Bolaji Balogun

Profile

Having completed Master’s degree in Literature, Culture and Modernity in 2011 at the University of Salford, and worked in different roles at Pearson Education and Manchester Metropolitan University, I now pursue a research degree in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. I currently hold The Leverhulme Trust award as a Visiting Scholar at the Department of European Studies, Krakow University of Economics, Poland, where I collaborate with Dr. Konrad Pedziwiatr (External Supervisor). I am a student member of Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies at the University of Leeds, England.

Research Interests

Although Anti-Black racism is at the heart of my doctoral research, my research interests broadly involve race, whiteness, and Polishness.

Teaching Experience

Whilst completing my doctoral degree in Leeds, I have been involved in seminars and currently teach undergraduate classes at the Department of European Studies, Krakow University of Economics in Poland.

Publications

Journal Articles

Balogun, B. (2017) ‘Polish Lebensraum: The Colonial Ambition to Expand on Racial terms’, Ethnic and Racial Studies. 1-19. doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1392028

Balogun, B. (2017) ‘Call for multi-ethnic citizenship in Poland’, Baltic Worlds, Vol. X: 4, pp. 112-115.

Balogun, B. (2016) ‘Poland to clamp down on anti-Semitism: HOW ABOUT ANTI-OTHERNESS?’, Baltic Worlds, Vol. IX: 4, pp. 89-90. 

Selected Online Publications

Balogun, B. (2018) ‘Poland: rewarded with un security council membership whilst flirting with racism and nationalism’, Discover Society, Issue DS54, 06/03/2018. 

Balogun, B. & Narkowicz, K. (2017) ‘What motivated the 60,000 people who joined the far-right Polish Independence March?’, openDemocarcy.

Balogun, B. (2016) ‘Contemporary Polish Racism: The Development of Neo-Communism?’, Discover Society, Issue 38, 02/11/2016.  

Selected Report

Balogun, B. & Pedziwiatr, K. (2018) ‘Sub-Saharan Africans in contemporary Poland: profile of an emerging minority’, Minority Rights Group International (forthcoming).

Selected Invited Presentations

Balogun, B. (2018) ‘Poland, Blackness and Racialization’. Department of European Studies, Krakow University of Economics, April (Invited presentation).

Balogun, B. (2017) ‘Rethinking Polish Coloniality’. Department of European Studies University of Economics in Krakow, May (Invited presentation).

Selected Conference Papers

Balogun, B. (2018) ‘Unpacking Polish/European Expulsionist logic’. Youth and experience. diagnosis, strategies and public policies focused on social inclusion of different generations, June, Department of Sociology, Krakow University of Economics

Balogun, B. (2017) ‘Borders and Boundaries: Theorising the Impact of Negrophobia and Anti- Blackness in Poland’. ESSL Graduate School Conference 2017 – Shape Your World, March, University of Leeds, UK.

Balogun, B. (2016) ‘Polishness and Whiteness: Narratives of Anti-Blackness and Anti-Islam in Poland’. Policing, Race and Legitimacy Symposium, May, University of Sheffield, UK.

Balogun, B. (2016) ‘Islamophobia, Catholicism and Whiteness’. Nationalism and Xenophobia: International Interdisciplinary Conference, March, University of Gdansk, Poland.

Balogun, B. (2016) ‘Catholicism and Whiteness in Poland’. ESSL Postgraduate Research Conference 2016 - Challenging Inequalities Globally, March, University of Leeds, UK.

Balogun, B. (2015) ‘Ant-Semitism, Anti-Gypsyism and Anti-Muslimism: Catalyst for Anti-Blackness in Poland’ (Poster). The 8th Manchester Metropolitan University Postgraduate Research Conference, November, Manchester, UK.

Research interests

Whilst extensive studies have been carried out on Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism and Anti-Roma in Poland, to date, Anti-Black racism has received little or no attention in the research literature and shows a paucity of evidence in this area. My research identifies the need for a body of literature that recognizes the effect of Anti-Black racism that could be used to read Racism and Racialization in Post-Communist Poland. Although blackness is often used in different ways to depict Africa, in this study, the preconception of blackness is studied primarily in relation to the treatment and lived experiences of people from sub-Saharan Africa, who are usually described as dark-skinned people in comparison to other populations in Poland. By seeking an insight into the lived experiences of the people of sub-Saharan African descent in Warsaw, Krakow, and Lodz, the central focus of my research is to find the meaning linked to the problem of being black in Poland and the processes that show how the black people are dealing with the problem.

My study highlights how Racialization and Nation-building go hand in hand; how the Polish state and Catholicism project themselves on the Polish population: majority versus minority rights and the fundamental understanding of how racism articulates with contemporary dynamics of Europeanization and contemporary formation of nations. My thesis examines hierarchy of whiteness; the way the Polish state constructs itself as a nation; the way the state constructs its religion as a fabric of national identity; and Polishness as a superior identity. The importance of my research helps to build more systematic theory of global racialization; opportunity to rethink and reshape global racialization in both Communist and Post-Communist contexts that have been ignored in the critical race theory.