Serious shortcomings in racism research in Germany

Prof. Dr. Stefan Ouma concludes: "The results of the WinRa report clearly show that, despite its social urgency, racism research in Germany still has far too weak an institutional footing. We need professorships, degree programmes and a reliable funding structure to secure and further develop research in the long term. Only in this way can we close the existing research gaps and contribute to making racist inequalities visible in all their facets and overcoming them."

Structural deficits

Of the more than 52,000 professorships in Germany, only three currently have an explicit denomination in the field of racism research. There are no independent degree programmes; racism research is usually only treated as a marginal aspect of other disciplines. Research funding also remains precarious and event-driven: During the period under review, only 173 third-party-funded projects were identified. After a significant increase in 2022 and 2023, the number fell dramatically again in 2024 – an indication of a lack of sustainability. In addition, there is a lack of priority programmes or special research areas of the DFG that explicitly deal with racism research.

Research gaps

The report makes it clear that key dimensions of racist inequality have not yet been adequately addressed. For example, there is a lack of systematic analyses of discriminatory mechanisms in the housing market, as well as studies on segregation, access and opportunities for advancement in the labour market. In the health system, too, the recording of structural discrimination and the experiences of medical staff has been insufficient to date. The institutional practices of the police and the consequences of racism-related trauma are severely underrepresented. In addition, there is a lack of research on language-related exclusion and inclusion, racism in sport, and the links between racism and climate and environmental justice. Particularly serious is the almost complete lack of research in the field of technological consequences and AI, even though there are known risks of bias here, i.e. the danger that artificial intelligence will reinforce prejudices and produce discriminatory results due to one-sided or distorted data."

Recommendations for action

In order to establish racism research on a permanent basis, WinRa calls for the consolidation of the funding architecture through independent funding guidelines and the establishment of priority programmes and special research areas by the DFG. In addition, there is a need for structural expansion at universities with professorships and independent courses of study on the critique of racism. It is equally important to anchor these topics in the curricula of key disciplines such as teacher training, medicine, social work and law – in particular through reliable tenure-track models (fixed-term professorships that allow a direct transition to a permanent position upon successful completion of the probationary period). Finally, the next generation of researchers must be secured through targeted support for junior research groups in order to retain academic staff in the long term.

The full report is now available at the following link: https://www.winra.org/aktuelles/neuer-winra-bericht-bestandsaufnahme-zur-situation-der-rassismusforschung-in-deutschland-2015-2025