Attendance at the 28th Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) at Columbia University in New York

Researchers of the Peace Institute Dr. Veronika Bajt and Dr. Ana Frank attended the 28th Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) at Columbia University in New York, 16-18 May 2024. In addition to scientific discussions on 140 different panels, 515 participants from 40 countries could choose between watching 6 documentaries and presentations of 20 monographs.

At the conference Ana Frank and Veronika Bajt presented the paper on Hate speech, nationalism, migration, and gender in Slovenia, which delves into the intricate nexus between racism, nationalism, and gender in contemporary discourse surrounding migration, particularly focusing on hate speech and exclusionary practices. By drawing on empirical evidence from Slovenia, it explores the positioning of migrant women and men within host societies and examines the sexist appropriations of migrants as Dangerous Others. The study reveals how the construction of national identity intersects with processes of racism and sexism, perpetuating exclusionary nationalist ideologies and practices against migrants.

The conference took place at the Harriman Institute and in a tense atmosphere of the closed campus of the Columbia University, where the participants had no access due to increased security measures. These are a direct consequence of the April events, when dozens of students occupied the faculty building, as the university had previously begun to expel students who refused to remove the tents they had erected on the New York campus in protest against the university’s cooperation with Israel. This was followed by a violent reaction by the police, who arrested dozens of students and used tear gas against the protesters. In New York, support for Israel is apparent in the form of jumbo posters and slogans, which is not surprising given that, according to the 2021 census, immediately after people of “Northern European descent”, Jews are the second largest group in terms of “ethnic origins”. Some streets in Manhattan are full of freshly printed posters portraying Israeli victims and missing individuals. They appear again and again every morning, with the words “the person who tore this poster supports the MURDER, RAPE and MUTILATION of Jews” pasted on the torn ones. The passer-by is presented with an image of a well-funded propaganda operation with no room for any other perspective on the bloody reality.

The project “Hate speech in contemporary conceptualizations of nationalism, racism, gender and migration” analyses precisely how a rise in xenophobia and hate speech has become apparent, and sees countless daily manifestations of racist hate speech and nationalist prejudice as a reminder of the continuing importance of racism and nationalism as social and political force in the contemporary global environment, as they remain a vibrant influence on current social and political movements and state policies.