European Minorities: Interactions, Community Building and Sense of Belonging 2024/25 SS
Section outline
-
-
Course Title: European Minorities: Interactions, Community Building, and Sense of Belonging
Summer semester 2024/2025
E-credits: 5ECTS
Welcome!
This course is designed to offer you flexibility in your learning. You can study at your own pace, progressing according to your schedule, and revisit any class materials as needed.
However, there are three required online meetings with your instructors that you must attend at specific times:
- Introductory Session: March 3, 16:00–17:30 CET (Zoom link will be provided)
- Online Class Presentation: The date will be announced during the Introductory Session
- Final Test or Colloquium (oral discussion-based exam): Dates to be determined at the end of the semester
Course Description:
This course explores the historical and contemporary experiences of three key minority groups in Europe: Jews, Muslims, and Roma. Through an interdisciplinary approach, students will examine the complex dynamics of minority-majority relations, focusing on the social, political, and cultural challenges faced by these communities. The course will cover topics such as migration, discrimination, integration policies, and the role of religion and ethnicity in shaping group identity and community cohesion.
We will analyze how these groups have navigated their status as minorities, examining both the external pressures of exclusion and the internal processes of community-building and identity formation. A significant portion of the course will be devoted to exploring how Jews, Muslims, and Roma have developed a sense of belonging within European societies, the role of memory and trauma, and how historical events like the Holocaust, colonialism, and the Roma genocide during WWII continue to influence their identities today.
Key themes will include:
- The historical development of Jewish, Muslim, and Roma communities in Europe
- Patterns of discrimination, persecution, and resistance
- The impact of nationalism, populism, and far-right movements on these minorities
- Case studies on community-building efforts and intergroup interactions
- Policies of inclusion, integration, and the challenges of multiculturalism in Europe
- Contemporary issues such as Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and antigypsyism
Course Objectives: By the end of the course, students will:
- Understand the historical contexts and contemporary experiences of Jews, Muslims, and Roma in Europe.
- Analyze the social, political, and cultural factors influencing the integration and exclusion of minority groups.
- Critically assess the role of policies and public discourse in shaping minority-majority relations.
- Explore the ways in which these communities have built a sense of belonging and solidarity within European societies.
- Develop an informed perspective on contemporary issues of social inclusion and minority rights in Europe.
Effects:
This course provides students with a deeper understanding of the experiences of minority groups in Europe and invites reflection on broader questions of identity, belonging, and multicultural coexistence in contemporary society.
Course Requirements:
- Taking quizzes based on chapters‘ readings and visual accompanying materials (interviews or short documentaries)
- Online class presentation analyzing a specific community or issue related to Jewish, Muslim, or Roma experiences
- Final test or Colloquium (oral discussion-based exam)
· Successful quiz completion 25%
· Online class presentation 25%
· Final test or Colloquium (oral discussion-based exam) 50%
This course European Minorities: Interactions, Community Building and Sense of Belonging was supported by the Erasmus+ grant EUphony 2022-1-CZ01-KA220-HED-000089285 „Jews, Muslims and Roma in the 21st Century Metropolises: Reflecting on Polyphonic Ideal and Social Exclusion as Challenges for European Cohesion“. The grant was awarded by the Czech National Agency (DZS) under the delegation of the Education, Audiovisual, and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Union.
Disclaimer: The didactic materials provided in this course are intended solely for personal learning purposes. Redistribution or sharing of these materials outside the course is strictly prohibited.
-
-
-
The lecture on Intersectionality in Minority Studies explains the concept of intersectionality, developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw, to describe how different aspects of identity—such as race, gender, and class—combine to shape individuals' experiences. Through examples from Jewish, Muslim, and Roma communities, the lecture examines issues such as tokenism, misrepresentation, and the complexities of power dynamics within minority groups. It emphasizes the importance of using an intersectional approach to gain a deeper understanding of these issues and to create more inclusive research and policies.
-
Students mustReceive a gradeReceive a passing gradeReceive a pass grade or complete all available attempts
-
-
-
-
Students mustMark as done
-
Students mustMark as done
-
Students mustMark as done
-
-
-
Students mustMark as done
-
An academic book edited by prof. Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska [CC BY-SA 3.0]
-
Please read the fragment of the academic paper on the Islamophobia in Poland and think about how it differs from the similar trends in the Western European states.
Monika Bobako, Semi-peripheral Islamophobias: the political diversity of anti-Muslim discourses in Poland, "Patterns of Prejudice", 2018, Vol. 52, No. 5, 448–460, https://doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2018.1490112.
-
Students mustMark as done
Couple of links and files to the websites of and about minorities in Poland.
