News from ECMI InfoChannel

Please note that following the partial lockdown measures adopted by the German authorities and the recommendation to work remotely, the ECMI Headquarters will be closed to external guests for the duration of the lockdown.

The majority of the employees will work remotely including the Secretariat.

You can reach us at info@ecmi.de or contact the employees directly via email.

In spite of the fact that a significant number of academic events have been postponed or cancelled due to the Covid pandemic, our researchers do not just sit back and rest on their laurels. The research at the ECMI is still alive and shared with the interested audience during many online events such as online conferences, online talks, or online teaching modules. Networking and building partnerships, un inseparable part of the ECMI everyday life, has also moved to the online sphere and the ECMI keeps its presence at important high-level meetings where minority rights are discussed.

The next online talk aims to explore potentials of non-territorial autonomy, core practical challenges, and prospects for better practical outreach (both widening and deepening) of the concept. It is structured around four main topics: the nexus/tension between the territorial and personal principles in the minority protection; labeling the concept as “autonomy”; membership; and competences: NTA institutions as minority agents.

The European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) invites applications for the position of Senior Researcher and Head of Cluster within the field of “Conflict and Security”.

On 21 April, the ECMI Cluster Justice & Governance organised a closed workshop on exploring possibilities for monitoring and evaluation of performance (functionality and/or impact) of the national minority councils in five countries: Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. The workshop reflects the Cluster’s continuous work on institutional setups for minority participation in public affairs, and complements the Cluster’s activities in two projects: COST Action ENTAN and the “Autonomy Arrangements in the World”.

We are inviting you to join our distinguished international panel of experts discussing securitisation of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on minorities and diversity from an interdisciplinary perspective.
 

The ECMI welcomes potential applicants for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Individual Fellowships under its 2021 strategic focus “Minority challenges in the digital age”. The ECMI is developing new insights into how the digital evolution in our societies has impacted individuals and groups belonging to minorities in many understudied ways.  

Amid all the adjustments in our private and professional lives brought about by the pandemic in the past year, the ECMI has gone through its own significant changes. One of the most important ones was a change in the leadership. A new ECMI era began in March last year when Prof. Vello Pettai became the ECMI Director. On the occasion of his one year in office, Prof. Pettai writes a few words to reflect on this period.

The ECMI supports Prof. Dr. John Siegel (Universität Potsdam) and Prof. Dr. Markus Seyfried (Hochschule für Polizei und öffentliche Verwaltung NRW) in their evaluation of the Schleswig-Holstein law on the promotion of the national minorities.

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Das ECMI unterstützt Prof. Dr. John Siegel (Universität Potsdam) und Prof. Dr. Markus Seyfried (Hochschule für Polizei und öffentliche Verwaltung NRW) bei ihrer Evaluation des Gesetzes zur Stärkung der Nationalen Minderheiten in Schleswig-Holstein.

Next deadline for submissions has been extended to 15 January 2021.

The Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE) welcomes research articles, commentaries, and book reviews from practitioners, academics and students on all aspects of ethnopolitics and minority issues,

The present text summarises the findings of the series "Minority language media and the COVID-19 pandemic" which consists of expert interviews looking at the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on minority language media across Europe. The individual interviews in this series have been posted as 10 different pieces since July, featuring expert scholars and practitioners who focus on one specific linguistic sphere. This post provides an overview and comparative analysis of the series, which was divided into six different themes discussed for each case.  

ENTAN – European Non-Territorial Autonomy Network is a COST Action aimed at examining the concept of non-territorial autonomy (NTA).

The Network, which the ECMI is a part of, has recently published two calls for applications: Call for ‘Short Term Scientific Missions’ (STSM) and Call for Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC) conference grant applications.

In our tenth and final expert interview in the series on minority language media and the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, we return to the British Isles for an in-depth analysis of Scottish Gaelic. Dr. Douglas Chalmers, Senior Lecturer in Media and Journalism at Glasgow Caledonian University, provides a thorough overview of the situation for that linguistic sphere, in particular by focusing on the public service broadcasters BBC Alba and Radio nan Gàidheal.

The European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) is currently looking for interns to assist remotely with the project Autonomy Arrangements in the World.