Dr. Avigail Eisenberg is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and a Faculty Associate in the Indigenous Governance Program at the University of Victoria. Before moving to Victoria, Eisenberg was an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia, where she spent the first ten years of her academic career. She has held visiting research fellowships at the University of Edinburgh (1996-7), and the Universite de Montreal (2004-5). She has been a resident fellow at the Rockefeller Centre in Bellagio, Italy  and, most recently (2010-11), a visiting researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona

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Democracy and Diversity

I supervise graduate students interested in
citizenship, diversity, cultural rights, identity politics, feminism and constitutionalism.

In the coming year, I have funding available for students working in the following areas of research:

Public Institutions and the Creation of Democratic Space

I’m interested in efforts by public commissions, governments and courts to create ‘democratic space’ for minority participation in public decision making.  Students who wish to pursue projects, with a theortical, Canadian, comparative or international focus, which look at the following subject areas, are encouraged to contact me:

• How do diverse societies today construct or restrict democratic space for minority participation and consultation?
• The normative principles that ought to guide ‘the duty to consult’
• How courts construct democratic spaces and what normative principles ought to guide them in doing so.
• What is relation between a dialogical understanding of politics and the real world efforts to promote dialogue amongst different groups?
• What are the main challenges and hazards of group consultation and can these challenges be met (if they have been met)?

For further information, contact avigaile@uvic.ca

The Dilemmas of Protecting Religious Freedom Today
St Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
September 27, 2012
Annual Marshall Lecture in Public Philosophy. Sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Public Policy and Department of Philosophy
Link: Marshall Lecture

Rights in the Age of Identity Politics
Toronto, ON Faculty of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School
September 14, 2012
Workshop on The Charter of Rights @ 30

Protecting Indigenous Rights as Cultural Rights: Lessons from Canada
Lima, Peru
August 20-22, 2012
The First Annual Conference of the Constitutional Court of Peru

Voting Rights for Non-Citizens: Treasure or Fool’s Gold?
Seattle, Washington
April 5, 2012
Invited Symposium – Justice in Entry and Exit – Territory, Migration and Membership American Philosophical Association

Workshop on Reconciling Multiculturalism and Feminism: New Perspectives
Barcelona, Spain,
December 2, 2011
Department of Law | Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

Culture in Legal and Political Reasoning
Università di Cagliari
Saregna, Italy, November 21, 2011
Colloquium at the Faculty of Jurisprudence

Identity Politics in the Public Realm
University of Bristol, UK
October 27, 2011
Colloquium at the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship
Link: CSEC

Diversity and Democracy: Self-rule, shared rule and secession
Guadalajara, Mexico,
May 23-June 10, 2011
International Graduate Summer Institute.
For further information contact: Jennifer Clark at jmc9@queensu.ca

Hot Spots, Religion and Diversity
University of Ottawa,
April 26-28, 2011
Link: Religion and Diversity

Identity, Human Rights and the Law
San Diego, CA,
April 22-24, 2011
American Philosophical Association
Link: APA Pacific Division

Panel on Migration and Membership
Montréal, QC,
March 17, 2011
International Studies Association.
Link: The International Studies Association