Becomings, a new research project at the Swedish School of Social Science, examines how people work together to fight racism and develop visions of socially just societies. The project is led by Professor Suvi Keskinen, together with doctoral researcher Emma Grillo Kajava and postdoctoral researchers Ameera Masoud-Jaakonaho and Ali Ali.
Instead of focusing on laws, policies or institutions, the Becomings -project studies antiracism as something people create together. The researchers look at everyday actions, shared experiences, and community work to understand how social change happens.
"We see activism and antiracism as something that is created in action, and we are interested in the different ways of building community and solidarity when people get together”, Keskinen explains.
The project also brings together researchers with shared interests. Postdoctoral researcher Ali Ali, who has participated in planning the project since the beginning, is interested in questions of community building, solidarity and intersectionality.
Studying activism across time
A central focus of the project is time. The researchers notice that people often focus only on current problems and forget about the past or the future. This can make it harder to imagine real change.
Ideas about the past, present and future affect how activists imagine progress and justice. Doctoral researcher Emma Grillo Kajava explains that social change is not always linear or straightforward.
"In social justice and antiracist struggles, we tend to focus on present-day injustices, but we look at how these perspectives can be challenged by emphasising alternative ways of understanding time.”
The project also focuses on social class and economic inequality. Questions of antiracism cannot be detached from the realities of insecure work, low income and reduced social support that characterise our society and especially affect racialised minorities.
Postdoctoral researcher Ameera Masoud-Jaakonaho focuses on the idea of racial time, that is how people feel like they have different amounts of time, depending on their social and racial position. This can affect who is able to take part in political action.
Working together with activists
The Becomings -project does not study activism from a distance. Instead, the researchers aim at working together with activists through interviews and participatory activities. They also have international collaborations with prominent researchers in the field.
Postdoctoral researcher Ali Ali also challenges traditional ideas about academic research, that a researcher does not need to play a different role than any engaged political actor.
He emphasizes that universities, politics and everyday life are closely connected, even though they are often treated as separate.
"We should reimagine research as a force of politics and society, not external or something that observes from above, but as an attempt to cope, and work for peace and justice.”
New perspectives on antiracism
The project began with a kickoff seminar in October 2025. Currently, the research team is conducting interviews and preparing activities aimed to bring together academia and activists.
They are also launching a podcast called Antiracist Becomings, where listeners can follow the project and hear directly from the researchers and participants as the work develops.
The researchers hope the project will open new discussions about social class, racial capitalism and solidarity in antiracist work. According to Keskinen, these issues are becoming more urgent as welfare cuts and stricter immigration policies affect people’s everyday lives.
Masoud-Jaakonaho adds that the project also aims to support activists and recognise their work. She hopes the project affirms the work that activists are already doing in antiracist activism, showing that it matters and can help open new spaces for action.
"I hope that through this project we can put questions of social class and racial capitalism on the agenda and engage people in the discussion, creating more tools to address what’s happening in society and to think about what should be done,” Keskinen concludes.