Past Event

A Roundtable Discussion in honour of Robert Gould, on the occasion of his retirement as Associate Director of Centre for European Studies.

Participants include:

Valerie Amiraux, Universite de Montreal

Phil Triadafilopoulos, University of Toronto

Robert Gould, Carleton University

Over the past decades, issues of migration, integration, cultural diversity, and religious pluralism have become major topics of political contention across Europe. In many European states, public discourse has shifted decisively against multiculturalism, and xenophobic (or anti-Muslim) political parties have emerged as significant political players. At the same time, cultural and religious diversity in European states continues to increase, European integration in moving into ever more sensitive policy areas (including migration) and transnational linkages across borders are growing ever more dense. In this light, what is the state of multiculturalism in Europe? Participants in the roundtable will present case studies from various parts of Europe, and discuss general tendencies in how European societies deal with issues of societal diversity.

Valerie Amiraux is the Canada Research Chair in the Study of Religious Pluralism and Ethnicity and an Associate Professor of Sociology at Universite de Montreal. Her research focuses on confessional diversity as well as the interplay between religious pluralism and religious radicalization in European societies.

Phil Triadafilopoulos is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. He has published extensively on immigration and citizenship policies in Europe and North America, as well as the reconfiguration of national identities in liberal democratic states.

Robert Gould, is an Adjunct Research Professor in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies as well as in the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at Carleton University. He served as Associate Director of Carleton’s Centre for European Studies between 2002 and 2012. His research in recent years has focused on political discourses about immigration and national identity in various European states.

This event is supported, in part, by a grant from the European Union.