| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, February 4, 2016 | 5:00PM - 7:30PM | The Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs 1 Devonshire Place |
2016 CERES Graduate Student Conference Keynote Lecture
17:15-17:30 Opening Remarks, Conference Organizers and Dr. Randall Hansen, University of Toronto
17:30-18:00 Keynote Lecture: Europe’s Muslim Minorities: Successes and Failures of Integration, Dr. Christian Joppke, University of Bern
18:00-18:45 Question and Answer Period moderated by Dr. Randall Hansen
18:45-19:30 Reception
In the opening of his lecture Joppke will query with the main conference theme, which is the juxtaposition of “majorities” and “minorities.” Does the concept of “majority,” which seems to be required by its opposite of “minority,” make sense? This is a worthwhile inquiry, because populist (and no longer so “fringe”) parties across Europe claim to speak for putative majorities, and because even liberal academics have recently argued that, in the face of current migratory and demographic challenges, also majorities have “rights.” In the second part, Joppke turns to what is arguably Europe`s most critical minority, which is Muslims. The main paradox of Muslim integration in Europe is that an overall successful legal-institutional integration of Islam as religion has occurred in a context of persistent public hostility and populist mobilization. The two main integration deficits are socioeconomic (which is only partially due to discrimination) and cultural (Muslims espousing conservative views on sexual morals, gender, and religion that are far apart from the liberal-secular mainstream). Joppke will close with questioning the widespread view that terrorism is a result of failing or misguided policies of integrating Islam and Muslims.
Christian Joppke holds a chair in sociology at the University of Bern (CH). He is also a Visiting Professor in the Nationalism Studies Program at Central European University, Budapest, and an Honorary Professor in the Department of Political Science and Government at Aarhus University (Denmark). He is a Member of the German Expert Council on Integration and Migration (SVR). He recently published Legal Integration of Islam (with John Torpey) (Harvard UP 2013), and The Secular State Under Siege: Religion and Politics in Europe and America (Cambridge: Polity 2015). His latest book, Is Multiculturalism Dead? Crisis and Persistence in the Constitutional State, will be published in 2016.
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