Project description

David Katz’s research project aims to analyse and understand the different experiences of religious and cultural minorities in Spain’s educational system. The Spanish educational system has been trying to adapt to the potentially conflicting demands of secularization processes and increasing religious and cultural diversity in Europe. Spain has cooperation agreements with the three main minority religions (Evangelical Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) that have provisions guaranteeing their educational pluralism in public and private schools. Nevertheless, both the legally recognized and the legally unrecognized minorities still face administrative and legal impediments to achieving fully inclusive and plural religious education opportunities in the Spanish system. The rooting of these communities in Spanish society and culture, the influxes of immigrants, and new religious movements accentuate the need for Spain to develop new policies to adapt to the country's increasingly diverse religious and cultural context.

In his project, Katz takes a nuanced approach to this pressing issue by analysing case law from an interdisciplinary perspective through all stages of the cases and investigating the impact of court decisions on plaintiffs and communities. He intends to view policymakers’ and judges’ perspectives in light of the lived experiences of these minority communities to reach a broader understanding of how to address the issues at stake.

Katz has a number of resources he can draw on to facilitate the success of this project. First, with his multidisciplinary background in social and cultural anthropology and human rights law, he is well prepared to conduct ethnographic fieldwork and to identify the relevant legal mechanisms. Being at the MPI for Social Anthropology will give him the opportunity to hone the methodological skills needed to investigate empirically the impact that court decisions can have on people on the ground and to give visibility and voice to the experiences of these minorities. Finally, being a contributor to the CUREDI project will help him develop a more nuanced understanding of the different legal domains and the applicability of law in people’s lived realities.