Beyond Multiculturalism? - Biographies

Panel 1

David Hollinger is the Preston Hotchkis Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. He is on the editorial board of two of the most recognized academic journals of Intellectual History: Modern Intellectual History and The Journal of the History of Ideas. His works include: ”Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism” and “Cosmopolitan and Solidarity” (2006) and “The Humanities and the Dynamics of Inclusion” (2006).

Further reading: “Obama, the Instability of Color Lines, and the Promise of a Postethnic Future”, “From Identity to Solidarity”

Jorge Gracia is a professor of philosophy and teaches at the State University of New York. He is the author of “Surviving Race and Ethnicity, and Nationality: A Challenge for the Twenty- first Century”. His research focuses on the categories of ethnicity and nationality, as well as Hispanic- American identity. During his academic career, he was President of the Metaphysical Society of America, the Society of Iberian and Latin American Thought and the International Federation of Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Steven Vertovec, social anthropologist and author of “New Directions in the Anthropology of Migration and Multiculturalism”, is head of the Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen and Director of the ESRC Research Programme on Transnational Communities. Previous positions include Principal Research Fellow at the ESRC Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick and Research Fellow at Oxford University and Director of the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS). His research interests surround transnationalism, ethnicity, religious minorities and multiculturalism.

Further reading: “Transnational networks and skilled labour migration”
“Transnational challenges to the ‘new’ multiculturalism”

Nevim Çil, researches and publishes on migration and kinship relations, and is currently researching imaginations of Europe by Turkish migrants. She graduated in 2005 at the Otto- Suhr- Institute for political science at the Free University of Berlin. In 2007 she published her book “Topographie des Außenseiters. Türkische Generationen und der deutsch- deutsche Wiedervereinigungsprozess“ [Topography of the Outsider. Turkish Generations and the German Reunification process]

Further reading: „Türkische Migranten und der Mauerfall“, German review of “Topographie des Außenseiters“

Michael Werz holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and an M.A. in philosophy, political science and Latin American studies from Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main. He is Visiting Researcher at the Institute for International Migration Studies at the Georgetown University and is a GMF fellow. Michael Werz has widely published on the areas of race, ethnicity, and nationalism in Europe and is an expert on U.S. and European foreign policy, migration policy, domestic politics, EU policy, and government relations in Europe and the United States with a developing expertise on China.

Further reading: “Herkunft ist nicht länger Schicksal”

Panel 2

Rita Süssmuth, former president of the German Bundestag and since 2006 chair of the “High Level Group on Social Integration of Ethnic Minorities and their full Participation in the Labor Market”. From 2002 to 2005 she was the German representative of the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM) under the presidency of Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary General. Besides Migration, Rita Süssmuth is focussing her work on education, demographic change and the German- Polish Relationship. She was Professor for International Pedagogics and holds several national and international honorary doctorates.

Website of Rita Süssmuth

Steffen Angenendt, senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. Within the research unit Global Issues he is responsible for research on demography, migration and security. He has published extensively on German, European and international migration policy. Before joining the Institute in 1993, he was research fellow at the Political Science Department of the Free University of Berlin. He also worked as a consultant i.a. to UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM, the German Federal Government’s Independent Commission on Immigration Reform (Süssmuth-Kommission), the Council for Asia-Europe Co-operation (CAEC), and the High Council on Migration and Integration (Zuwanderungsrat) of the German government.

Further reading: Online dossier „Migration weltweit“

Franziska Woellert geographer and and researcher at the Berlin Institut for demography and development, is co-author of the study „Unutilised Potential? On the Current State of Integration in Germany” of the Berlin- Institute. In the study, published in early 2009, the Institute is introducing an index to measure the scale of integration and examining eight immigrant groups of different descent in Germany.

Further reading: Study „Ungenutzte Potentiale“

Serhat Karakayali, sociologist, did his PhD with a book on „Metamorphosis of Illegality”. He is currently project director of amira, a project on racism and anti-Semitism in Berlin. His research focuses on the transformation of welfare states and issues of migration and citizenship; he was a researcher in the project "Transit Migration" based at the University of Frankfurt/M., Department for Cultural Anthropology. Currently, he works on social movement unionism in Europe, postfordist hegemony and modernism, urbanism and migration in the postcolonial context.

