MEDIA ADVISORY
New York Universitys Center for European and Mediterranean Studies will host The Boundaries of Europe: Religious Identities, State-Church-Party Relations, and the European Project on Friday, April 3, 9:15 a.m. to 6 p.m. (285 Mercer Street [between Waverly Place and Washington Place], 7th Floor Conference Room). The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 212.998.3838. Subway: R, W (8th Street); 6 (Astor Place).
Reporters interested in attending the event MUST RSVP to James Devitt, NYUs Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu. For a pdf of the complete conference schedule, please click here.
Organized by NYU Professor Michael Minkenberg, the conference addresses the question of how cultural and religious identities have informed the shaping of boundaries in European integration. It will give particular attention to the interaction and interrelations between players and ideas in this process: religious-confessional traditions as they inform the European idea and project as well as their contributions to boundary drawing; key actors, such as the national governments, the major parties, and the churches; and the various nation states, old and new members of the European Union as well as their cultural-religious alliances and conflicts, such as in the drafting of the preamble for the European Constitution or the issue of Turkish EU membership. Among the conference participants are: Jeff Haynes, London Metropolitan University; Matthias König, University of Goettingen; John Madeley, the London School of Economics; Parvati Nair, the University of London; and Minkenberg, the Max Weber Chair for German and European Studies.
Presentations include: Are There Civilizational Constraints on Turkey Joining the European Union?; Islamigration or the Other Within: Testing the Limits of European Democracy and Tolerance; Christian Churches and the European Project - Cross-Country Comparisons; and European Identity and Religions: Alterity or Plurality?
This conference is made possible through a contribution from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).