This symposium discusses university education in various European countries (Finland, Germany, Austria and England) from the perspective of non-normative students, namely, disabled students, students racialised as non-white and students who come from working class families. International scholarly debates have theorised the lived experiences of non-normative students in university as subjection to institutional violence or misrecognition (Burke 2018; Arday 2018). This refers to the treatment of these groups of students as ‘out of place’, which causes encounters that are disruptive, require negotiation, and invite complicity (Puwar 2004).

Studies (e.g., Burke 2018; Dolmage 2017; Arday 2018) show that academia leaves students and scholars who are racialised as non-white or are disabled to struggle with various forms of exclusion, despite their claimed diversity and accessibility policies (Ahmed 2012; Brown & Leigh 2018). There is also research evidence how class-based institutional violence during academic studies causes a sense of inadequacy and not belonging among working-class students (e.g. Käyhkö 2020).

The symposium papers deal with the theories deriving from critical disability studies, critical race and whiteness studies, sociology of education and from theories concerning emancipatory knowledge production. The concepts of ableism, racialization, social (in)equality, belonging and the politics of belonging are utilized in analyzing the practices, cultures and experiences within the university education from the basis of various research projects. Methodologically, the research presented and discussed in this symposium covers and explores approaches of narrative, life-historical and collective participatory memory work studies.

Ahmed, S. (2012) On being included. Racism and diversity in institutional life. London: Duke University Press. Arday, J. (2018) Being black, male and academic: Navigating the white academy. In Arday, J. & Mirza, H., S. Dismantling race in higher education. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Brown, N. & Leigh, J. (2018) Ableism in academia: where are the disabled and ill academics? Disability & Society, 33:6, 985-989. Burke, P. J. (2018) Trans/forming pedagogical spaces: Race, belonging and recognition in higher education. In Arday, J. & Mirza, H., S. Dismantling race in higher education. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Dolmage, T. (2017) Academic ableism. Disability and higher education. Michigan University Prs. Käyhkö, M. (2020) “Osaanko mä nyt olla tarpeeks yliopistollinen?” Työläistaustaiset yliopistoopettajanaiset ja luokan kokemukset. Sosiologia 57(1). 7-25. Puwar, N. (2004) Space invaders: race, gender and bodies out of place. Berg.