Dr Siobhán Mullally awarded IRCHSS thematic project grant for research programme on Gender, Multiculturalism and Religious Diversity in contemporary Ireland.
Dr Siobhán Mullally awarded IRCHSS thematic project grant for research programme on Gender, Multiculturalism and Religious Diversity in contemporary Ireland.
Dr Siobhán Mullally was awarded a major IRCHSS thematic project grant for a 3 year research programme on Gender, Multiculturalism and Religious Diversity in contemporary Ireland. The project is interdisciplinary in focus and will be undertaken in association with Dr Linda Connolly and Dr Catriona Ni Laoire, U.C.C.The project focuses on conflicts between gender equality and religious practices in contemporary Ireland. The project comes at a critical time in policy debates on integration and social cohesion.
Over the last decade, inward migration has increased religious diversity within the State, while public discourse has become more secularised. New social movements and religious communities are engaging with the State to secure recognition of diverse religious practices. The re-emergence of religion as a significant social force in western liberal democracies has led to an increasing polarisation between feminist movements and multicultural politics. At its crudest, this polarisation is evident in disputes between advocates of group-based citizenship and minority rights, on the one hand, and feminists, advocates of integration policies and proponents of secularism, on the other. At the root of this polarisation is a failure to recognise diversity within religious communities or to explore strategies for renegotiating inherited traditions. This failure presents a number of risks, potentially leading to ill informed policy decisions. This project will identify strategies to avoid such risks and, specifically, will:
- Document and analyse engagements with gendered religious practices in contemporary feminist, minority rights and anti-racist movements in Ireland;
- Document and analyse engagements between the State and new religious communities concerning gendered practices;
- Document and analyse contemporary legal responses to gendered religious practices, assessing the salience of religious claims in legal disputes, their relevance for legal commitments to gender equality;
- Explore the changing role of religion in legal discourse in Ireland and its significance for State responses to gendered religious practices;
- Explore legal and advocacy strategies to move beyond the current polarisation of debates between feminism and multiculturalism.