Alana Lentin

Vita

I am a political sociologist and social theorist. I work on the critical theorisation of race, racism and anti-racism and have done extensive research into the contemporary politics of (im)migration and collective action for migrants' rights. I am currently focusing on the perceived crisis of multiculturalism both in Europe and in a global perspective with a special focus on interconnections between Europe and India. My first book published in 2004 is entitled Racism and Anti-Racism in Europe (Pluto Press, 2004). I have also co-edited Race and State with Ronit Lentin (Cambridge Scholars' Press, 2006), the paperback edition of which was published in September 2008. My latest book, an accessible insight into my approach to racism, Racism: A beginner's guide, is published by OneWorld in 2008. The Politics of Diversity in Europe, co-edited with Gavan Titley of the National University of Ireland, is published by the Council of Europe in 2008. Together with Gavan Titley, I have been commissioned by Zed Books to write The Crises of Multiculture? In addition, I publish regularly in European Journal Social Theory and Patterns of Prejudice among other journals.

ICI Project (2010)

The Crises of Multiculture?

During the fellowship I will be working on a book to be published by Zed Books entitled The Crises of Multiculture? co-written with Gavan Titley (National University of Ireland). This book aims to critically intervene in the broad consensus that ‘multiculturalism’ has failed, and that, in the context of the ‘war on terror’, anxieties over Islam and Muslim populations, and globalised migration, western nation-states must re-assert national and liberal values within the context of robust policies of integration. Against this, we contend that ‘multiculturalism’ has never existed as a distinct era in policy and public values. However, it now acts as a discursive space in which contemporary anxieties concerning race, the nation-state and legitimate belonging can be mediated, and through which broader anxieties stemming from neoliberal disjuncture can be managed. The widespread rejection of ‘multiculturalism’ in favour of ambivalent discourses of ‘integration’ provides a critical moment for the re-articulation of anti-racism.