About the school
Autumn School: Invisible Injustices: Combating Structural and Systemic Violence
Structural violence often operates through institutions, social norms, cultural representations, and economic systems, producing inequalities that are frequently normalized or rendered invisible. Understanding these mechanisms is essential for developing effective strategies for social justice, rights protection, and institutional accountability.
The Autumn School on Structural Violence aims to create a collaborative space for early-career researchers, including Master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral students, interested in presenting, exploring, and discussing research projects and lines of inquiry related to structural violence affecting particularly vulnerable groups.
These groups include, among others, racialized and migrant people, women, children, persons with disabilities, and people with dissident identities, whose experiences help illuminate how inequality and violence operate across different social contexts.
The programme encourages interdisciplinary dialogue, bringing together perspectives from law, anthropology, sociology, political science, gender studies, history, philosophy, and related fields, with the aim of fostering academic dialogue, knowledge exchange, and critical reflection on these pressing issues.
Learning objectives:
During the training school, participants will work to:
- Identify and expose structural violence, strengthening the capacity of individuals and communities to resist and respond to the injustices it produces.
- Understand the mechanisms that generate structural violence and analyze their impact on individuals and groups across different social, cultural, and political contexts.
- Examine specific cases of violence affecting particularly vulnerable groups, identifying recurring patterns and exploring effective response strategies.
- Promote critical citizenship from a global perspective, encouraging awareness, advocacy, and engagement in social justice initiatives.
Methodological Approach:
The training school will combine:
- Introductory theoretical sessions on the concept of structural violence and interseccionality
- Case study analyses focusing on different affected groups.
- Research presentations by participating scholars
- Collective discussions and debates on mechanisms for rights protection, legal advocacy, and access to justice.
The programme will also integrate an intersectional perspective, recognising that different systems of oppression—such as racism, sexism, ableism, or discrimination based on identity—often intersect and produce multiple forms of vulnerability.
The course will be offered in a hybrid format, allowing for both in-person and virtual attendance. Although there is the opportunity to participate remotely, in-person attendance will be prioritized. Some sessions may be adapted to a virtual format, but others—such as the field visit or the local culture workshop (including wine tasting)—will not be possible to replicate online due to their nature. With this in mind, we will explore alternative ways to ensure that the virtual experience is as enriching as the in-person one.
Course Evaluation:
To successfully complete the course and obtain the certificate, students will be required to attend at least 80% of the sessions.
Application deadline: 11 October 2026
The Autunm School will be organized from 26-30 October 2026 at the Rovira i Virgili University, Spain.
Mobility and funding opportunities:
We warmly invite members of the Aurora alliance to submit abstracts and participate in the course. Participants from Aurora member universities will have their registration fees fully covered by the School’s organizing committee. Additionally, we recommend checking with your home institution regarding any available mobility funding opportunities (see Aurora alliance registration).
Members of other universities are encouraged to explore mobility grants and funding opportunities available through programmes such as Erasmus+ or Xarxa Vives
This activity is carried out with the support of Aurora and co-funded by the European Union and the Department of Research and Universities of the Government of Catalonia.
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