This blogpost was authored by Dr. Clayton Chin, who is an Associate Professor in Political Theory at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Chin visited the University of Bristol in Summer 2024 to collaborate with Professor Tariq Modood in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies on the project ‘Multiculturalism and National Identity in Diverse Liberal Democracies.’
I visited and collaborated with Faculty and postgraduate students in the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship (the “Bristol School”) and the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS). As a political theorist my work is mainly conceptual and has focused both on methodological questions and, more substantively, critical and normative questions on multiculturalism, national identity and the concept of belonging.
My productive engagements with researchers at the University of Bristol were centred around my shared interests with my academic host, Professor Tariq Modood, former Director of the Bristol School. Prof Modood and I share an interest in multicultural nationalism and the politics of belonging and diversity in Western liberal-democratic states. Many Western states are experiencing new iterations of nationalist politics that reject immigration and cultural diversity. Given the dangers of these nationalisms, it is vital to understand the relationship between multicultural diversity and national unity. In particular, it is important to understand and assess paradigmatic attempts to link the cultural diversity resulting from immigration to national identity. Such “multicultural nationalisms” can illustrate a different way of representing national identity by placing diversity at the centre of a more inclusive national identity. We both see the concept of “belonging” as key to this work.
I delivered two presentations around these themes during my short visit.
- “The Question of Belonging: The Structure and Objects of Group Membership in Diverse Democracies” on June 12, 2024 to the Centre for the study of Ethnicity and Citizenship
- “A Contextualism of Contexts” on June 25 to the Political Theory group at SPAIS
Both sessions are drawn from current work on conceptualising multicultural belonging. With my academic host, I also developed material for future co-written publications, the first of which will focus on understanding the current return of majority nationalism and the importance of the majority-minority divide for understanding the politics of multiculturalism and nationalism today. These are part of larger grant plans with a shared research team.
Beyond Professor Modood, who was a most gracious host with his time and attention, I have to thank many wonderful colleagues at the University of Bristol for their interest and engagement with my work, including: Professor Jonathan Floyd, Prof Terell Carver, Dr Tim Fowler, and Prof Thomas Osborne among many other individuals. All their comments and thoughtful contributions were immensely enriching for my work. I will always remember my time at Bristol as a deeply valuable and welcoming visit.
