Changing Models of Minority Integration: Cross-National Comparison of Rights Provisions in National Constitutions

Changing Models of Minority Integration: Cross-National Comparison of Rights Provisions in National Constitutions
March 24, 2017

This human rights conference focuses on the evolution of constitutional provisions about minority rights in the last few centuries, its driving forces as well its consequences. It will assemble experts of international law, constitutional law and domestic practices to deepen our understanding about how minority rights provisions shifted over time and how those changes may have impacted the actual practice of minority politics. Our hope is that this inter-disciplinary gathering will reinvigorate comparative research on minority incorporation. The conference is free and open to the public.

Convener: Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Japanese Studies and the Donia Human Rights Center, University of Michigan

March 24, 2017, 9:00 am-5:45 pm
School of Social Work Building, ECC - Room 1840

Welcome and Introductory Remarks (9:00-9:15 am)

Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Japanese Studies and the Donia Human Rights Center, University of Michigan

Panel 1 - Global Trends and Regional Patterns of Minority Integration Policies (9:15-10:45am)

John Skrentny, Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego

Mirjam Künkler, Senior Research Fellow, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala, Sweden

Discussant: Matthias Koenig, Professor of Sociology/Sociology of Religion at the University of Göttingen and Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity

Panel 2 - Race and Minority Rights in Latin America (11:00am-12:30pm)

Mara Loveman, Professor and Department Chair of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley

Tianna Paschel, Assistant Professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley

Discussant: Paulina Alberto, Associate Professor of History, Spanish and Portuguese, University of Michigan

Panel 3 - Constitutions and Minority Rights in Japan (1:30-3:30pm)

Kenneth McElwain, Associate Professor, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo, Japan

Keigo Komamura, Vice-President and Professor of Law, Keio University, Japan

Hwaji Shin, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of San Francisco

Discussant: Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Japanese Studies and the Donia Human Rights Center, University of Michigan

Panel 4 - Constitutionalism, Minority Rights, and Social Cohesion (3:45-5:45pm)

Will Kymlicka, Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy, Philosophy Department, Queen's University in Kingston, Canada

Zach Elkins, Associate Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas

John Packer, Director, Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa, Canada

Discussant: Steven R. Ratner, Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan

Organized by Donia Human Rights Center, University of Michigan; Co-sponsored by the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership and Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan