‌On 15^th March we are holding a one day symposium:‌

Citizenship in an Era of Fragility: Identities, Inequalities and Imaginations.

The free event features keynote addresses by three distinguished experts:

• Michele Lamont (Harvard University)
• Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (Emory University)
• Les Back (Goldsmith, University of London)

Gaining citizenship implies access to justice, recognition and resources, while its denial has material and socio-cultural consequences for both equality and identity. We live in a time where a range of groups are finding themselves under suspicion that they do not belong, or that they are not doing enough to earn the rights of citizenship.  However, we also live in a time when new voices, coalitions and strategies are emerging, which call for alternative imaginaries of how societies can be expansive and inclusive.

The symposium seeks to address these issues, asking both why citizenship has become so fragile an ideal and so limited in scope, and also how it could be broadened and redefined to offer something of value to those currently rejected and denied access to it.

Our three keynote speakers will explore these questions and members of research groups in Sociology at Newcastle will respond to their arguments in a series of lively roundtable discussions open to attendees to engage with.

This free event is organised by the subject area of Sociology at Newcastle and funded by the Faculty of the Humanities and Social Sciences.