Eric Kaufmann                         

Reader in Politics and Sociology

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7631 6791
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7631 6787
e-mail: e.kaufmann@bbk.ac.uk

• Religion and demography; nationalism and ethnicity; political demography of religion / nationalism / ethnicity; Orangeism; Anglo-American identity; dominant ethnicity; cosmopolitanism and universalism; and Canadian identity. For more, see Eric's Homepage at: www.sneps.net/epk.html. Site contains links to all research interests by theme, as well as papers, conferences and projects as well as a link to all courses taught with downloadable readings and lectures (course material is restricted to Birkbeck Students only).

• Eric's new book, Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth, will be published by Profile Books on 15 March, 2010.

• Eric Kaufmann was a Fellow in the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, Belfer Center for Science in International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2008-9. He also held an ESRC award in 2005-6 concerning the political demography of religious fundamentalism. See his religious demography project homepage for details. The site contains articles and descriptions of books as well as conference details, links and a project description. Also see Eric's related Political Demography website: http://www.sneps.net/RD/poldem.htm.

Latest Highlights

Upcoming:

• Upcoming Book: Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? (London: Profile Books, March 2010)

• 4 March 2010, 7pm Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London: Appearance at Jewish Book Week, on panel with Dominique Moisi and John Kampfner on panel on 'Threats to our Democracy'

• 10-13 March 2010: 'Sacralization by Stealth?: The Religious Consequences of Low Fertility in Europe', for conference on "Causes, Consequences & Responses to Low Fertility,” hosted by the Social Trends Institute, Barcelona

• Upcoming edited book: Political Demography: identity, conflict and institutions, edited by J. A. Goldstone, Eric Kaufmann and Monica Duffy Toft. (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2010), forthcoming

• (with V. Skirbekk), "'Go Forth and Multiply': the Politics of Religious Demography" in Political Demography: identity, conflict and institutions, edited by J. A. Goldstone, Eric Kaufmann and Monica Duffy Toft. (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2010), forthcoming

Recent:

• 17 Oct, 2009: “Only an atheist can be a good Christian; only a Christian can be a good atheist”, Verso Book Launch Debate on Ernst Bloch's Atheism in Christianity, Saturday 17th October 2009, 3pm – 5pm, Room B35, Birkbeck College  London (podcasted event)
• research mentioned in 'A Nightmare for Richard Dawkins: statistics show that atheists are a dying breed', Ed West, Daily Telegraph (UK), 18 September 2009
• 'The Return of Economic Nationalism’, Providence Journal, June 20, 2009
• ''The Changing Face of Israel' (co-authored with R. Cincotta), Foreign Policy (web exclusive), June 2009

• 'The Global War for Souls', a review of John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, 'God is Back', Prospect, June 2009

• ‘The Role of Islam in the Re-Sacralization of Europe’, for conference on ‘The Political Future of Muslim Communities in Western Europe: Implications for Western European States in 2030’, National Intelligence Council and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the U.S. Department of State, May 29, 2009, Washington, DC

• Conference: 'Demography and Security: the Politics of Population Change', Weatherhead Center, Harvard, organized by Monica Toft, Jack Goldstone and myself, May 7-8, 2009

• The Orange Order: A Contemporary Northern Irish History (Oxford University Press 2009), now out in revised paperback edition for £20

• Article on the legacy of the late Samuel Huntington, ‘The Meaning of Huntington’, in Prospect magazine, February 2009

• My research mentioned in Anthony Gottlieb's article, 'Faith Equals Fertility', Intelligent Life (Economist), Winter 2008

• ‘Peaceful Xenophobes’, Prospect, November 2008

• Commentary on my November 2006 Prospect/Newsweek article, 'Breeding for God' at Richard Dawkins.net

• Winner of Political Studies Association 2008 Richard Rose Prize: 'awarded to a younger scholar who has made a distinctive contribution to the study of British politics (including Northern Ireland), through the publication of books and articles'

• My Prospect article was printed in abridged form as 'Faith's Comeback' in the November 7-13 issue of Newsweek International edition
• My article, 'Breeding for God' was published in the November 2006 issue of Prospect as the cover story
• 'The End of Secularisation in Europe' on BBC Radio 4's 'Thinking Allowed' Programme, Wednesday, 4 October. To hear the programme live, click on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/thinkingallowed/thinkingallowed_20061004.shtml  or download directly here.

