West-Adjacent, White-Adjacent: Central Europe and Japan in the Racial Hierarchies of the West
Fri 29 May
|Room TBD, Building 19, Waseda University
This talk presents Professor Kalmar’s analysis of Central Europe’s illiberal turn and extends it to consider parallels with Japan in terms of racial hierarchy and global positioning. IN-PERSON ONLY
Date and Venue
29 May 2026, 15:05 – 16:45 GMT+9
Room TBD, Building 19, Waseda University, Japan, 〒169-0051 Tokyo, Shinjuku City, Nishiwaseda, 1-chōme−21−１ 早稲田大学 西早稲田ビルディング
About the Event
Speaker:
Ivan Kalmar is Professor of Anthropology and a faculty member of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto. His book, White But Not Quite: Central Europe's Illiberal Revolt (Bristol University Press, 2022), has been translated to several languages, including Japanese (白人になれない白人たち, Sairyusha 2025). His earlier books include Orientalism and the Jews (University Press of New England, 2005, co-edited with Derek Penslar), Early Orientalism: Imagined Islam and the Notion of Sublime Power (Routledge, 2012), and Racism in Germany: Islamophobia East and West (Routledge, 2022, co-edited with Nitzan Shoshan). Kalmar has recently co-edited a special issue on “Race and Racialization in the East of the European Union” (Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2023). He is currently guest-editing and contributing to a special issue of Comparative European Politics on illiberalism and peripheralization, as well as a special issue of Nationalities Papers on the notion of “Central Europe”.