Closed Session: Center for Intersectional Justice

Closed Session: Center for Intersectional Justice

The Center for Intersectional Justice, an non-profit organization based in Berlin which works on the three fields of research, training and advocacy, making "anti-discrimination and equality policy more inclusive" and addressing "structural inequalities more effectively in Europe" held a workshop on the questions:

How can the network survive the academy? How to overcome challenges by using the resources of the group?

First, CIJ asked the participants for their visions:
the notion of vision was questioned (who is allowed to have a vision? should a vision be general and universal? is vision a elitist product of Western society?) and the use of the term "vision" was critized, since it is widely used by corporations. Suggested was to understand vision as a "day by day practice", to "consider the link between vison and dream" or to use a negative definition (what is not our vision?).

In the second part of the workshop CIJ asked for the obstacles that hinder the realisation of the visions: external obstacles: e.g. imposter syndrom, lack of structures of care, being viewed as representatives of a community, unequal emotional labour burdens, censorship, -isms) and internal obstacles: imprisonment, freedom of movement, terminology, mental health, discrimination/stigmatization, autocensorship, doubt, over-purpose, Stockholm syndrome, tokenism...) (I don’t know the big obstacles of my generation; who are my enemies/allies? What is the playground I can play in or where I cannot.)

One group decided to not add up on the narration of obstacles
Affirmative terms deeply commodified: reinvent the terms in order to express.
To have a "well articulated precise positioning" is necessary to

The workshop concluded with a mediation session, while some participants discussed ...