What are the layers of inequality or vulnerability that characterise the experience of religious minorities? Might they resemble some of the categories that have been developed in Critical Race Theory (e.g. structural racism, multilevel approaches to structural racism)? How can states better consider the impact of legislation that affects religious minorities?

The Alfred Landecker Programme at the Blavatnik School of Government is hosting a small two-day workshop that aims to address these key questions and to discuss the different layers of othering of religious minorities.

Constitutional law tends to understand the position of religious minorities in terms of personal and collective freedom. But the experience of religious minorities is not limited to the question of whether or not a particular set of freedoms is upheld. Their sense of belonging in a wider political community also depends on how others in society view them: the comments that they receive, the communal projects in which they may or may not be invited to participate, the extent to which secularity limits their social participation. Moreover, religious minorities might face difficulties as a result of international developments, such as waves of migration, terrorism, or transnational religious activism.