This talk examines Charles Mill’s ‘racial contract’ theory in a different context to its usual applications in the West. In doing so, the theory is opened to a new global application, able to re-centre understudied questions of race in Central and Eastern Europe. To make this effective, the discussion reflects on the Polish polity that is often considered race-neutral in terms of its social configuration. The discussion considers the ways in which the ‘racial contract’ serves as a proxy for ‘whiteness contract’ through three major manifestations – Economics, Colonial association, and Eugenics – that are often overlooked from mainstream political and cultural discourses in Central and Eastern Europe. To this end, I attempt to redirect ‘racial contract’ theory beyond the normative liberal Western hegemony, showing that Mills’ concept has not been marginal to the histories of race and racism in the West.

Lukas Szulc will be joining this seminar as a Discussant.

Bolaji Balogun is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Sheffield. He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Leeds and previously held a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Fellow at Krakow University of Economics, Poland, where he was a lecturer at the Department of European Studies. Bolaji’s research focuses on Blackness, Race, and Racialisation in Central and Eastern Europe, and his academic works have appeared in prestigious journals such as Ethnic and Racial Studies and The Sociological Review.

Lukasz Szulc is a Lecturer in Digital Media and Society in the Department of Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield and co-chair of the LGBTQ Studies Interest Group in the International Communication Association. His interests include cultural and critical studies of media and identity at the intersections of gender, sexuality and transnationalism. Lukasz has recently published the report Queer #PolesinUK: Identity, Migration and Social Media (2019) and the book Transnational Homosexuals in Communist Poland: Cross-Border Flows in Gay and Lesbian Magazines (2018). He has published articles in such journals as Communication Theory, New Media & Society, Social Media + Society and Sexualities. He tweets from @LukaszSzulc.