IMER/UiB Seminar

Yasemin Soysal: Cosmopolitization of the Nation and Citizen: European Dilemmas

Date: 28 May
Time: 13:15
Bergen Resourcecentre for International Development, Juss 2, Jekteviksbakken 31

When viewed from the field of education, we encounter a Europe securely embedded in a transnational project, manifesting itself as cosmopolitan, outwardly open and tolerant.  Viewed from the field of migration, we observe a Europe that appears uncomfortable with its own diversity, especially with its immigrant diversity, as evidenced by recurrent public and policy debates, and adversarial public opinion.

My talk will address this paradox by discussing findings from an ongoing project Reconceptualizing “Good Citizen” and “Good Society”: A Longitudinal and Comparative Analysis of European and East Asian Curricula and Textbooks (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK and the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong).

Before arriving in Europe and the University of Essex, Yasemin Soysal has studied and worked in the US.  Soysal has published extensively on the historical development and contemporary reconfigurations of the nation-state and citizenship in Europe; cultural and political implications of international migrations; and international discourses and regimes of human rights. She has held several fellowships and guest professorships, including Wissenschaftskolleg, National Endowment of Humanities, National Academy of Education, German Marshall Fund, Max Planck Institute, European University Institute, Juan March Institute, and Hitotsubashi University. Soysal is past president of the European Sociological Association.