Minority Studies

IJSL: Italian minorities

by Gabriele Iannaccaro

People Over Politics

by Luzma Umpierre

I wrote this right before the passage of Obama Care. I feel that it needs to be brought back today in honor of Anzaldua and the many struggles she had with the Health Care System.

I wrote this right before the passage of Obama Care. I feel that it needs to be brought back today in honor of... more I wrote this right before the passage of Obama Care. I feel that it needs to be brought back today in honor of Anzaldua and the many struggles she had with the Health Care System.

Islam as Peacemaker: The AKP's Attempt at a Kurdish Resolution

by Gabriel Mitchell

This paper addresses the AKP’s capabilities to initiate additional reform in the Turkish political system and achieve... more This paper addresses the AKP’s capabilities to initiate additional reform in the Turkish political system and achieve peaceful terms with the Kurdish population. The renaissance of politicalIslam, long banned in Turkey, is pioneering the way for a future harmony with Turkey’s minorities. I maintain that such reform would be a significant indicator that values in Turkish society are shifting away from the pillars of Kemalism, and towards a new, post-Kemalist identity defined by its engagement with Islam and the Kurds.

« Citoyenneté et fait minoritaire dans la ville. Étude comparée des juifs de Marseille, de Catalogne et des Baléares au bas Moyen Âge », Revue d’Histoire urbaine, 32, décembre 2011, p. 73-100.

by Claude Denjean

en collaboration avec Juliette SIBON

Citoyenneté et fait minoritaire dans la ville médiévale.
Étude comparée des juifs de Marseille, de Catalogne et... more Citoyenneté et fait minoritaire dans la ville médiévale.
Étude comparée des juifs de Marseille, de Catalogne et de Majorque au bas Moyen Âge

L’examen du statut juridique des juifs en théorie et en pratique à l’échelle de la ville au bas Moyen Âge révèle combien la citoyenneté et l’urbanité sont des valeurs partagées avec la société majoritaire. Qu’ils soient explicitement dits civis ou non, les juifs manifestent les qualités du citoyen et participent activement à la vie de la cité. Finalement, la comparaison entre les deux aires considérées exhume des convergences inattendues. Plus généralement, l’analyse invite aussi à s’interroger sur ce que signifie être citoyen dans la ville médiévale.

Citizenship and Minority Status in the Medieval Town.
Compared Study of the Jews of Marseilles, Catalonia and Majorca in the late Middle Ages

In the Late Middle Ages, the citizenship was a value both shared by the Jews and the Christians. Even when the Jews had not citizen’s official status, they participated in the political life of their town. They shared the same feeling of membership in the city as the Christians. Finally, the comparison between Marseilles, Catalonia and Majorca reveals unexpected convergences. More generally, the analysis also invites to understand what was to be citizen, Christian or Jewish, in the medieval town.

L’Union européenne et les Roms : pauvreté, haine anti-Tziganes et gouvernance de la mobilité

by Nando Sigona

In pursuit of the pagans: Muslim law in the English context

by Prakash Shah

Western and Muslim law. Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks’, and in the... more Western and Muslim law. Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks’, and in the context of the struggle for Islam to be acknowledged as a legitimate source of value pluralism in the Western context, the religious aspects of Muslim law, with their doctrinal justifications, are being foregrounded. With the English case as the main focus, I further argue that customs among Muslims are suppressed in this process of ‘shariatisation’. Beyond that, even Muslim doctrines are being placed under the spotlight in various ways. These changes are taking place as a result of Muslims living as nondominant communities in Europe, where they are under the gaze of the dominant culture and are judged to be potential or actual violators of human rights and the rule of law. Relying on Balagangadhara’s (2005) explanation of the ‘dynamic of religion’, I present these processes as an outcome of the collision of two religious cultures, the Islamic and the Western.

Reasons to Ban? The Anti-Burqa Movement in Western Europe

by Prakash Shah

This MMG Working Paper 12-09 (Göttingen: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity) is Co-authored with Ralph Grillo, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex. Publications include: Pluralism and the Politics of Difference: State, Culture, and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective, Clarendon Press (1998); editor of The Family in Question: Immigrant and Ethnic Minorities in Multicultural Europe, Amsterdam University Press (2008); co-editor of Legal Practice and Cultural Diversity, Ashgate (2009). Ralph Grillo is a member of the Advisory Group of the Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity at Göttingen.

