Outreach event

Tiedekulma, Yliopistonkatu 4, 00100 Helsinki

How are issues of race, colonization, whiteness and belonging expressed in different languages? How do linguistic and cultural differences inflect the experience of racialized bodies? How does cultural transfer affect the way difference is articulated? What kind of ‘language ideologies’ are at work in the construction and expression of Nordic Whiteness?

In the forthcoming event, we discuss questions of linguistic and cultural differences in the expression and representation of race and whiteness opening up perspectives on the languages and practices of ‘belonging” and their change over time.

Speakers:

• Dr. Elizabeth Peterson (Docent, University Lecturer at the Department of Languages): "Teaching about race and language"
• Dr. Josephine Hoegaerts (Associate Professor, European Studies): "Seasonal blackface: Black Pete, Saint Nick and White Innocence in the Low Countries"
• Dr. Kirsti Salmi-Niklander (Docent, University Lecturer in Folklore Studies): "'How do you know that the spring has come?' The Finns as 'the racialized other' in North American context"

The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion.

The event is part of the multidisciplinary "The “Great White North”? Critical Perspectives on Whiteness in the Nordics and its Neighbours" conference, organised as a joint initiative of the Department of Cultures and Department of Languages at the University of Helsinki, and ReNEW (Reimagining Norden in an Evolving World) research hub.