Kyriaki Topidi

Dr. habil. Kyriaki Topidi is the head of the research cluster Culture & Diversity and joined ECMI in 2019. She holds a degree in law from the Robert Schuman Faculty of Law in Strasbourg, an MA in International Studies from the University of Birmingham, a PhD in European Studies from Queen's University Belfast, and a habilitation in Comparative Constitutional Law from the University of Fribourg. She has lectured extensively and conducted research in the areas of Public International Law, European Law, Human Rights, and Comparative Law.

In the past, she has held research positions in various institutions and was a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lucerne in Switzerland. She has also served as the managing director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Law and Religion at the same institution. She has been a guest scholar at Fordham University (US), the IDC (Israel), the Max Planck Institute in Halle (Germany), the Institute of Law and Religion of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), the Institute of Comparative Law of the University of Paris 2 - Assas (France), as well as the National Law School Delhi (India), among others.

Her research interests focus on diversity management, minority protection rights and mechanisms, with a special interest in religion. She is the author and editor of several volumes, including "EU Law, Minorities and Enlargement" (Intersentia, 2010), "Constitutional Evolution in Central and Eastern Europe: Expansion and Integration in the EU" (Ashgate, 2011), "Transnational Legal Process and Human Rights" (Ashgate, 2013), and "Religion as Empowerment: Global Legal Perspectives" (Routledge, 2016). More recently, she has edited a collection on "Normative Pluralism and Human Rights" (Routledge, 2018). Her latest monograph focuses on "The Right to Difference and Comparative Religious Diversity in Education" (Routledge, 2020), and her latest co-edited work focuses on "Minority Recognition and the Diversity Deficit" (Hart, 2022). At the ECMI, she is currently researching minority identity and digital governance, as well as the intersection of minorities with social movements, with an upcoming edited volume on "Minority Rights and Social Change: Norms, Actors, and Strategies" (Routledge, 2023). She is the co-editor of the book series "Routledge Advances on Minority Studies" (RAMS).

Selected publications
  • ‘Minority Rights and Social Change: A Socio-Legal Framework` (together with E. Relano-Pastor) in K. Topidi and E. Relano-Pastor (eds.), Minority Rights and Social Change: Norms, Actors and Strategies across the Globe, Routledge, forthcoming 2023
     
  • ‘Language and Religion within Cultural Autonomy Arrangements: An exercise in minority agency?’ in M. Andeva et al. (eds.) Non-Territorial Autonomy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, 185-201.
     
  • ‘Unlearning Scarcity in Ethno-Cultural Terms and the Goal of Sustainable Inclusion of Minority Groups: Between Perception and Reality’, in A. Jimenez-Montanes et al (eds.), Minorities in Times of Scarcity and Conflict, Routledge, forthcoming.
     
  • ‘Legal Pluralism as Federalism?’, in Martina Trettel and Nicolo Paolo Alessi (eds.), Federalism and the Law of Diversity, BRILL, forthcoming.
     
  • ‘Regulation of Muslim Religious Minority Groups and the European State: The Unique Case of Legal Pluralism in Greece’ in R. Medda-Windischer and K. Wonisch (eds.), Traditional Instruments for New Challenges: The Squaring of the Circle?, BRILL, 2023.
     
  • ‘Cultural Autonomy, Islamic Minority Schools and the Prospects as forms of Non-Territorial Autonomy in Western Europe’, ENTAN Policy Paper No.6, https://entan.org/entan-activity/cultural-autonomy-islamic-minority-schools-and-their-prospects-as-forms-of-non-territorial-autonomy-in-western-europe/
     
  • ‘Religious Minority Identity in the work of the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities: A Multifaceted Challenge in Evolution’, in Special Issue on Religious Minority Special Protection vs Freedom of Religion for All? A Critical Appraisal from Europe and Beyond, ed. By Silvio Ferrari, Roberta Medda and Kerstin Wonisch, Religions 12, no. 10: 858, 2021, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12100858
     
  • Minority Recognition and the Diversity Deficit: Comparative Perspectives, Hart [together with Jessika Eichler], 2022
     
  • ‘Socio-political Articulations of Minority Recognition in a Global Legal Context’, [together with Jessika Eichler], in J. Eichler and K. Topidi (eds.), Minority Recognition and the Diversity Deficit: Comparative Perspectives, Hart, 1-17 
     
  • ‘Religious Minorities’ Agency and State Recognition in a European Context’, in J. Eichler and K. Topidi (eds.) Minority Recognition and the Diversity Deficit: Comparative Perspectives, Hart, 2022, 115-134. 
     
  • ‘Minority Identity in Digital Governance and the Challenges of Online Hate Speech Regulation in Europe’, in A-M. Biro and D. Newman (eds.), Minority Rights and Unstable Orders, Routledge, 2022, 135-155. 

