THIRD ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON MIGRATION AND DIVERSITY National Identity in Motion

Berlin, Germany, August 31st – September 1st, 2015

The Research Unit „Migration, Integration, Transnationalization“ at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center invites submissions for a multi-disciplinary conference on national identity. The conference aims to discuss national identity at different levels, for example how individuals of immigrant and non-immigrant background negotiate and express national identity (e.g., in implicit and explicit attitudes or behaviors), how national identity is reproduced by public institutions such as schools, how states define national identity through their constitutions and laws or what measures and policies governments take to foster certain forms of national identity.

Through taking a closer look at these phenomena we want to understand if and how national identity content changes and is negotiated within and between individuals or institutions and if and why the concept still matters.

We call for papers from a variety of disciplines, including social psychology, sociology, political science, history, economics and law that give an insight into the most recent academic discussions within these disciplines on national identity. We plan to combine empirical and theoretical work to answer these questions but slightly favor papers with an empirical quantitative or qualitative approach in disciplines where such research is done.

Please submit a 250-words abstract to nationalidentity@wzb.eu no later than April 10, 2015. For accepted applicants, the WZB is able to reimburse travel and hotel costs that comply with the German public travel regulation (Bundesreisekostengesetz).