Alle Termine des Forschungskalenders

This Summer School aims to provide a platform for stock-taking of non-kin-state minorities (NKSM) of various categories, examining their relations with host states, and the challenges they face in realising their linguistic, socio-economic, and political rights in the absence of an external kin-state. It will bring together young academics, scholars, and minority practitioners, offering a safe, intellectually nurturing space for networking and discussing the realities and profiles of NKSM in Europe.

While kin-state politics have garnered significant scholarly and political attention (including the 2025 Summer School organised by the ECMI and the Coppieters Foundation), numerous minority communities in Europe do not benefit from the backing that kin-states provide and vary in size, territorial concentration, and legal standing. NKSM groups include territorially organised minorities (e.g. Catalans, Basques, and Corsicans), territorially concentrated but minoritised groups (West Frisians), small and endangered minorities (Sorbs and North Frisians), dispersed communities (Roma and Sinti), and Indigenous peoples (Saami and Greenlanders).

This Summer School will examine these five types of NKSM, allowing for a comparative assessment of how linguistic vitality, social cohesion, access to education, and relations with the state are shaped in the absence of a kin-state. Among other topics, Summer School participants will learn about the role of Europeanisation and international organisations in advancing the rights of NKSM.

Topics und speakers

• Conceptual foundations of the categorisation of NKSM
• The role of international organisations in protecting the rights of NKSM
• Linguistic, cultural, political, and socio-economic rights of NKSM
• Lived experiences of NKSM and their shared and specific challenges.

Summer School lecturers and speakers include Prof. Dr Vello Pettai (ECMI), Dr Ljubica Djordjević (ECMI), Dr Ruth Kircher (ECMI), Dr James Hawkey (University of Bristol), Mirjam Vellinga (Afûk), Bahne Bahnsen (FUEN), Sonja Wolf (Schleswig-Holstein State Chancellery) and many others.

Call für participants