24 January 2020
The Diverse Europe Theme Group offers stipendiary visiting scholarships to excellent scholars who are conducting research related to diversity and Europe in the social sciences, humanities or law. Visiting scholars spend up to a month in Amsterdam, during which time they are expected to give a research seminar, a public lecture, and a PhD master class, as well as to interact with faculty and students.
The University of Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES) is an interdisciplinary centre of excellence on contemporary Europe, the European Union, and its member states. The Diverse Europe Theme group focuses on Europe as a space of increasing diversity, which is met with growing contestation. Today’s Europe is confronted with a rise of populist nationalism, right and left-wing identitarianism, and authoritarian revolt. Refugees, religious and ethnic and racial minorities are more and more excluded from citizenship. This raises fundamental questions regarding Europe’s identity/ties, citizenship, economic and political participation, shared values, and understandings of Europe’s past, and desired future. Who defines Europe’s identity, and the right to access, or break with it? What narratives contribute to the construction of Europe’s identity and how do these legitimise and transform into (legal) mechanisms to include or exclude? What is the role of cultural and political representations in making and contesting Europe today?