Wresting the concept of nationhood from the clutches of nation-state groupies was always fraught with complications. Yet states are today defined less by the nation(s) in them and more, I argue, by nationhood - a term that subsumes diverse multiplex societies characteristic of an age of global migration. It entails a process in which otherwise different peoples (nativists, immigrants, indigenous communities) share a language, set of values, faith, culture, identity or ideals. When managed successfully, immigration provides an opportunity to expand the nation, beyond utilitarian considerations such as labour market needs or demographic decline. It may be a pollyannaish notion and second thoughts arise. Can nationhood be built at all when authoritarian proclivities in a political system emerge? Can only large receiving states, ironically, strive towards nationhood rather than small-sized ones which privilege an exclusionary communitarian enclave? How important is legislative representation of multi-ethnic populations when building nationhood and social cohesion? The unimaginative alternative is to use nation and nationhood as cognates.

About the presenter:

Dr Raymond Taras was born and educated in Montreal, and completed postgraduate degrees at European universities. He began publishing scholarly books in the 1980s and has authored or edited over twenty books: on the collapse of the USSR, Russia's identity in international relations, the rise of liberal and illiberal nationalisms, the internationalization of ethnic conflict, the dangers of xenophobia and Islamophobia, the critique of multiculturalism, the impact of fear on foreign policy making, and a new understanding of nationhood. In 2018-19 he is Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the Australian National University in Canberra. He served on the faculty of universities in North America and Europe including Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Vermont, European University Institute, Aalborg, Malmö, Warsaw, and Sussex. He lives in New Orleans, teaches at Tulane University, and also has his home in Salt Lake City – a Hurricane Katrina event. His personal interests are world literature, skiing, ice skating, running and border collies.