Press Release
An audio recording from Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou, Associate Visiting Professor of Conflict Resolution, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
On March 4, 2015 at MEI, Elizabeth Prodromou presented her research on Turkey's Christian minority and how the use of secularism and Islamism in creating national identity has impacted religious freedoms in Turkey. She examined Turkey's history of promoting hegemonic strains of nationalism and a possible way toward pluralism using a broad historical perspective on Turkish identity to inform citizenship and collective action.
Listen to the full recording of the March 4, 2015 event here:
Click here to view photos of the event on the Middle East Initiative Facebook page.
About Elizabeth Prodromou:
Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou is Visiting Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution at The Fletcher School for Law & Diplomacy (Tufts University), where she teaches in the Program in International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. She is Co-Chair of the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe Study Group at Harvard University’s CES, a scholar-practitioner group exploring the geopolitics of energy and the geopolitics of identity as they relate to the interactions between the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe. Before coming to Fletcher, Prodromou served a senior diplomatic appointment as Vice Chair and Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (2004-2012). She is a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Religion & Foreign Policy Working Group, since 2011, serving on the Subgroup on International Religious Freedom, Democracy, and Security in the Middle East and North Africa. She is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at The Hedayah International Center of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism (Abu Dhabi). Her research deals with issues of religious freedom, democratization, and security threats, with particular focus on comparative religio-political regimes in the Near East and on Transatlantic responses to religious radicalism. Published widely in scholarly and policy journals and international media, she has been involved in research and advisory work for international and non-governmental organizations on religious freedom rights, and has been active in inter-faith and ecumenical initiatives in the United States, Europe, and the Mideast. Her current research focuses on the democracy effects of secularist and religious nationalisms, as well as on response strategies of religious institutions to state repression and persecution. She holds a Ph.D. and an S.M. in political science from MIT. She was awarded a Distinguished Service Award by the Tufts University Alumni Association in 2008, and she serves on the editorial boards of several academic and policy journals.