03/07/2026 17:20 - 19:30

HALL: Pola - A206b

Contact: Van Den Brandt N.

Chair: Moyaert M.

Over recent decades, the understanding and study of mixed couples, families, and unions in Europe has gained even more increasing attention, not only in the social sciences, but also in contemporary politics (Cerchiaro and Odasso 2021). Despite this growing interest, there remains a gap in comprehensive scholarship that addresses the nuanced experiences of mixedness and mixed relationships—those formed by individuals of differing racial, ethnic, or religious backgrounds—in a postcolonial European context (Collet 2017). This panel seeks to fill this gap by offering detailed accounts of how those in mixed unions navigate and reshape their relations, identities, and social expectations in contemporary Europe. Using "mixedness" as a multidimensional, contingent, context-dependent, relational, and historically (re)formed concept, this panel moves beyond traditional and binary understandings of "interracial" or "interfaith" couples, examining how "mixedness" is lived and experienced within postcolonial, and social frameworks, and how individuals in mixed relations occupy complex social positions based on different forms and grammars of difference (Collet and Santelli 2016). The panel addresses a range of themes, including the impact of history and colonial legacies on present-day experiences of mixedness, the role of antisemitism and islamophobia, and configurations of race, religion, secularity, ethnicity, and gender. It additionally brings forward the ways in which individuals in mixed relations navigate societal prejudices and norms, construct perceptions on and formations of mixedness, as well as strategies for dealing with differences. By bringing together empirical studies from the Netherlands and Belgium, and research from diverse disciplines such as anthropology, history, religious studies, and gender studies, this panel provides much-needed multifaceted perspectives and conversations on the challenges and opportunities faced by mixedness and mixed relationships.