Faculty Expert Profile
Courses Taught
FYSE 1082: The Color Line
PSCI 0103: Introduction to Comparative Politics
PSCI 0225: West European Politics
PSCI 0240: Race Around the World: The Comparative Politics of Ethnic Diversity
PSCI 0440: The Politics of Identity in Western Europe: Nations, Citizens and Immigrants
PSCI 0450: Ethnic Conflict
Publications
Books and Book-Length Projects
Race Politics in Britain and France: Ideas and Policymaking since the 1960s, Cambridge University Press, 2003
Muslims and the State in the Post-9/11 West, editor of forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Refereed Journal Articles
"Immigration and Integration Studies in Western Europe and the United States: The Road Less Traveled and a Path Ahead," forthcoming in World Politics.
"Quantifying Hate: The Evolution of German Approaches to Measuring 'Hate Crimes'," with Ryan Hart, forthcoming in German Politics.
"Hate Crime Policy in Western Europe: Responding to Racist Violence in Britain, Germany and France," American Behavioral Scientist, 51, 2, October 2007: 149-65.
“On Democratic Integration and Free Speech: Response to Tariq Modood and Randall Hansen,” in Modood, Hansen, Bleich, O’Leary, & Carens “The Danish Cartoon Affair: Free Speech, Racism, Islamism, and Integration,” International Migration 44, 5, December 2006: 3-62
“Institutional Continuity and Change: Norms, Lesson-Drawing, and the Introduction of Race-Conscious Measures in the 1976 British Race Relations Act,” Policy Studies, 27, 3, 2006: 219-34
“The Legacies of History? Colonization and Immigrant Integration in Britain and France,” Theory and Society 34, 2, April 2005: 171-95
“Histoire des politiques antidiscrimination: du déni à la lutte,” Hommes & Migrations, no. 1245, septembre – octobre 2003 : 6-18
“Integrating Ideas into Policymaking Analysis: Frames and Race Policies in Britain and France,” Comparative Political Studies 35, 9, November 2002: 1054-76
“Antiracism without Races: Politics and Policy in a ‘Color-Blind’ State,” French Politics, Culture & Society 18, 3, Fall 2000: 48-74
“From International Ideas to Domestic Policies: Educational Multiculturalism in England and France,” Comparative Politics 31, 1, October 1998: 81-100
Book Chapters and Other Publications
“Constructing Muslims as Ethno-Racial Outsiders in Western Europe,” Council for European Studies Newsletter, 36, 1/2, September 2006: 1, 3-7, on line at http://www.europanet.org/pub/Bleich_06.html
“Des colonies à la métropole. Le poids de l’histoire sur l’intégration des immigrés en Grande-Bretagne et en France,” in Patrick Weil and Stéphane Dufoix, eds., L’esclavage, la colonisation, et après, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2005
“Racism and Racially Motivated Attacks,” in Mathew J. Gibney and Randall Hansen, eds., Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005
“Antiracism without Races: Politics and Policy in a ‘Color-Blind’ State,” in Herrick Chapman and Laura Frader, eds., Race in France: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Politics of Difference, New York: Berghahn Books, 2004
“Racist Violence – From Abhorrence to Moral Outrage,” Runnymede Quarterly Bulletin, June 2004
“Positive approach needed to ‘turn European Muslims into citizens’,” European Voice, May 20, 2004
“The Future of Civil Rights: A Dialogue,” Focus on Law Studies, Vol. XVII, No. 2, Spring 2002. Invited participant in the American Bar Association’s discussion.
“The Legacies of History? From Colonization to Integration in Britain and France” Middlebury College, CFIA Working Paper Series, 2002
“Continuity as the Path to Change: Institutional Innovation in the 1976 British Race Relations Act,” Harvard University, Center for European Studies Working Paper No. 86, May 2002
“The French Model: Color-Blind Integration,” John David Skrentny, ed., Color Lines: Affirmative Action, Immigration and Civil Rights Options for America, University of Chicago Press, 2001
“Race Policy in France,” Brookings U.S.-France Analysis Series, 2001, on line at http://www.brook.edu/fp/cuse/analysis/race.htm
“Re-Imagined Communities? Education Policies and National Belonging in Britain and France,” in Adrian Favell and Andrew Geddes, eds., The Politics of Belonging: Migrants and Minorities in Contemporary Europe, Aldershot: Ashgate/ICCR, 1999: 60-75
“Zvyhodnování mensin: Ano, ci ne?” (“Affirmative Action, Yes or No?”), Tyden, The Czech Republic, June 1, 1998
“From International Ideas to Domestic Policies: Gatekeepers, Priors and Educational Multiculturalism in England and France,” Harvard University, Center for European Studies Working Paper, March 1997
“Streets where innocence is no defence,” The Guardian, London, December 14, 1996
“French Perspectives on European Security,” Brown University, Center for Foreign Policy Development, Security for Europe Project Paper #1, December 1991
Work in Progress
“Introduction: Muslims and the State in the Post-9/11 West,” prepared as guest editor for forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
“State Responses to ‘Muslim’ Violence: A Comparison of Six West European Countries,” prepared for forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies on “Muslims and the State in the Post-9/11 West”
“Religion, Violence, and the State in 21st Century Europe,” under review
“From Freedom of Expression to Social Cohesion: The Rise of Hate Speech and Hate Crime Laws in Liberal Democracies,” under review
“The Rise of Race? Antiracism as a European Policy Domain,” with Mary Clare Feldmann
Research Projects
My book Race Politics in Britain and France: Ideas and Policymaking since the 1960s (Cambridge University Press 2003), uses theories of policymaking to examine the development of race policies on either side of the English Channel. I demonstrate the central importance of ideas in driving different policy outcomes between the two countries. Why is it, for example, that in spite of similar numbers of ethnic minority immigrants, Britain has chosen to establish certain preferences by ethnic category, whereas France eschews this kind of policy and even refuses to employ racial or ethnic criteria in its census? I argue that British and French policymakers hold different ideas about race and racism, and that these "frames" help shape each country's policies. To demonstrate the argument, I retrace the history of race policy development in Britain and France since the end of the Second World War, drawing on newly released archival material and dozens of interviews with participants in the policymaking process. This extensive empirical material forms the basis for my conclusions about the role of frames in these cases, and about the role of ideas in policymaking in general.
My current research focuses on state responses to racial, ethnic, and religious violence. In recently published and forthcoming work, I have examined topics such as British, German and French state policies toward racist violence, the construction and politicization of German's hate crime statistics, European Union policies against racism, and the commonalities among British, French, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish responses to the rising associations between violence and Islam.