What started in the US after the murder of George Floyd, has spread into a global movement against different forms of racism and racial violence in many cities across the world. Throughout multiple fields of society, a vast number of individuals and initiatives are working hard on implementing the results of this resurfaced debate into our daily lives.

As an international program devoted to, inter alia, the principles of post-colonialism and feminist theory, the Master’s program “Global Studies: A European Perspective” is host to politically-active students from various backgrounds, many of whom are repeatedly subject to stereotypes and discrimination themselves. For this reason, the needs of marginalized groups and persons and thereby also the current events are of great interest to us. In order to incorporate further changes in our own institute and to help with the continuous effort of creating a safe space for each and everyone in our classrooms, an intersectional working group was founded by some of our students, now working closely together with staff and faculty.

But their commitment is not limited to the area of their own education: One of the initiators of the student working group is Naomi Lwanyaga, certified trainer for the topics of racism and sexism. She conducts workshops and has experience working as a moderator for panel discussions. In collaboration with other actors of the local BIPoC-Community, she took part in the organization of a large demonstration that was held on June 7, 2020 in Leipzig. With about 15.000 participants, they have managed to organize the second largest #BLM-protest in Germany, only outdone by the one held in the capital city. Read her report in the German newspaper TAZ here: https://taz.de/Black-Lives-Matter-Demos/!5689380/