Keynote lecture (W+iGS Conference 2026): Sultan Doughan (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Sultan Doughan (Goldsmiths, University of London) presents a keynote lecture as part of the Women+ in German Studies annual conference. The lecture is free and open to all (advance registration required).

Closed Doors – On Citizenship Denial in Germany

Germany has long been praised for its national transformation from fascism to a unified liberal democracy. Central to this trajectory of transformation is the role of the Holocaust, how it has been memorialized, commemorated and mobilized in protecting Jewish life. But the politics of Holocaust memory is not simply an anti-racist act towards minorities in a multicultural society. Instead, the politics of Holocaust memory works as a technology of secular governance aimed at producing, disciplining and at times socially lynching “Muslim subjects.” Taking the notion of the Muslim subject as a racial category, this talk argues that the politics of Holocaust memory enables citizenship denial, especially with regards to Palestinian experiences of violence. Based on ethnographic research across Germany, this talk follows the notion of “closed doors,” in order to account for how the denial of citizenship exacerbates racial hierarchies, especially when it comes to injury and victimhood.