Abstract
This Special Issue is the culmination of the Diversity, Inclusivity, Multi-Disciplinarity in European Studies (DIMES) project, undertaken under the aegis of the University Association of European Studies (UACES). DIMES was initiated in recognition of the under-representation (broadly conceived) of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) academics and to address the over-representation of Western European and North American scholars and knowledge production within UACES and European Studies more generally. This introduction to the issue establishes the context for the contributions that follow. It outlines the ways in which DIMES sought to address the lack of inclusivity in European Studies, and speak also to the further aim of DIMES, the extension of the disciplinary focus of European Studies. Here, then we introduce the contributions to this special issue, which are representative of some of the many conversations held over four years with a wide range of scholars, all committed disrupting of European Studies, albeit through different means. We argue that debates about decentring, about decolonising, on the need to acknowledge the privilege and Eurocentricity that continues to dominate knowledge production traditions are pertinent for European Studies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 151-162 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Contemporary European Research |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 24 Aug 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The DIMES Project and this special issue were made possible with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union (Grant No: 612072-EPP-1-2019-1-UK-EPPJMO-PROJECT). As academic coordinators we are most grateful to the University Association of European Studies (UACES) for the DIMES initiative, without UACES, and especially the leadership of its Executive Director, Emily Linnemann, DIMES and this special issue would not exist. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Institute for History, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University, Netherlands for hosting the DIMES opening conference. Additionally, we are grateful to the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa and the European Studies Association of Sub-Saharan Africa for hosting the DIMES closing conference, and in particular Victoria Graham. Finally, we thank all the participants of DIMES, especially the contributors to this special issue.
Funding Information:
In 2019, UACES and the European Studies Association of Sub-Saharan Africa (ESA-SSA) launched a project funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus Plus Jean Monnet Projects. The aim of the programme was to encourage and promote diversity within European Studies - broadly defined. The project, ‘Diversity, Inclusion and Multidisciplinarity in European Studies’ (DIMES) sought to explore ways to increase diversity within the field of European Studies, in particular with regards to the ethnicity, disciplinary focus, geographical location of its participants and eventually knowledge production within European Studies itself. The outlined aims of the project were threefold: 1) to improve the representation of BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of colour) academics within UACES and European studies more generally; 2) to move away from the emphasis on Western European and North American academics towards greater inclusion for scholars from under-represented, even marginalised geographies; 3) to broaden the disciplinary focus of contemporary European Studies to include adjacent/related disciplines such as anthropology, human geography, cultural studies and sociology.
Keywords
- (Multi-) Disciplinarity
- Decentring
- Decolonisation
- Disruption
- Diversity
- European Studies
- Inclusivity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Political Science and International Relations