Cluster of Excellence "Contestations of the Liberal Script" (SCRIPTS)

The project looks at how higher education institutions (HEIs) navigate the tensions between equality, diversity, and meritocracy. It aims to understand the different “diversity scripts” at play, focusing on how aspects like gender, race, and class, are either included or left out in the academic context. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research compares diversity agendas across India, Turkey, Germany, and the UK examining how HEIs strive to balance inclusion with merit-based values. This highlights the various debates surrounding the liberal approach to diversity in higher education

• Key Focus: Exploring the broader aspects of diversity in higher education.

The project explores how individuals and groups from the Global South have historically and currently engaged with liberal concepts in human rights debates. By treating human rights as a complex space where various norms come together, it emphasizes the role of Southern actors in shaping international human rights standards. The project challenges the idea that human rights are solely a product of Western liberalism, showing how voices from the Global South have influenced and challenged the ongoing conversation around human rights.

• Key Focus: Highlights voices of actors from the Global South

The "Race and Multilateralism" (RAM) project looks at how multilateralism, an important aspect of the liberal international system, has contributed to creating, maintaining, or challenging racial hierarchies. It examines the roles of multilateral institutions in shaping racial concepts and structures through various policies, agreements, and conventions. By focusing on areas like UN peacekeeping, international trade, and minority rights, the project analyzes how race impacts global governance and the credibility of multilateral institutions while emphasizing the ongoing significance of racial hierarchies in the liberal international order.

• Key Focus: Investigating the relationship between race and multilateral governance.

The "Gender, Borders, Memory" (GBM) project explores the connections between gender, historical memory, and border disputes within the liberal framework, focusing particularly on Catalan nationalism. By looking at both past and present movements, it investigates how gender identity and memory influence national identity, self-determination efforts, and ideological borders in liberal contexts. Through a mix of qualitative and historical analysis, the research sheds light on the gendered aspects of borders, nationalism, and liberal values.

• Key Focus: Examining the gendered dimensions of contestations of the liberal script.

This project explores how (perceived) socioeconomic inequalities and migration influence support for populist parties across Denmark, Germany, and Italy. It examines the role of populist rhetoric, party communication, and affective and ideological polarization, revealing how these factors vary in their impact depending on cultural and national contexts. The study highlights the complex relationship between these issues and populism, showing that while perceptions of inequality and migration can strengthen populist attitudes, they don’t always lead to direct electoral support for these parties.

• Key Focus: socioeconomic inequality, migration and populist-party rhetoric