In spite of a widespread rhetoric of tolerance, our ever increasingly multicultural societies are overrun by racism and bigotry. Discrimination at work, verbal abuse, and harassment are common manifestations of such xenophobic feelings. Physical violence has also been on the rise in most English speaking countries, just as in the rest of the world. Although an effort is made at an institutional level to praise diversity as a source of cultural enrichment, otherness is deemed by many as a threat. The coming conference will endeavour to analyse the manifestations of and reasons for such violent rejections of ethnic difference on the five continents. Such themes as racist crimes, inner cities inter-ethnic clashes, capital punishment and ethnicity (US), colonial violence (Africa, India), genocide (Indians and aborigines), sectarian violence and bigotry (Ireland), antisemitism, incitement to racial crime (through political speeches, on the internet, etc.) could in particular be addressed.

The area covered includes all English speaking countries.
Languages of the conference : French and English.
Deadline for proposals : May 31, 2003.
All the proposals will be examined for approval by the organizing board