The Harney Program often hosts events, online or in person, that explore all aspects of citizenship, migration, and diversity with academics and researchers from around the world.
The Harney Lecture Series
Sponsored by the R.F. Harney Program in Ethnic, Immigration and Pluralism Studies and the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, the Harney Lecture Series brings prominent scholars and practitioners from around the world to explore cutting-edge topics in citizenship, migration, and diversity and to enrich the research community at the University of Toronto.
Upcoming Events
Online & in-person | April 25, 2024 | 8:00AM - 3:00PM
Please join us for a celebration of the Harney Program’s Director from 1991 to 2021, Professor Jeffrey Reitz! The morning will include an all-star panel featuring three of Jeff’s former doctoral students, Professors Rupa Banerjee, Emily Laxer, and Wendell Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey; a keynote address by Professor Richard Alba, and a short address by Professor Reitz. A lunch reception will follow.
Past Events
April 8, 2024 | 4:00PM - 6:00PM
The event's topics will include (but not be limited to) the precipitous decline in Canada’s naturalization rate; the suitability of self-administered online naturalization ceremonies and citizenship oaths; concerns over citizenship acquisition through birth; impediments to new Canadians’ access to licensed professions and position of economic, social, and political power; conflicting ideas of what constitutes ‘good’ citizenship and Canadian national identity (as reflected in citizenship guides and courses, government pronouncements, and public discourse); and the consequences of changing immigration policies for newcomers’ access to citizenship.
February 28, 2024 | 4:00PM - 6:00PM
Professor Johanna Schuster-Craig’s forthcoming book One Word Shapes a Nation demonstrates that integration politics limit how immigrants, refugees, and their descendants can participate in German society and how Germans imagine their national future.
February 12, 2024 | 4:00PM - 6:00PM
With the arrival of large numbers of refugees from Syria and Ukraine to Germany, many German municipalities have signalled that they are experiencing difficulty integrating newcomers into their social infrastructure and stressed housing markets. Towns and cities have expressed that they feel abandoned by the federal government. This development points to a contradiction in migration governance: Whereas central governments are charged with admitting refugees and migrants, local administrations are left with the task of integrating them.
February 8, 2024 | 4:00PM - 6:00PM
Canada’s immigration policy is in flux, marked by record high levels of permanent resident entries, massively expanding numbers of temporary foreign workers and international students, and falling rates of citizenship acquisition by newcomers. Public opinion, which has long supported a robust immigration policy, has soured of late, driven by concerns over how immigration may be exacerbating the housing crisis. Drawing on the insights of Canada’s top journalists, this panel examines how these developments have been covered in Canada’s leading print media outlets and where Canada’s immigration policy may be heading in the future.
November 29, 2023 2:00PM - 5:00PM
Screening of the documentary film FROM HERE. This award-winning film interweaves the deeply personal stories of four immigrants as they navigate the challenges of identity and belonging
November 24, 2023 4:00PM - 6:00PM
Lecture by Mireille Paquet, Associate Professor of Politics, Political Science, Concordia University Research Chair on the Politics of Immigration, Concordia University.
November 23, 2023 | 6:00PM - 8:00PM
External Event
November 17, 2023 | 2:00PM - 7:00PM
Lecture by Rhacel Parreñas, Florence Everline Professor of Sociology and Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Southern California and Visiting Professor, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Sociology, Princeton University.
November 16, 2023 4:00PM - 6:00PM (EST)
Lecture by Yasuko Takezawa from Intercultural Research Institute, Kansai Gaidai University and Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Research in the Humanities, Kyoto University.
October 27, 2023 5:00PM - 7:00PM (EST)
Book launch of Randall Hansen, Canada Research Chair in Global Migration, Department of Political Science & Director, Global Migration Lab, Munk School.
October 18, 2023 4:00PM - 6:00PM (EST)
Lecture by Tristan Ivory, Assistant Professor, Department of Global Labor and Work, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University.
September 20, 2023
4:00PM - 6:00PM (EST)
This event will take place in-person in Seminar Room 108N, North House, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, 1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, ON.
April 27, 2023
4:10 - 6:00 pm (EST)
Keynote lecture by Prof. Naika Foroutan, Humboldt-University, Berlin.
Discussants: Prof. Harald Bauder, Toronto Metropolitan University and Mr. Doug Saunders, The Globe and Mail.
March 29, 2023
4:00-6:00 PM (EST)
Lecture by Jennifer Elrick, Associate Professor of Sociology at McGill University
February 10, 2023
3.00-5.00 pm (EST)
Book Panel Celebrating the Publication of Rhacel Salazar Parreñas's Unfree: Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States
January 26, 2023
12:00-2:00 PM (EST)
Lecture by Martijn Stronks, Assistant Professor of Migration Law, Amsterdam Centre of Migration and Refugee Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
November 17, 2022
The Pearson Marfleet Lecture in Political Science by Paul Sniderman, Fairleigh Dickinson Jr. Professor of Public Policy at Stanford University
October 28, 2022
The Cadario Visiting Lecture in Public Policy Graduate Seminar
October 27, 2022
Cadario Lecture by Michèle Lamont, Professor of Sociology and African and African American Studies, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies, Harvard University
September 15, 2022
Lecture by Ming Hsu Chen, Professor of Law & Director of the Race, Immigration, Citizenship and Equality Program, UC Hastings
Borders, territory and rights: Changing legal cartographies of migration and mobility
June 30-July 1, 2022
Lectures by Ayelet Shachar, R. F. Harney Professor and Director of the Ethnic, Immigration, University of Toronto & Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, Yale University
June 29, 2022
Lecture by Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, Yale University
April 11, 2022
Lecture by Dur-e-Aden, Harney Graduate Research Fellows
March 31, 2022
Lecture by Miriam Ticktin, Associate Professor of Anthropology, CUNY’s Graduate Center
March 10, 2022
Lecture by Justin Gest, Associate Professor of Policy and Government, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
February 17, 2022
Lecture by Elizabeth F. Cohen Professor of Political Science, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
January 27, 2022
Lecture by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Georgetown University
November 18, 2021
Lecture by Emine Fidan Elcioglu, Assistant Professor, Sociology, University of Toronto
October 21, 2021
Lecture by Douglas Sanderson, Prichard Wilson Chair in Law & Public Policy, Decanal Advisor on Indigenous Issues, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
How embedded interventions controlled contagion: Ideas, institutions and the first vaccine in China and India
March 25, 2021
Lecture by Prerna Singh, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies, Brown University
The rise of authoritarianism and populism: Challenges to critical analyses of law
March 12, 2021
Panel with Professor Guenter Frankenberg, Goethe University, Frankfurt; Helena Alviar Garcia, Science Po Law School, Paris; Bojan Bugaric, University of Sheffield
February 25, 2021
Lecture by Kieran Oberman, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Edinburgh and Tom Parr, Associate Professor, University of Warwick
Racial borders
February 4, 2021
Lecture by E. Tendayi Achiume, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law / UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
January 21, 2021
Lecture by Noora Lori, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Pardee School, Boston University
VISIT OUR UPCOMING EVENTS PAGE FOR MORE HARNEY SERIES LECTURES, OR EMAIL US FOR MORE INFORMATION