Nasar Meer

Reader in Social Sciences

Dr Nasar Meer is a Reader in Social Sciences in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at Northumbria University and co-director of the Centre for Civil Society and Citizenship. During 2012-13 he is a Minda de Gunzberg Fellow at Harvard University and a Visiting Fellow with the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh.

He has studied at the Universities of Essex, Edinburgh, and Bristol, and during his doctoral studies held a visiting fellowship with the W.E.B. Du Dois Institute for African and African-American Studies, Harvard University. He presently holds a visiting fellowship with the University of Aarhus.

Nasar was previously a Lecturer at the University of Southampton, and a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship (CSEC), Bristol Institute for Public Affairs.

Qualifications

Research

Interests

Nasar’s research explores the relationships between minority identities and citizenship programmes. He is particularly interested in arenas of education, anti-discrimination, political participation, and public and media representation. Other interests include a European reading of the African-American ‘founding figure’ of Sociology, W. E. B. Du Bois, as well as a focus upon the role of journalists as ‘public intellectuals’. He is also researching the sociology and politics of conceptualising racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, alongside an emerging interest in Scottish Nationhood and Political Biographies.

Projects

CIVITURN

Funded by the Globalisation Initiative (2009-11) and hosted at Aarhus University Faculty of Social Sciences.

This 'Citizenship Integration in Northwest European Migration Societies' project engages with the thesis, forwarded by Christian Joppke and others, that Western European migration policy is converging towards a liberal consensus of anti-discrimination rights and labour market participation. While some such tendencies are undisputable, the project endeavours to demonstrate that migration policies – comparatively studied in Denmark, Britain, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands across a range of policy areas including education and citizenship aspects – are not just ‘liberal’ but reflective of a civic or republican turn emphasising activity, autonomy, and ‘good’ citizenship. This is manifested in different ways according to national trajectories and public philosophies of integration (which are not the same as fixed archetype ‘national models’) in part to do with national conceptualisations of citizenship as a response to questions of unity, diversity and the accommodation or non-accommodation of Muslims. Moreover, these citizen integration strategies are not only nationally diverse, but indicative of national identity concerns/nationalism. The research is in continuation of a three-year EU-funded project (A European Approach to Multicultural Citizenship: Legal, Political and Educational Challenges) which focused on the experiences of Muslim and other migrant minorities in Europe.

Muslim Participation in Contemporary Governance (2010-2013)

Funded within the ESRC/AHRC Religion and Society Programme.

This 30-month qualitative research project (based at the University of Bristol, comprising Dr Therese O’Toole (PI), Professor Tariq Modood (CI), Dr Nasar Meer (University of Northumbria) investigates the emerging significance of Muslim religious values, practices and engagement within contemporary governance in the UK.

It explores: how current government strategies and policies relating to citizenship recognise and respond to Muslim religious difference; how participatory forms of governance engage with Muslim groups, religious values and identities; and the impact of Muslims’ participation in governance on policy processes and outcomes and for the organisation of and relations between Muslim civil society organisations more broadly.

The research will be based on analysis of policy documents and qualitative research on participatory governance initiatives at national and local levels.

Publications

Meer, N. (forthcoming) 'Racialization and religion', Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Meer, N. (2013) 'Scales, semantics, and solidarities in the study of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia'. Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2012) ‘For “Jewish” read “Muslim”? Islamophobia as a form of racialisation of ethno-religious groups in Britain today’. Islamophobia Studies Journal, 1 (1), pp. 36-55.

Meer, N. (2012) 'Complicating ‘radicalism’ – counter-terrorism and Muslim identity in Britain’. Arches Quarterly, 5 (9), pp. 10-20.

Meer, N. (2012) 'Misrecognising Muslim consciousness in Europe'. Ethnicities, 12 (2), pp. 178-197.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2012) 'How does interculturalism contrast with multiculturalism?’ Journal of Intercultural Studies, 33 (2), pp. 175-197.

