Online Lecture by Dr Aaron Teo: Producing Race in the University

Event in Englisch via Zoom: https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/65446136205?pwd=SplvihwJbCtaKvdeRHfMtlIpJfOQ1A.1 (Meeting-ID: 654 4613 6205, Kenncode: 88002724)

Dr. Aaron Teo (University of Southern Queensland, Australia)
“Producing Race in the University: Asian Racialisation, Whiteness, and the Pedagogical Politics of Cultural Studies” – Presentation and discussion

This talk examines how contemporary cultural studies is shaped by institutional and political pressures while simultaneously confronting demands for engaged public pedagogies. Focusing on the racialisation of settler colonial Asian identities and the insights of critical whiteness theory, it explores how universities function as sites where knowledge about race is both produced and regulated. The talk considers how Asian racialisation has been alternately hypervisible and marginalised within Western academic discourse, particularly in moments of geopolitical tension and anti-Asian racism. It then draws on critical whiteness studies to interrogate how institutional norms reproduce racial hierarchies prejudicial to this racialised group through curriculum design, hiring and promotion practices, and standards of “neutral” scholarship. At the same time, the talk addresses how these tensions articulate in academic insularity and public scholarship, asking whether cultural studies can offer meaningful lessons in broader debates on race without/in spite of being constrained by institutional and political backlash. In so doing, it argues for continued attention to cultural studies as a reflexive, publicly engaged field attentive to pedagogies of power, representation, and institutional accountability.

The event is part of the lecture series "Collective Responsibility: Racism (and Criticism of It) in Higher Education" in summer semester 2026. 

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