News from the ECMI InfoChannel

PLURILINGMEDIA intends to advance collaboration and bring coherence to the field of European media from the perspective of language plurality, encouraging involvement of scholars in related disciplines and facilitating knowledge transfer between academics and practitioners. This incorporates the digitalisation shifts affecting consumption and provision of media, providing opportunities and threats to journalists, as well as influencing policymakers, educators and other stakeholders. Academics working on these topics mostly work on singular linguistic spheres and there remains a deficiency of knowledge transfer across the dimensions of academic discipline, career-stage, geography and industry. 

A new study by ECMI Senior Researcher Felix Schulte, together with Matthias Scantamburlo (University of Deusto) and Maria Ackrén (Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland), examines why independence movements emerge at specific points in time. The authors test the causal role of two events: the banking crisis in the Faroe Islands in 1992 and the 2010 decision of the Spanish Constitutional Court on the Catalan Statute of Autonomy.

At the ECMI we consider it a very important part of our mission to offer young scholars an opportunity to experience international research and project work. Hosting interns is considered part of our educational work, and we strive to provide opportunities to expand their academic knowledge and to fine-tune their research skills.

We are delighted to welcome our two new interns to the Conflict & Security Cluster!

Lea Lamade is completing her bachelor’s degree in Educational Science, History, and Mathematics at Europa-Universität Flensburg. She brings international experience from Denmark and South Korea, and has been actively engaged in minority history research as well as in the local Model United Nations community.

Ann-Sophie is pursuing a double bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Sociology at Heidelberg University. She studied abroad in Tokyo and focuses on peace and conflict studies, conflict resolution, and the role of minorities in divided societies.

We are excited to have both of them on board and look forward to their contributions in the months ahead!

In this interview, Dr. Kyriaki Topidi explains why researching the role of national minority women matters, especially in today’s anti-gender climate. She highlights research outputs at the ECMI that enhance our knowledge on the role of these women in contemporary societies, including the recent volume on Minority Women, Rights and Intersectionality (Routledge, 2025) that includes her own contribution on Sámi women’s digital self-representation. The chapter shows in particular how minority women use online spaces to challenge colonial legacies and build Indigenous solidarity. Dr. Topidi also discusses the practical and ethical challenges of applying intersectionality in policy research and emphasizes the need for context-sensitive approaches. Finally, she shares how books like this have become essential within the Routledge Advances in Minority Studies book series, that strives for an interdisciplinary and global outlook.

In July 2025, a new and significant edited volume on minority-language media was released—a collaborative initiative led by the ECMI together with the University of the Basque Country. Published by Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature in the renowned Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities series, the book expands the existing research landscape with a rich variety of thematic and geographical perspectives.

We are excited to share a new publication by ECMI Senior Researcher Felix Schulte, Juris Pupcenoks (Marist University) and Māris Andžāns (Riga Stradins University/Center for Geopolitical Studies Riga).

The study “Cultural memory and the minority effect in (un-)willingness to fight for the country: Evidence from Russian speakers in Latvia”, published in the European Journal of International Security, shows that Russian speakers in Latvia are less willing the fight for Latvia than ethnic Latvians. The reason is divergent historical memories and narratives. Russian speakers display greater Soviet nostalgia and are less likely to perceive Russia as responsible for the war in Ukraine. This, in turn, reduces their willingness to fight for their country. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has brought defence capabilities into sharp focus. The study highlights a “minority effect” and the potentially very different perspectives of minority members about fighting for a state dominated by the majority population. This represents a crucial blind spot in current assessments of national resilience and defence preparedness.

The ECMI recently hosted a workshop at which eminent experts presented innovative minority language revitalisation initiatives that are ongoing in the Basque Country (for Basque), Upper Lusatia (for Sorbian), and Fryslân (for West Frisian). These initiatives focus on three levels that are crucial for minority language revitalisation: society, community, and family. The presentations were followed by a round-table discussion about how these initiatives could be 'translated' into the North Frisian context. The workshop was attended by select stakeholders, practitioners, and academics from key organisations in the region. Representatives from all North Frisian islands as well as the mainland were in attendance. Showing that we don't always have to reinvent the wheel, the workshop provided inspiration for potential future endeavours to aid in the revitalisation of North Frisian.