Modood, T. and Meer, N. (2012) 'Assessing the divergences on our reading of interculturalism and multiculturalism'. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 33 (2), pp. 233-244.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2011) 'Analysing the growing scepticism towards the idea of Islamophobia'. Arches Quarterly, 4 (7), pp. 116-128.

Meer, N. (2011) 'An overview of Muslim-state engagement in the UK'. Anglo Files, 158: 16-32.

Meer, N., Dwyer, C. and Modood, T. (2010) 'Beyond 'angry' Muslims - the representation of Muslim voices in the British press'. Journal of Media and Religion, 9, pp. 216-231.

Meer, N. (2010) 'The impact of European equality directives upon British anti-discrimination legislation'. Policy and Politics, 38 (1), pp. 197-216.

Meer, N., Dwyer, C., and Modood, T. (2010) 'Embodying nationhood? Conceptions of British national identity, citizenship and gender in the 'veil affair'' The Sociological Review, 58 (1), pp. 84-111.

Meer, N. (2009) 'Identity articulations, mobilisation and autonomy in the movement for Muslim schools in Britain'. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 12 (3), pp. 379–398.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2009) 'The multicultural state we’re in: Muslims, ‘multiculture’, and the civic re-balancing of British multiculturalism'. Political Studies, 57(1), pp. 473-479.

Meer, N. and Modood. T (2009) 'Refutations of racism in the ‘Muslim Question''. Patterns of Prejudice, 43 (3/4), pp. 332-351.

Meer, N. and Mouristen, P. (2009) 'Political cultures compared'. Ethnicities, 9 (3), pp. 334-360.

Meer, N. (2008) 'The politics of voluntary and involuntary identities: are Muslims in Britain an ethnic, racial or religious minority?' Patterns of Prejudice, 41 (5), pp. 61-81.

Meer, N. and Noorani, T. (2008) ‘A sociological comparison of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment’ The Sociological Review 56(2):195-219

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2008) ‘British multiculturalism and her Muslims’. Global Dialogue, 9 (3), pp. 87-99.

Meer, N. (2007) ‘Muslim schools in Britain: challenging mobilisations or logical developments?' Asia-Pacific Journal of Education, 27 (1), pp. 55-71.

Meer, N. (2007) 'Less equal than others? Thirty years after the Race Relations Act'. Index on Censorship, 36 (2), pp. 114-118.

Meer, N. (2006) ''Get off your knees' - Print media public intellectuals and Muslims in Britain'. Journalism Studies, 7 (1), pp. 35-59.

Editorials

Meer, N. (2013) 'The role of racialization in religion – contemporary anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment', special issue of Ethnic & Racial Studies.

Thompson, S., Martineau, W. and Meer, N. (2012) 'Introduction: theory and practice in the politics of misrecognition'. Res Publica, 18 (1), pp. 1-9.

Meer, N., Martineau, W. and Thompson, S. (2012) 'Introduction: misrecognition and ethno-religious diversity'. Ethnicities, 12 (2), pp. 131-141.

Books

Meer, N. (under contract) Despots after political death: Case studies in developing legal frameworks. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Meer, N. (forthcoming) Race and ethnicity. London: Sage.

Tryandifillidou, A., Modood, T. and Meer, N. (2011) (eds.) European multiculturalism(s):
cultural, religious and ethnic challenges. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Meer, N. and Gabler, J. (2011) Sociology for dummies. Chichester: John Wiley.

Meer, N. (2010) Citizenship, identity & the politics of multiculturalism. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Book Chapters

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (in press) ‘The 'civic re-balancing of British Multiculturalism', and beyond... ', in Taras, R. (ed.) Challenging multiculturalism: managing diversity in Europe. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Modood, T. and Meer, N. (in press) ‘Framing contemporary citizenship and diversity in Europe', in Taras, R. (ed.) Challenging multiculturalism: managing diversity in Europe. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (forthcoming) 'Contemporary developments in European citizenship regimes', in Kiwan, D. (ed.) Naturalization policies, education and citizenship: multicultural and multi-nation societies in international perspective. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Modood, T. and Meer, N. (forthcoming) 'Multiculturalism', in The Oxford companion to comparative politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Modood, T. and Meer, N. (2012) 'Framing multicultural citizenship in Europe', in: Tryandifillidou, A,. Modood, T. and Meer, N. (eds.) European multiculturalism(s): cultural, religious and ethnic challenges. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Meer, N. (2012) 'Negotiating faith and politics: the emergence of Muslim consciousness in Britain', in Ahmed, W. and Sardar, Z. (eds.) Muslims in Britain: making social and political space. London: Routledge.