Other Past Items

Main Research Interests:

• Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Religiosity, Fertility and Politics

• The Political Demography of Ethnicity, Nationalism and Religion

• Dominant Ethnicity: Majority Groups and Dominant Minorities

• The Rise and Fall of Anglo-America: the Decline of Dominant Ethnicity in the United States

• Orangeism

• Canadian Identity

• Comparative Nationalism and Ethnicity

• Cosmopolitanism and Universalism

Click Here to Download My Articles, Papers, Book Extracts & Other Publications

Download Current CV

Birkbeck Students: Click Here to access Teaching & Course Content

Electronic Media

• 31 January 2008: Press TV. Live debate on the question of whether secularism is a prerequisite for democracy in the Arab world

• January 2008: published interview on secularization and religious demography with Revista Palabra, Spanish-based Catholic monthly magazine

• 25 November 2007: BBC Northern Ireland 'Sunday Sequence' on my book, The Orange Order

• 24 October 2007: Ulster Television (UTV) re Loyalist decommissioning

•  12 July 2007: BBC Radio Ulster 'Stephen Nolan Show' Programme re Belfast Twelfth Parade

•  22 June 2007: Interviewed on Italian television at conference in Rome. About inter-ethnic relations, comparing the UK and Italy

•  7 May 2007: BBC Radio Ulster 'Talkback' Programme regarding my new Orange Order book

•  4 October 2006: BBC Radio 4 'Thinking Allowed' with Laurie Taylor. Live discussion about recent article on the 'End of Secularisation in Europe' (religious demography)

• 11 August, 2005: BBC News 24 TV 'Multiculturalism Survey', live debate with two

other panelists re multiculturalism in context of Islamism/London bombings

• 9 June, 2005: BBC 2 TV Northern Ireland (live) Breakfast program, Belfast (UK) -

Comment on the future of the UUP and UUP-Orange connection

• 7 May, 2005: SKY TV (Live) News 4:30pm, London (UK) - Comment on May 2005

Northern Ireland election result for the Ulster Unionist Party and David Trimble's

resignation

• 4 March, 2005: SKY TV (Live) News 9:30pm, London (UK) - Comment on

implications of murder of Robert Macartney and Sinn Fein 100th Anniversary Ard

Fheis

• 23 February 2005 – Financial sanctions against Sinn Fein: Dr Eric Kaufman – ‘Peace

process needs major concession from Sinn Fein’ – politics.co.uk interview, London

(UK)

• 9 February, 2005: SKY TV (Live) News 7:30pm, London (UK) - Comment on

implications for Northern Ireland Peace Process of Tony Blair’s apology to the

Guildford Four

• 8 July, 2004: Michigan Public Radio ‘Stateside’ show: 20-minute interview with host

Charity Nebbe regarding my book ‘The Rise and Fall of Anglo-America’

• 20 March 2004: Belfast News Letter, N. Ireland (UK). Interview on UUP research for

story ‘Traditional Versus Modern Tells Tale Amid the Voters’ by Ross Smith.

• 8 November 2002: Radio Ulster, Belfast, N. Ireland (UK) – Interviewed re Orange

Order research for religious affairs programme

Teaching

• Nationalism & Ethno-Religious Conflict (p/g)

• Nationalism in International Context (p/g)

• Formation of Modern Societies (u/g)

Research Projects

• Eric Kaufmann held an ESRC grant entitled 'A Dying Creed?: The Demographic Contradictions of Liberal Capitalism' during 2005-6.
  See the project homepage: http://www.sneps.net/RD/religdem.html The site contains articles and descriptions of books as well as conference details, links and a project description. Also see Eric's related Political Demography website: http://www.sneps.net/RD/poldem.htm

• Eric Kaufmann was part of a project on the Popular Unionism of the Orange Order and UUP in the ESRC's Devolution and Constitutional Change Programme during 2004-5. The project has its own page on the Devolution programme website: www.devolution.ac.uk/Patterson2.htm

• Eric Kaufmann completed an ESRC academic fellowship entitled 'Dominant Ethnicity and Social Change' during 2001-3.
  See further details at:
  http://www.sneps.net/OO/orange.html
  The site contains maps, articles and descriptions of books about Orangeism as well as conference details, links and a project description