In an era of increasing uncertainty and polarization between far-right populism and anti-racist work, how can we critically re-imagine identity and belonging? What are the analytical tools available to us, in understanding the classificatory politics of identity when the basis of social location are shifting?

In Trans, Rogers Brubaker (2016) demonstrates how gender and race, both seen as stable identity categories, are becoming much more fluid and ambiguous, with possibilities for movement across categories. What happens when we view identity as fluid? What are the social policy implications of such fluid identity formulations? How does it change who gets to count as a minority and how their membership is defined? How can we tackle head on, micro fascisms within feminism, anti-racist work and LTBG groups that hold onto biological formulations of gender and race, exclude trans and mixed-race voices? What are the potential benefits and pitfalls of identity politics in pushing for a more inclusive sociology of race and ethnicity?

Unsettled Identities is an intersectional one-day conference hosted by the Migration Ethnicity Race and Belonging (MERB) research cluster and Student Success project at SSPSSR, Kent, and seeks to challenge and unravel some of the taken for granted categories through which we understand identity and belonging.