ASEN - The Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism

170 people have signed our letter opposing the closure of the MSc in nationalism at the University of Edinburgh so far - can we get to 200 by Monday? https://asen.ac.uk/edinburghmsc/

ICYMI:❗The MSc in Nationalism in Global Perspective at the University of Edinburgh is to close from next year.

Please sign and share ASEN's letter to the Vice-chancellor, Prof Sir Peter Mathieson, asking for it to be reconsidered - head to asen.ac.uk/edinburghMSc to add your name

❗The MSc in Nationalism in Global Perspective at the University of Edinburgh is to close from next year.

Please sign and share ASEN's letter to the Vice-chancellor, Prof Sir Peter Mathieson, asking for it to be reconsidered - head to asen.ac.uk/edinburghMSc to add your name

Agustí Colomines has a touching obituary of the late Liah Greenfeld, "A Jewish Intellectual in Dissidence", at

Liah Greenfeld (1954–2026): A Jewish Intellectual in Dissidence Obituary

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Liah Greenfeld, who passed away on 13 May.

Professor Emerita at Boston University, Greenfeld was among the most influential scholars of nationalism of her generation. Her trilogy on modernity - Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity, The Spirit of Capitalism: Nationalism and Economic Growth, and Mind, Modernity, Madness: The Impact of Culture on Human Experience - reshaped how the field thinks about national identity, economic life and the modern mind, and will remain essential reading for anyone working on nationalism. The Spirit of Capitalism was awarded the Donald Kagan Prize for the best book in European history.

Greenfeld's writings were sometimes controversial and often iconoclastic, but she would doggedly fight against conformity and received wisdom. As one assessment of Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity had it, "no one will write about nationalism again without starting here".

ASEN's connection to her work runs deep: she delivered the Ernest Gellner Nationalism Lecture in 2004. Her most recent contribution to Nations and Nationalism was her part in the scholarly exchange 'COVID-19, nationalism, and the politics of crisis' in issue 26:4.

Our thoughts are with her family, colleagues and students.

This looks like a fascinating conference coming up in Budapest - we've been told that the call for papers has been extended until Sunday.

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Dominique Jacquin-Berdal Essay Prize for 2026 is Kamaran Palani for his article, "Layers of Power-Sharing: Intra-Communal Power Rivalry and Its Impact on Power-Sharing System in Iraq", available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nana.70026

Kamaran is the Principal Investigator of the Iraq PeaceRep programme at the LSE Middle East Centre. His research broadly focuses on de facto statehood, power-sharing, and dynamics of peace and conflict, with a specific focus on Iraq. His most recent monograph is "Kurdistan’s De Facto Statehood: A New Explanatory Framework", published by Routledge in 2022, and he has written for journals including Ethnopolitics, International Migration, and, of course, Nations and Nationalism.

ASEN and Nations & Nationalism established an essay prize in honour of the memory of Dominique Jacquin-Berdal who was a devoted member of ASEN and an Editor of Nations & Nationalism. The essay prize was established to encourage young scholars to publish original research in ethnicity and nationalism. Submissions are invited on all areas and themes in the field of nationalism studies.