Bio

Gëzim Krasniqi is a Career Development Fellow in Sociology and MSc in Nationalism Studies Programme Co-Director at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. He is a political sociologist with a broad interdisciplinary interest in nationalism, identity, ethnic conflict, citizenship, state-building and contested states, often with empirical focus on South East Europe. His co-edited book, Uneven Citizenship: Minorities and Migrants in the Post-Yugoslav Space (with D. Stjepanovic; Routledge 2015) focuses on the relations between citizenship and various manifestations of diversity, including, but not exclusively, ethnicity. His forthcoming book Albanian Nationalism(s) and Power Struggles in Kosovo: The Rise of a Polycentric Nation will be published by Palgrave. In addition, he is the Co-Convenor of ASEN (The Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism) Edinburgh branch and Associate Editor of Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power journal.

Project

My research project examines the role of international actors in the (lack of) political success of independence nationalist movements. The main focus of the project will be on the case of Kosovo, with Catalonia and the Kurdish Region in Iraq (KRI) serving as halfway cases that add a comparative dimension to the analysis. The main aim of the project is two-fold. First, it seeks to examine the three cases of independence movements in detail with the aim of elucidating the respective strategies of gaining international support. Second, and related, the project seeks to identify the main criteria and principles that guide international community’s and individual states’ response to independence declarations.