Kofi Yakpo, linguist and political scientist, is working on issues of human rights as well as linguistic hybridities and is a parliamentary assistant at the German Bundestag. Before, he was headingthe African program of the international human rights organisation FIAN International. Kofi Yapko, furthermore, is one of the founders of the legendary HipHop Formation “Advanced Chemistry”.

Panel 3

Ruud Koopmans is a political scientist and since April 2007 the Director of the research unit "Migration, Integration, Transnationalization" at the Social Science Research Center Berlin. In his research he focuses on the political, historical and cultural dimensions of integration. He holds a chair at the Vrije University of Amsterdam in “Social Change and Konflikt”. Apart from migration, his research interests are right-wing radicalism, social movements and European integration.

Ian Kemish is the Australian Ambassador to Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Before, he has been serving in positions such as in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including First Assistant Secretary, South and South-East Asia Division, First Assistant Secretary, Executive Officer, United Nations Political and Commonwealth Section. Ian Kemish holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Queensland and a Diploma of Education. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003 for his role in managing the Government's consular response to the Bali bombings of October 2002.

Wilson Fusco is a social scientist and graduated in demography at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brasil. He holds a Ph D. in Sociology. Wilson Fusco is the deputy director of the Social Science department at the Fundação Joaquim Nabuco where he works on the issues of inner-national and international migration as well as on social capital and social networks.

Further readings: „A formação de comunidades-filhas no fluxo de brasileiros para os Estados Unidos“ (portugiesisch), „Migração e emprego precário em dois contextos distintos: São Paulo e Toritama“ (portugiesisch)

Mekonnen Mesghena, journalist, works for the Heinrich Boll Foundation in Berlin where he heads the Department of Immigration. He was born in Eritrea and studied Political Science and Journalism. From 1992 till 1996 he was chief executive for the third world journalist network and co-initiator of “Media Watch Germany”. Mekonnen Mesghena has been in the curatorial team of the exhibition called “Asmara- Africa`s Secret Modernist Cits”, which has been shown in Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, London, Tel Aviv, Kairo, Lomé, Lagos and Turin so far. He writes for several national and international Magazines, radio stations and websites.

Further reading: „Zuwanderung und Integration – Das neue Gesicht Deutschlands“

Forum Young Politics

Evrim Baba is an interpretor and is now studying sociology besides her political work. In the Berlin Parliament, she is active in the committee for women and in the economic committee as well as in the committee for internal affairs. As a member of the Fraction Board and as the spokeswoman on gender issues, Evrim Baba is working on Antiracism, Antidiscrimination and the revisionism of history.

Raed Saleh, media entrepreneur, is a member of the Berlin House of Representatives for the Social Democratic Party. Moreover he is member of the commission for integration, labor and social welfare. Raed Saleh initiated the project “Stark ohne Gewalt” /”Strong without violence”, a violence prevention youth project, which is promoting a dialogue between institutions and actors concerned.

Hanaa El- Hussein holds a degree in Business Administration. Since 1996, she is Member of the Free Democratic Party in Germany. She is chair of the expert committee on immigration policy. From 2007 to 2008, she has been Deputy Chair of the Berlin FDP. She has been working as a family social worker in Neukölln.

Ramona Pop is a political scientist who has been joining the Green Party in 1997. Since 2006, she is deputy chair of the Green fraction in the Senate.

Stephan Lanz studied geography, regional and urban management as well as sociology in Regensburg, Tübingen, Rio de Janeiro and Oldenburg. He is teaching cultural studies at the Viadrina University Frankfurt/Oder and has published “Berlin aufgemischt: abendländisch – multikulturell – kosmopolitisch. Die politische Konstruktion einer Einwanderungsstadt” [Berlin Mixed Up— Occidental—Multicutural—Cosmoplitan. The Political Construction of an Immigration City].