During the 2000s, the dress of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries in Europe and elsewhere became increasingly a... more During the 2000s, the dress of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries in Europe and elsewhere became increasingly a matter for debate and, in several instances, the subject of legislation. In France, a ban on the wearing of the headscarf
in places of education (2004) was followed in 2010 by the law criminalizing the wearing of the face-veil (usually but inaccurately referred to as the ‘burqa’) in public space. Other countries have enacted similar legislation. Muslim women’s dress has historically been a controversial matter in Muslim-majority countries, too, most recently in North Africa following the Arab Spring, but the present paper concentrates on the movement against face-veiling in Western Europe, documenting what has been happening and analysing the arguments proposed to justify criminalizing this type of garment. In doing so, the paper explores the implications for our understanding of contemporary (ethnically and religiously) diverse societies and their governance.
Is anti-veiling legislation a protest against what is interpreted as an Islamic practice unacceptable in liberal democracies, a sign of a wider discomfort with non-European otherness, or an expression of an underlying racism articulated in cultural terms?
Whatever the reason, is criminalization an appropriate response? An Appendix notes some topics for further research.

Mask/Unmask. Überschreitungen von Grenzen rassifizierter Zugehörigkeiten in zwei Erzählungen über Rom_nija

by Stefan Benedik

published in: Zonen der Begrenzung
Aspekte kultureller und räumlicher Grenzen in der Moderne. Ed. by Gerald Lamprecht, Ursula Mindler, Heidrun Zettelbauer. Bielefeld: transcript 2012.173-186.

In this contribution I'm discussing a recent Czech film (Roma Boys - Přiběh lásky by Rozalie Kohoutová and David... more In this contribution I'm discussing a recent Czech film (Roma Boys - Přiběh lásky by Rozalie Kohoutová and David Tišer) and an Italian novel (il circo capovolto by Milena Magnani). In my analysis, I emphasis different strategies of longing and rejection for Romani identities, which are seemingly coherent and homogeneous. The film under scrutiny here challenges ascriptions to members of Romani communities and renders the often underlying racialising narratives visible. Furthermore, the film can be understood as a sophisticated examination of processes within the Romani movement and it's reception within majorities, that emphasise notions of a homogeneous and holistic, single 'European Romani minority'.
In the tradition of the enlightenment the modern European arts staged Romani people as figures of backwardness, savage and myth. These narratives contribute to the establishment of a fixed, essential border between Romani and Non-Romani people, that seems to be almost impossible to cross afterwards. Milena Magnani's novel is based on this understanding, as the plot concentrates on the impossibility of assimilation within a ‘Non-gypsy”-Environment. Thus, nature is reclaiming what allegedly belongs to her and claims the Romani body to be its property. As the discussed film proves, these connections are so thoroughly linked to cultural borders, that it remains impossible to question them without putting the finger on the meta-level of narration. Apparently, it is only possible to challenge those stories in achieving a deconstruction of the way in which they are told.

Minority Females & the Thin Ideal: Ethnic versus Mainstream Fashion Magazines and Their Effects on Acculturation & Body Image in Young Black & Latino Women

by Journal of Research on Women and Gender

Camille R. Kraeplin, Southern Methodist University

Studies have linked thin-ideal imagery in popular media to eating pathologies and related disorders. Although these... more Studies have linked thin-ideal imagery in popular media to eating pathologies and related disorders. Although these disorders have long been associated with middle- and upper-class white women, racial or ethnic status may no longer confer a protective benefit, in part because the dominant white society’s cultural values, as conveyed through mainstream media, reach all ethnic groups. This survey of 106 young African American and 102 young Latino women supports the conclusion that Latinas identify more closely with mediated thin-ideal imagery, while black respondents appear more satisfied with their body image. Acculturation theory suggests that ethnic minority individuals who maintain links, including ethnic-media use, to their culture of origin will be less acculturated to the norms and values of dominant white society. Three-quarters of Latinas read a mainstream fashion/beauty magazine regularly, while half of African-Americans read ethnic magazines published for the black community.