Muslims:
Muslim Religious Union in Poland (MZR) - in Polish
Muslim League in Poland (LM) - in Polish
What does a Pole think when they hear 'Muslim' - interview with Konrad Pedziwiatr, PhD
Attitude to Islam and Muslims (2015) - a poll by the Polish Centre for Public Opinion Research (CBOS)
Imaginary Muslims: How the Polish right frames Islam - a research article at brookings.edu
The Muslim Community in Poland Today - article from the portal co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland
-
Students mustReceive a gradeReceive a passing gradeReceive a pass grade or complete all available attempts
Here is a quiz summing up the class on Muslims in Poland. The questions are based on the video class and fragment of the article on the diversity of Polish Islamophobia. You can consider it a warm-up before the final exam.
-
-
Please read the paper and reflect on the main driver of the Jewish identity formation in contemporary Poland.
K. Gebert, Revival? Rebirth? Renaissance? What happened to Polish Jews over the last four decades? Nordisk Judaistik/Scandinavian Jewish Studies, 2020 .
S. Krajewski (2023) The concept of de-assimilation: the example of Jews in Poland. Contemporary Jewry 43: 733–758
Additional reading
A. Grabski, P. Grudka P (2023). Poland after the Second World War, 1944–2020. In Sources on Jewish Self-Government in the Polish Lands from Its Inception to the Present edited by François Guesnet and Jerzy Tomaszewski: 556-576.
-
Students mustReceive a gradeReceive a passing grade
This is a multiple-choice quiz, please note that more than one answer may be correct.
-
-
-
Students mustView
Muslim minorities in Krakow - interview with dr Magdalena Pycinska
-
Please read the two texts by Rogers Brubaker, they will help you in answering quiz questions.
Presentation focuses on main current theoretical frameworks of religion studies, centring Islam and Muslims. The analysis is mainly based on Rogers Brubaker’s notions of categorization of Muslims and the problem of ethnicity and identity.
In *"Categories of Analysis and Categories of Practice: A Note on the Study of Muslims in European Countries of Immigration"* (2013), Rogers Brubaker argues that the study of Muslims in European immigration contexts must carefully distinguish between "categories of analysis" and "categories of practice." He defines **categories of analysis** as the conceptual frameworks scholars use to interpret social phenomena, and **categories of practice** as the terms and classifications people in everyday life use to make sense of the world. Brubaker critiques the tendency of social scientists to adopt everyday categories of identity, such as "Muslim," uncritically as analytical tools. He warns that this can essentialize complex identities and obscure the diversity within groups. By doing so, researchers risk reinforcing the very social divisions they seek to analyze. Brubaker thus advocates for an analytical approach that recognizes the fluidity and contingency of identities, urging scholars to approach "Muslim" as a constructed category rather than a fixed, homogenous group.
In *Ethnicity without Groups* (2004), Brubaker expands his critique of essentialism and reification in social science, particularly with respect to ethnicity, race, and nationalism. In **Chapter 1**, he questions the assumption that ethnic groups are solid, bounded entities. He argues that social scientists tend to "groupism," treating ethnic groups as real, unitary actors with stable, clear-cut boundaries. Brubaker proposes a shift away from thinking in terms of groups and towards an understanding of ethnicity, race, and nationalism as **processes**—dynamic interactions and discourses that shape and reshape identity over time. He calls for a focus on **categories**, events, and practices that produce groupness rather than assuming the existence of fixed groups.
In **Chapter 2**, Brubaker continues his critique by examining how ethnicity, race, and nationalism are **produced and mobilized** in different contexts. He emphasizes the role of **political entrepreneurs** and institutions in fostering a sense of groupness among populations, often for strategic reasons. He critiques scholars for reinforcing this dynamic by using reified categories that obscure the contingency and fluidity of social identities. Instead, Brubaker encourages an approach that is more **event-centered**, focusing on moments and contexts where group boundaries are drawn, questioned, or redrawn, rather than assuming those boundaries are permanent.
-
Opened: Friday, 31 January 2025, 6:15 AMStudents mustReceive a gradeReceive a passing grade
To complete this part of the course, please take up a quiz based on the two texts of Rogers Brubaker, that you can find above.
-
In the *Afterword* of *Ordinary Lives and Grand Schemes: An Anthropology of Everyday Religion* (2012), Robert Orsi reflects on the themes explored in the volume, particularly the tension between the grand narratives or theological systems of religion and the lived, everyday religious practices of ordinary people. Orsi's central argument is that academic studies of religion should give greater attention to the **everyday lived experiences of religious people** rather than focusing solely on formal doctrines or institutionalized beliefs.
-
-
-
-