Meer, N. and Modood. T. (2012) 'The multicultural states we’re in', in: Tryandifillidou,
A,. Modood, T. and Meer, N. (eds.) European multiculturalism(s): cultural, religious and ethnic challenges. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Triandafyllidou, A., Modood, T. and Meer, N. (2012) 'Introduction: diversity, integration, secularism and multiculturalism', in: Tryandifillidou, A,. Modood, T. and Meer, N. (eds.)European multiculturalism(s): cultural, religious and ethnic challenges. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Uberoi, V., Meer, N., Modood, T. and Dwyer, C. (2011) ‘Feeling and being British and Muslim’, in Modood, T. and Salt, J. (eds.) Global migration and citizenship: the UK experience. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Meer, N. (2011) 'Overcoming the injuries of double consciousness', in Thompson, S. and Yar, M. (eds.) The Politics of Misrecognition. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Meer, N. (2011) 'W.E.B. Du Bois and the politics of misrecognition', in Thompson, S. and Yar, M. (eds.) The Politics of Misrecognition. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2011) 'Diversity, identity, and multiculturalism in the media', in Cheney,G., May, S. and Munshi, D. (eds.) Handbook of communication ethics. London: Routledge.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2010) 'Islamophobia as cultural racism? Martin Amis and the racialization of Muslims', in Sayyid, S. and Vali, A.K. (eds.) Thinking through Islamophobia. Chichester: Columbia University Press.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2010) 'Refutations of racism', in Malik, M. (ed.) Anti-Muslim prejudice past and present. London: Routledge.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2010) ‘Contemporary developments in cases of Muslim-state engagement’, in Tryandifillidou, A. (Ed.) Muslims in 21st Century Europe: structural and cultural perspectives. London: Routledge.

Meer, N., Sala Pala, V., Modood, T., and Simon, P. (2009) ‘Religion, culture, identity, and education in Western Europe', in Banks, J. (ed.) The Routledge international companion to multicultural education. London: Routledge.

Reports

Modood, T., Dobbernack, J. and Meer, N. (2010) Tolerance and cultural discourse in Britain. European Commission.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2009) Public and political debates on multicultural crises in Britain. European Commission.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2009) The political and policy responses to migration related diversity in Britain's education system. European Commission.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2009) The impact of migration related diversity upon discrimination measures in Britain. European Commission.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2009) The impact of migration related diversity upon political participation in Britain. European Commission.

Modood, T. and Meer, N. (2009) Multicultural citizenship in Europe: The states we are in. European Commission.

Policy Briefs

Uberoi, V., Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2010) Submission to the Speaker's Conference on Parliamentary Representation.

Modood, T. and Meer, N. (2009) British education policy and the challenge of migration: Anti-racist, multi-cultural and citizenship education. European Commission.

Modood, T. and Meer, N. (2009) Anti-discrimination policies in Britain. European Commission.

Modood, T. and Meer, N. (2009) Minorities and political life in Britain: Increasing political participation through representation. European Commission.

Media Publications

Meer, N. and Rosie, M. (2012) On an equal footing. Holyrood, 9 April 2012.

Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2012) Interculturalism, multiculturalism or both? Political Insight, April 2012.

Smith, K. and Meer, N. (2012) REF's effort to make knowledge visible may have cloudy results. Times Higher Magazine, 23 February 2012.

Meer, N. (2011) What would independence mean for Scotland's racial minorities? The Guardian, 20 May 2011.

Meer, N. (2011) Rhetoric in spite of evidence. The Muslim Council of Britain.

Meer, N. (2007) The consequences of Muslim bad guys on-screen. The Guardian Film Blog, 27 January 2007.