Impacts of Transition from an Official Greek Viewpoint: The Case of the Turkish Muslim Minority in Western Thrace-Greece (1923-1933)

by Ali Huseyinoglu

METU Studies in Development, 39 (1), 2012, 87-110

In the beginning of the 20th century, the dissolution of great empires in Europe resulted in formation of new nation... more In the beginning of the 20th century, the dissolution of great empires in Europe resulted in formation of new nation states. Millions of people were forced to move from one place to another while others remained on their own historic lands. As the Ottoman Millet system collapsed together with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, ethnic and religious differentiation among communities throughout the former Ottoman lands started to be promoted by new nation states of the post-World War. In this respect, those belonging to the core nation were given an advantaged position compared to the ‘minorities’ living in the same nation state who used to enjoy being members of the Müslim Millet under the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, the Muslims across the Balkan Peninsula, regardless of their ethnic origins, became one of the main groups who suffered from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.


The case of the Muslim Turkish minority of Western Thrace in Greece seems to be one of the significant case studies that would help to understand how reflections of the transition process from Ottoman to the Republic of Turkey affected the gradual transformation of a conservative Islamic community into a minority members of whom identify themselves with ethnic Turkish identity and Islam promoted by the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs, Diyanet.


In this framework, this paper seeks to shed light on the first decade of transition after 1923 analyzing issues of religious, educational, administrative autonomy of the Minority enshrined in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. In particular, it aims to show how this process was interpreted by Konstantinos Stilianopoulos, the Inspector of Minorities - the highest Greek authority responsible for minorities in the Interwar Greece. By analyzing the two comprehensive official reports prepared by Stilianopoulos after paying two visits to the region in late 1920s in order to observe continuities and changes in lives of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace, this study provides an official Greek viewpoint for the establishment of the minority regime in the north-eastern periphery of Greece after 1923.

Key words: Greeee, Western Thrace, Muslim Turkish Minority, Stilianopoulos Reports, Tradinionalists vs. Modernists.

Brüggemann, C. & Kling, J. (2012) Measuring results? Education indicators in Roma integration strategies. In Development & Transition (19).

by Christian Brüggemann

http://www.developmentandtransition.net/Article.35+M52ba3cb6551.0.html?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=24May

In order to fight the exclusion and marginalization of Roma minorities in contemporary Europe, the European Union (EU)... more In order to fight the exclusion and marginalization of Roma minorities in contemporary Europe, the European Union (EU) has recently called the member states to design National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) including a “robust monitoring mechanism to ensure concrete results’. The integration strategies – which are currently under revision – are intended to cover goals based on ‘comparable and reliable indicators’ in four key areas: education, employment, health care and housing. However, the European Commission does not define which characteristics an indicator needs to have in order to be ‘comparable and reliable’ nor does it give concrete examples of such indicators. Here we look at the NRIS submitted by Hungary, Romania and the Slovak Republic, with particular emphasis on their education initiatives, and show to what extent education indicators have the potential to contribute to monitoring and evaluating them.

Brüggemann, C. & Škobla, D. (2012) Special schooling in Slovakia: a long way to go for desegregation policies. In Development and Transition (19).

by Christian Brüggemann

Forthcoming

Given the political commitment to avoid disproportionate streaming of Roma in special education settings, this paper... more Given the political commitment to avoid disproportionate streaming of Roma in special education settings, this paper explores the extent of ethnic segregation in education in Slovakia using household research data. Based on UNDP household surveys in Slovakia,  we compare 2005 and 2010 data on the number of young Roma enrolled in special education settings. We pay particular attention to the influence of settlement type and mother tongue on disproportionate streaming of Roma in special schools and classrooms.  Finally, we argue that institutional change is necessary to prevent unfair treatment, especially of those Roma with an insufficient command of the language of school instruction.

British View of the First Vienna Award

by Andras Becker

Memory, evocation, representation – “Private museums” in a Romanian village in Serbian Banat // Mémoire, évocation, représentation – “musées privés” dans un village rouman dans le Banat serbe

by Aleksandra Djurić-Milovanović

published in: Cultural Spaces and Archaic background, Ed. Universitatii de Nord si Ed. Ethnologica, Baia Mare, 2008

