Why Multiculturalism isn`t Dead: Liberal Law and the Empowerment of Gays and Muslims - Christian Joppke -

Type: 
Lecture
Audience: 
Open to the Public
Building: 
Nador u. 15
Room: 
101
Wednesday, January 18, 2017 - 6:00pm
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Date: 
Wednesday, January 18, 2017 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm

The Central European University

Nationalism Studies Program

cordially invites you to a lecture by

Christian Joppke

University of Bern, Switzerland

Why Multiculturalism isn`t Dead: Liberal Law and the Empowerment of Gays and Muslims

 There has been much talk about the retreat or even death of multiculturalism. Much of this discussion confounds multiculturalism with explicit policy under that name. I argue that liberal law itself, in particular majority-constraining constitutional law, requires multiculturalism, understood as multiple ways of life that cannot and should not be contained by a state that is to be neutral about individuals` ultimate values and commitments. The workings of “legal multiculturalism” are demonstrated through a comparison of benchmark jurisprudence on gays in America and Muslims in Europe. An interesting difference is that for Muslims, liberal law has also functioned as constraint, not only as resource, especially in the post-2001 period of heightened integration concerns.

Wednesday, 18 January at 6 p.m.

Nador u. 15, 101

 Christian Joppke holds a chair in sociology at the University of Bern.  He is also a Visiting Professor in the Nationalism Studies Program at Central European University in Budapest, and an Honorary Professor in the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University. Since 2015, he is a member of the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration (Sachverständigenrat, SVR). After earning a Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 1989, Joppke taught at the University of Southern California, European University Institute, University of British Columbia, International University Bremen, and at the American University of Paris. His most recent books are Legal Integration of Islam (with John Torpey) (2013), The Secular State under Siege (2015) and Is Multiculturalism Dead? (2017).

 

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