CASTELLINO Joshua & CAVANAUGH Kathleen - Minority Issues, Nationalism and Identity Politics in the EU’s Neighbourhood (20h)

This course seeks to equip students with the ability to understand, and the skillset to interrogate, how subaltern ethnic, religious and linguistic identities impact policy making within the southern and eastern states of the EU’s neighbourhood. Focusing on questions of identity politics in the formation and development of States in Europe and the Middle East, it provides an opportunity to address some of the most pressing contemporary issues facing the EU and the wider world. Part 1 of the course, delivered through three mini-seminars, will seek to outline the rationale for minority rights, its core substance, how it relates to other lenses such as nationalism and state-building, and how it is manifest in international legal regimes. Part 2, delivered through three mini-seminars, will seek to examine the extent to which the conceptual framework and its core content has resonance to understanding the challenges in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Part 3, consisting of four mini-seminars, will be focus on the MENA region, interrogating the formation of identities through a historical lens, and casting light on the extent to which the term “minorities” has any salience in the region. The seminars will pay close attention to the extent to which communities far from sites of power have been able to inform the direction of public policy.  // ECTS Card

Professors: Joshua CASTELLINO and Kathleen CAVANAUGH