Dans cet article je me concentrerai sur la recherche de terrain dans le village roumain de Barice (Sân-Ianăş)... more
Dans cet article je me concentrerai sur la recherche de terrain dans le village roumain de Barice (Sân-Ianăş) dans le Banat serbe. La recherche sur le terrain a été effectuée en collaboration avec l'équipe de chercheurs de l'Institut de linguistique « Iorgu Iordan-Al.Rosetti »  de Bucarest et l'Institut des études balkaniques de Belgrade, en septembre 2007. 
L’actuelle recherche analyse principalement ce que les membres de la communauté disent d'eux-mêmes et comment ils expliquent leurs coutumes et tradition, montrant aux chercheurs leur costume populaire comme faisant partie de leur « collection de musée privée ». En décrivant la manière dont les indigènes définissent leurs propres traditions, ils font ressortir également les éléments de distinction entre différents sous-groupes de Roumains du Banat serbe.  Trois groupes différents étaient distingués, provenant du Banat, de l'Ardéal et d'Olténie. Le village Barice appartient aux communautés habitées par les colons de la région de Banat qui s’y sont établies au 18ème siècle, pendant la colonisation par les Habsbourg de la Péninsule balkanique.  La méthodologie interdisciplinaire appliquée dans la recherche sur le terrain a permis le rassemblement simultané de données dialectales et ethnographiques, y compris l'enregistrement vidéo. Les entretiens ont été centrées sur l'héritage immatériel : récits sur les coutumes de cycle de vie et les célébrations de calendrier. Néanmoins, les personnes interviewées se sont attelées à montrer le vêtement traditionnel, les articles de ménage de textile, les travaux manuels et les vieilles photographies de famille. Manifesté sous les formes réelles, l'acquis culturel immatériel est constamment recréé par les communautés et les groupes les dotant  d’un sens de continuité avec le passé.  Nous essayerons de prouver que l'acquis culturel immatériel ne peut pas être séparé du matériel, offrant l'image du costume populaire comme un symbole d'identité et sa fonction secondaire aujourd'hui assurés par la fonction muséologique

History and Memory: Czechs in the Danube Gorge (Istorie şi memorie în comunităţile cehilor din Clisura Dunării), Sînziana Preda,Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai Cluj-Napoca, Institutul de istorie orală, Cluj-Napoca: Argonaut, 2010.

by Aleksandra Djurić-Milovanović

Book review in Balcanica XLII (2012), 236-238

Representations of the ‘Kurds’ by the Turkish Judiciary

by Derya Bayir

Although the tensions around Kurdish ethnic identity and the extent of human rights violations against Kurds... more Although the tensions around Kurdish ethnic identity and the extent of human rights violations against Kurds throughout the history of the Turkish Republic are well-documented, little research exists about the role played by the Turkish judiciary in relation to the legal position, demands, and identity of the Kurds in Turkey. An analysis of the role of the judiciary is demanded especially given its position as one of the guardians of the foundational values of the Turkish state. This article analyzes how Turkey’s judiciary has navigated the demands of Kurdish people, how it has represented Kurds, and to what extent it has accommodated their alterity in its jurisprudence. Among its findings are that Turkish judges have participated in reproducing Turkish nationalism within their legal discourse, which continues to re-emerge in the case law at various points in time. Since the 1970s, the judiciary has represented Kurds as having no distinct existence and as being Turkish. Somewhat contradictorily, it has also acknowledged the Kurds while consistently rejecting Kurdism. Reproducing a legal orientalist discourse, the judiciary has constructed the Kurds as the ‘other’ to justify civilizing them by legal means. The lack of self-criticism of the dominant strain in the jurisprudence, based on the narrative of the Turkishness of the Kurds, indicates that the judiciary in Turkey has failed to produce a culturally pluralist jurisprudence which accommodates the demands of the Kurds. It has also produced an ethno-culturist jurisprudence with reference to the Turkish ethnie, and perpetuated the discourse of Turkish ethnic nationalism.

Bernstein and poetics:Voice, globalization and education

by Jan Blommaert

UN REGARD AUX DROITS DES HOMMES AU SEIN DES DROITS DES MINORITES

by Sinan Sarıkaya

Galatasaray Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi 1. Yarıyıl Kamu Hukuku Ödevi

'Plat land, diepe geschiedenis. Friesland als trauma', De Vrije Fries (2010), 90, 207-222.

by Goffe Jensma

Female lead characters as examples of Bildungsroman heroines in L'Amour, la fantasia by Assia Djebar and Les yeux baissés by Tahar Ben Jelloun

by Bilgen (Billie) Akman

Master's thesis