I International Conference Black Spain and Black Europe
November 13th-14th, 2025
Barcelona, IMF-CSIC (hybrid)
The main objective of this event is the critical examination of the presence and radical and creative action of racialised communities of African, Maghrebi, Caribbean and Latin(x) ancestry in the context of the Spanish State as well as in other Southern European countries from the 19th century until the present time. Our aim is to critically examine memories and experiences that discuss and promote an expanded approach to contemporary history based on orality, archival practices, and creative work (including, but not limited to, visual, literary, sonic and cinematic practices). Our approach is fundamentally based on Post/Decolonial Studies and Methodologies, although other theoretical and methodological perspectives are not excluded. The adopted temporary framework is designed to trace how black individuals and collectivities have been pivotal in the process of articulating far-reaching debates on labor, belonging, precariousness, and structural (in)equalities in past and present times.
Ultimately, with this event we intend to offer an attentive, nuanced and comprehensive perspective that could contribute to the documentation and dissemination of African, Latino, Caribbean, and North African memories and legacies, addressing the urgency of bringing into circulation a past of Black-European traces that remain largely unknown and understudied in Southern Europe. Additionally, we seek to foster comparative perspectives addressing less studied areas, ultimately opening new avenues for the study of Black presence in Europe.
The Conference will comprise of three large thematic areas:
- Migration, political dissidence and placemaking.
- Racialised creativity, collective self-definition and radical sociality.
- Inequalities and intersectionality between racial rhetorics, considered from a diachronic perspective.
Coordination: Yolanda Aixelà-Cabré (IMF-CSIC), Carlos Garrido-Castellano (University College Cork/University of Johannesburg) and Mar Garcia (UAB).
Applicants are requested to send an abstract (between 500 and 1200 words) in English, Portuguese and any of the official languages of the Spanish State, and a short bio of 100 words to hispanicafricanmemories@gmail.com, no later than July 12th, 2025. A maximum of 30 contributions will be selected.
Participants will engage in a two-days event involving presentations, discussion and collaborative workshops. Selected papers will be communicated September 19th, 2025.
The call is open to themed panels and roundtables including a maximum of 3 participants. The final programme will be announced first October 2025. Inscription and participation in the event will be free, but participants are responsible for their expenses and travel costs.
Organizing Committee: Carla Almanza-Gálvez (UCC), Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel (Pen Català, Barcelona), Fernanda Barini Camargo (UCC), Nuria Fernández-Moreno (UNED Madrid), Jordi Moreras (URV, Tarragona), Ana Lúcia Sá (ISCTE-IUL, Lisboa).
Conference organized by:
- R+D Project «Africans, Maghrebis and Latins (1808-1975). Blackness, resistance and deracialization of elites» (BLACK SPAIN) (PID2022-136282NB-I00), funded by MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and «FEDER Una manera de hacer Europa».
- «Assessing the Contemporary Art Novel in Spanish and Portuguese: Cultural Labour, Personal Identification and the Materialisation of Alternative Art Worlds» (ARTFICTIONS) (Irish Research Council Laureate Consolidator Programme, IRCLA/2022/3890).
