Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies
The Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies (CEMS) is an interdisciplinary research centre within the School's Law and Social Sciences Faculty. Its ambit involves interdisciplinary and cross-regional approaches to the study of ethnic minority issues.
The Centre’s remit is to:
- promote research and teaching in the field of ethnic minority studies, with particular reference to interdisciplinary legal studies;
- give a higher profile to ethnic minority studies at SOAS and to strengthen the reputation of SOAS as a centre of excellence and unique expertise in this field;
- serve as a forum for presenting the results of such research and teaching for staff and students within SOAS and for researchers and interested persons from other institutions and organisations;
- facilitate research funding applications and link projects in this field.
CEMS is based in the SOAS School of Law and is a re-incarnation of the earlier Group for Ethnic Minority Studies (GEMS) which was established in 1988. GEMS actively pursued research and teaching on ethnic minority issues with special reference to legal studies and has developed a national profile for SOAS as one of the leading academic centres of excellence in immigration and refugee studies, as well as ethnic minority legal studies. While the GEMS series of publications on Ethnic Minority Studies in co-operation with Trentham Books has been discontinued, a series of studies arising from the work of CEMS members has appeared in various publishing outlets, mainly Cavendish, Ashgate and Routledge.. The School now has, in several departments and programmes, an active research and teaching programme related to ethnic minority studies and it is evident that more research work will develop out of such initiatives.
In 2003 Prof. Werner Menski, the Centre Chair, was awarded an AHRB grant of £226,000 for a three-year research project on 'Jaina Law and Identity in India and the UK' which was duly completed and is leading to spin-off work at present. This project could serve as a model for future research on ethnic minority communities and their specific socio-cultural and legal concerns.
The following postgraduate and postdoctoral students are associated with the Centre:
Mr Biswajit Chanda (PhD candidate)
Law reform relating to family law in Bangladesh and debates on the uniform civil code.
Dr Fauzia Shariff (ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow)
Social justice for marginalised communities in India and Bangladesh with reference to a diasporic adivasi/tribal community. In particular using legal pluralism and power relations to understand how inequalities are formed and resisted in everyday society by marginalised groups and individuals.
Mr Sebahattin Abdurrahman (PhD candidate)
A study of the educational rights of minorities under international law, analysing minority education policies applicable to the Turkish minority in Greece. The study initially examines international human rights instruments, Greek domestic laws and the role of local actors.
Mr Jonathan Ercanbrack (PhD candidate)
An analysis of the Turkish diaspora in Germany and how devout Muslims are navigating a secular and modern society.
CEMS will be holding a series of seminars on ethnic minority issues, which will take place on most Wednesdays at 5pm this term, organised by Biswajit Chanda – details will be available on the ‘Events’ section of the SOAS website.
