Media Appearances by ECMI Staff

The on-going COVID-19 pandemic has become a major focus of discussion in different public forums and media programmes. At the same time, it has shifted the attention of many organisations to the online space as the main platform for dissemination and communication. Staff at the ECMI have been invited to participate in a number of high-profile online events in order to comment on how the virus has affected national minorities.

During this summer, the organization Youth of European Nationalities (YEN) will sponsor a series of on-line events under their programme “Think beyond borders – YEN Digital Summer”, which includes webinars, discussion groups and e-training. The first guest of their webinar series on May 28 was Prof. Vello Pettai, Director of the ECMI, who engaged with moderator Jakub Schäfer on the topic of nationalism and populism and their impact on minorities. During the 60-minute live-stream, Prof. Pettai compared the two central concepts, bringing out ways in which they overlap – nativist populism – particularly in the current era. He also answered a number of intriguing viewer questions. You can access the recording of the webinar on YEN’s Youtube channel here.

Similarly, a webinar series on COVID-19 and minorities was launched in early May by Eurac Research and its Institute for Minority Rights. On June 4, the ECMI’s Senior Researcher Kyriaki Topidi will participate on a panel examining COVID-19 and religious minorities, while on June 30 Senior Researcher Marika Djolai will speak on securitisation, minorities and the corona virus. The programme and recordings of the “Minorities and COVID-19” webinars can be accessed on the Eurac’s webpage.

The ECMI has recently produced a couple of articles focused on the interplay between the COVID-19 situation and minority issues as part of the ECMI Minorities Blog. The blog posts provide an interesting research insight into the effects of the corona crisis on minority lives, minority policies, cultural diversity and social harmony.