Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity

The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity is one of the foremost centers for the multi-disciplinary study of diversity, in its multiple forms, in today’s globalizing world. The Institute consists of three independent departments. The Director of the Department of Religious Diversity is Professor Dr. Peter van der Veer. Professor Dr. Steven Vertovec is the Director of the Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity. Professor (Univ. of Toronto) Dr. Ayelet Shachar is the Director of the Department of Ethics, Law and Politics.

As societies across the globe become ever more diverse, pressing new challenges emerge to the fore, motivating the study of questions such as the relationship between mobility and inequality; the interaction of globalization, religious diversity, and the secular state; the legal boundaries of cultural accommodation; global cities and super-diversity within them; new forms of membership and belonging; and the trans-bordering networking of ethnic and religious minorities. These thematic clusters provide a glimpse into the foundational queries that animate the rigorous scholarly investigation pursued by researchers at the Institute through a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including, but not limited to, anthropology, sociology, political science, and law.