly between September 2025 and June 2026.
2025-2006 Programme
Programme 2025-2026
Session d'ouverture | 24 SEP 2025 ULB - Pianofabriek, Rue du Fort 35, Saint-Gilles
Titre : Diffusion de “Tout contact laisse une trace” (ZinTV 2024) suivie d’une discussion
23 OCT 2025 - ULB Solbosch Campus (meet at the picket line)
Teach-out for Palestine
Amit PUNI | 13 NOV 2025 - ULB, bâtiment S, 12e étage, salle Rokkan
Title: “British Indian Educational Success: A Critical Race Theory counter-story to the Rishi Sunak celebration of racial triumph”
Eline MESTDAGH | 4 DEC 2025 - VUB, BsoG, Pleinlaan 5, -1 floor, room Lisbon/Rome
Title: “Registers of Dissent. Mobilizing Memory for Racial Justice in Belgium’s ‘Decolonial Moment’ (2010-2021)”
Thamy AYOUCH | 26 JAN 2026 - ULB, bâtiment S, 12e étage, salle Rokkan
Titre: "La race sur le divan: perspectives intersectionnelles"
Amal MIRI | 12 FEB 2026 - VUB, BsoG, Pleinlaan 5, -1 floor, room Lisbon/Rome
Title: “Blurring Ethnic and Cultural Boundaries: Narratives of Migrantised Artists and Producers in the Cultural Scene in Flanders””
Shanshan LAN | MAR 2026 - ULB, bâtiment S, 12e étage, salle Rokkan
Title: “’I don’t know how to be submissive!’: racial privilege, gender predicament and shifting positionality among white western women married to Chinese men”
Sarah GERWENS |23 APR 2026 - VUB, BsoG, Pleinlaan 5, -1 floor, room Lisbon/Rome
Title: “The Postracial Discursive Contract: Complicity and Collaboration in the (un)hearing of race”
Sophie-Marie NIANG | 7 MAY 2026 - ULB, bâtiment S, 12e étage, salle Rokkan
Titre: “Repenser l’Hexagone dans la production culturelle noire contemporaine”
Amalia DE ROOVER | 11 JUN 2026 - VUB, BsoG, Pleinlaan 5, -1 floor, room Lisbon/Rome
Titlez: “The Role of DEI Policies in Reducing the Ethnic Gap in Higher Education”
Updated on November 21, 2025