International conference

On 8-9/11/2018 an international conference on Muslim minorities and the refugee crisis in Europe was organised. The conference was the second (next to the workshop) crucial event of the ref:EU project and was held at the Warsaw School of Economics in Warsaw, Poland. See the final programme.

The conference revolved around the following crucial issues:

  • What is the approach of EU member states to the migration and refugee crisis of 2014+ and to migrants and refugees in general?
  • How is the refugee crisis linked to the way Muslim communities in the EU are perceived and treated?
  • What are the differences between V4/CEE/NMS and other EU member states regarding the refugee crisis and perception of Muslims in Europe?
  • How is Islamophobia linked to the changes on the political scene in selected EU member states (e.g. the rise of nationalism or right wing parties)?
  • How in practical terms Islamophobia can be counteracted and counterbalanced?

The academic quality of the papers will be guaranteed by the conference scientific committee consisting of key European experts in Islam and migration in Europe including:

  • Wajih Ayed – assistant professor of English literature and the head of the English Department at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Sousse in Tunisia.
  • Janusz Danecki – professor at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Oriental Faculty, the University of Warsaw in Poland.
  • Marat Gibatdinov – head of the Centre of History and Theory of the National Education, Sh. Mardzhani Institute of History, Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation.
  • Simon Goodman – research fellow in psychology at Centre for Research in Psychology, Behaviour and Achievement, Coventry University in the UK.
  • Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska – associate professor in the Department of Political Studies and vice-Dean for Master Studies at the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland.
  • Gerdien Jonker – senior researcher at Erlangen Center for Islam and Law in Europe, affiliated (EZIRE) at Erlangen University in Germany.
  • Jan Misiuna – assistant professor in the Department of Political Studies at the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland.
  • Irina Molodikova – research fellow at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.
  • Marta Pachocka – assistant professor at the Department of Political Studies of Collegium of Socio-Economics, Warsaw School of Economics in Poland.
  • Egdūnas Račius – full professor at the Department of Area Studies at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania.
  • Anna Visvizi – assistant professor at Deree – The American College of Greece in Athens, Greece and head of research at the Institute of East-Central Europe (IESW) in Lublin, Poland.

We plan to publish selected conference papers in an edited peer-reviewed monograph by 2019.