Stephen Larin
Associate Director and Assistant Professor
Political Studies
Queen's University
Dr. Larin’s primary research focuses on the politics of majority–minority relations, particularly the relationship between majority-group nationalism and minorities such as migrants and sub-state nations. He is currently engaged in two projects in this research area. The first focuses on the relationship between majority-group nationalism and migrant integration, especially the role of civic nationalism in so-called ‘civic integration’ policies (see, for example, “Is it really about values? Civic nationalism and migrant integration”). The second project deals with Italy’s predominantly German-speaking province of South Tyrol, and is currently focused on the possibility of revising South Tyrol’s Autonomy Statute to include ‘Others’—those who do not want to declare membership in one of the Province’s three official linguistic groups, such as people from mixed-language families and migrants—in its executive proportionality rule. This change would shift South Tyrol from ‘corporate’ toward ‘liberal’ consociation, and could serve as a model for similar transitions in other cases (for the first statement of this proposal, see “Time to invite the ‘Others’ to the table: a proposal to make South Tyrol more inclusive”).
Dr. Larin’s more recent, secondary research area is the politics of artificial intelligence. He teaches a fourth-year seminar on this subject, and is working on articles that address topics such as what makes artificial intelligence political and the inconsistency of governance decision-making by ‘black-box’ artificial intelligence with the rule of law.