 

Selected conferences/workshops/guest lectures
  • 28-30 June 2023: 10th BCCE Annual Conference/ University of Utrecht (Netherlands)
    Title of paper: Mapping intersectionality for ethno-cultural minorities online: Concepts, Policies and Implications
     
  • 19-21 June 2023: 8th JURIS DIVERSITAS General Conference/University of Palermo (Italy)
    Title of paper: Intersectionality and Gender Strategies in Traditional/Minority Leadership Contexts: A Comparison between South Africa and Germany (together with Prof. Christa Rautenbach)
     
  • 8-10 June 2023: LOEWE Project Conference on Language, Society and Identity in Diverse Ethnolinguistic Contexts/ Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany)
    Title of paper: When Words Destroy Worlds: Online Hate Speech Against Religious Minorities as Harm
     
  • 21 January 2023: Politics and Internet Conference/ University of Oxford (UK)
    Title of paper: Digital Religious Identity and Muslim Women: An Intersectional Analysis of Online Hate Speech in the UK
     
  • 1-2 December 2022: Conference on the 20th Anniversary of the Croatian Constitutional Law on National Minorities/ University of Zagreb (Croatia)
    Title of paper: The future of minority cultural autonomy arrangements
     
  • 18-22 September 2022: ICLARS Conference/ Cordoba
    Title of paper: Regulation of Muslim Minority Religious Groups in the European State: The unique case of legal pluralism in Greece
     
  • 13-16 July 2022: LSA Conference, University of Lisbon
    Title of paper: The Role of Gender in Ethno-Religious Minority Leadership
     
  • 22-24 June 2022: BCCE Annual Conference, University of Hong Kong /online
    Title of paper: The Governance and Regulation of Online Hate Speech in the Post-Truth Era: European Comparative Perspectives
     
  • 20—22 June 2022: European Academy of Religion, Bologna/online
    Title of paper: Digital Religion and Minority Women: An Intersectional Analysis of online Hate Speech
     
  • 25 May 2022: St Andrews Online Minority Seminar (CMS)
    Title of paper: Unlearning Scarcity in Ethno-Cultural Terms: The goal of sustainable inclusion of minority groups
     
  • 17 May 2022: 1St BCCE Digital Equality Workshop (online)
    Title of paper: Digital Religion and Muslim Women: An Intersectional Analysis of Online Hate Speech
     
  • 12-15 May 2022: 3rd ENTAN Conference, University of Constanta
    Title of paper: State Recognition and Religious Minority Agency: Towards a new form of Non-Territorial Autonomy?
     
  • 28 January 2022: Colloque sur la Loi Confortant le Respect des Principes de la République, Université Paris II – Panthéon Assas
    Title of paper: The Limits of Religious Education: Faith Schools in the UK as an alternative option to religious diversity management
Other research and work experience
  • Editor of the book series Routledge Advances in Minority Studies (RAMS)
  • Visiting Research Fellow – Institute of Comparative Law – University Paris 2 – Assas (France)
  • Research Project on ‘Cultural Autonomy, Islamic minority schools and their prospects as forms of NTA in Western Europe’, Short Term Scientific Mission funded by ENTAN COST Action (June 2022)
  • Expert on religious minorities for the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities (Council of Europe) 4th report on Switzerland /5th cycle report on Germany
  • Assessor for the Global Pluralism Index at the Global Centre for Pluralism (Ottawa/Canada)
  • Associate Editor for the Berkeley Comparative Equality & Anti-discrimination Law E-journal (2018-2019)
  • Scientific Collaborator at the Institute of Law and Religion at the Faculty of Law of the University of Fribourg/Switzerland
  • Member of the Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies of the University of Flensburg/Germany
  • Member of the International Association of Comparative Law Younger Scholars Forum of the American Society for Comparative Law (outreach committee) (2018-2019)
  • Member of the Berkeley Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law Study Group
  • Member of Juris Diversitas
  • Scientific Expert for the International Association for the Defence of Religious Liberty
  • Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Law and Religion (published by Cambridge University Press)
  • Scientific Reviewer for Ashgate/Routledge, the online journals Religions, Erasmus Law Review and South Asia Research, Law and Social Inquiry, Laws, Social Sciences
  • Editor of the Journal for Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues (JEMIE)
  • Member of the Assessing Accession Collaborative Research Network
  • Board Member of the Research Committee on European Unification (RC-3) of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) (July 2006- July 2009)
  • Member of the European Academy of Religion
  • Member of the European Non-Territorial Autonomy Network (COST)
  • (Co)-supervisor of the postgraduate theses at the University of Flensburg (Germany)

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