On 5 November 2025, we hosted the presentation of an outstanding book that sheds light on the history, culture, and current realities of the indigenous people of Crimea. The event featured a moving reading by author and activist Elnara Nurieva-Letova, alongside excerpts from a documentary series tracing Crimean Tatar heritage in Germany. Our heartfelt thanks go to the editors Sarah Reinke (Society for Threatened Peoples, GfbV) and Dr. Mieste Hotopp-Riecke (Institute for Caucasica-, Tatarica- and Turkestan Studies, ICATAT) for their dedicated work and inspiring insights.

The Denmark-Germany border region is home to Danish, German, Sinti & Roma and North Frisian minorities – a place shaped by shifting borders and history, today seen as a model for peaceful coexistence. Our former intern Sophie Cooper (Culture & Diversity Cluster / Supervision: Dr. Kyrikai Topidi ) collected personal stories from members of some communities. Through interviews, she transformed their lived experiences into short digital stories (2–5 minutes), combining voice, images, and music. These stories explore identity, belonging, and life between cultures. 👉 The videos invite you to listen, watch, and reflect on what it means to live as a minority across borders.

UPDATE: 

We are delighted to announce that the project “Promoting Intercultural Dialogue through Digital Storytelling” has been selected as a winner of the Student Minority Projects Challenge 2025, organised by the Academic Network for Minority Issues! 

As part of the award, Sophie Cooper and Dr. Kyriaki Topidi have been invited to present their work at the UN Forum for Minority Issues in Geneva, taking place on 27–28 November 2025. The award ceremony will be held by UN Special Rapporteur Nicolas Levrat and Governor Arno Kompatscher of the Province of South Tyrol.

Maddi Dorronsoro Olamusu delivered a public lecture in Azkoitia (Basque Country) as part of the Euskola series, which focuses on the Basque language and sociolinguistics. Organised by Maxixatzen euskaldunon taldea, a local Basque-language activist group, the event brought together community members interested in arnasguneak—communities with a high concentration of Basque speakers—which she examines from an attitudinal perspective. The lecture received coverage in local media, was recorded, and made available online. A few days later, Maddi participated in the International Conference on Territories of Higher Speaker Density in Minoritised Language Communities and presented her research in Zestoa and Segura (both in the Basque Country).

Over the past two months, the ECMI was represented at two leading academic hubs for Ukrainian Studies in Germany, where ECMI postdoctoral researcher Elmira Muratova shared insights from her ongoing research on Crimean Tatars.The contributions highlight ECMI’s continued engagement with cutting-edge scholarship on Ukraine and minority communities affected by the ongoing war.

Angesichts der aktuellen geopolitischen Entwicklungen stellt sich erneut die dringende Frage, welche Zukunft der indigenen Bevölkerung der Krim – den Krimtataren – bevorsteht.

Wir laden am Mittwoch, den 5. November 2025, von 16:00 bis 18:00 Uhr, herzlich zur Buchvorstellung „Die Krimtataren. Geschichte – Kultur – Politik“ in den Konferenzraum des ECMI in Flensburg ein.

Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea marked the beginning of a systematic campaign of repression against the indigenous Crimean Tatar minority. ECMI researchers Elmira Muratova and Felix Schulte introduce the first comprehensive and geo-coded dataset documenting state repression targeting Crimean Tatars in Crimea. The dataset records almost 700 repression events affecting more than 2,000 individuals in the period 2014 to 2024 and provides detailed information, including the type and severity of repression events.

The Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE) is seeking a qualified web designer/developer to carry out a visual and functional update of our website, including our submission platform. Our journal is hosted on Open Journal Systems (OJS), and we aim to modernize the design, improve usability, and enhance the publication workflow for editors, authors, and readers.

We are pleased to announce our successful completion of the “Minority Protection for EU Accession (MPA)” project. Our colleague Dr. Ljubica Djordjević led the initiative, which has been implemented between January 2023 and June 2025 in the Republic of Serbia. Funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) within the framework of the Facility supporting the strengthening of Rule of Law in the Republic of Serbia, the project aimed to strengthen the protection of national minorities in line with EU accession criteria (Chapter 23).