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(Left to right: VP Academic Sheila Embleton; VP Research & Innovation Stan Shapson; Canada Research Chair in Citizenship Studies Engin Isin; and President and Vice-Chancellor Lorna R. Marsden)
Prof. Engin F. Isin, York’s Canada Research Chair in Citizenship Studies, received a framed letter of congratulations from Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, presented after a luncheon honouring the University’s Canada research Chairs, distinguished research professors and Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada.
Isin’s core research involves a focus on Istanbul under the Ottoman Empire from the 16th to18th centuries as an instance of “oriental citizenship”, with the aim of leading to a deeper understanding of the changing forms of citizenship in our era. His goal is for his research to shape the international agenda on citizenship studies, which he describes as “imagining citizenship after orientalism”, thereby also influencing debates over Canadian citizenship.
Isin is an internationally recognized scholar in citizenship studies. His broader research, the bulk of which takes place within the Media Lab for Citizenship Studies at Calumet College, is concerned primarily with the relationship between cities and citizenship. It advances the thesis (now widely regarded as significant) that citizenship is not only an abstract legal status, but also a social practice that unfolds primarily in the city.
As well as his accomplishments at York, Isin is noted as North American editor and managing editor of the journal Citizenship Studies. He has published a number of articles, anthologies and books, including Cities Without Citizens (1992), Citizenship and Identity (co-author) (1999), Democracy, Citizenship and the Global City (editor) (2000) and Being Political: Genealogies of Citizenship (2002).