In an age of globalization, the concept of citizenship has become problematic for a variety of reasons. On the one hand, the nation state-at least in the West-seems to have been weakened by the emergence of international corporate powers; on the other hand, ethnic and religious entities claim recognition. The global movement of peoples; the lack of participation in political processes; the retreat into the private sphere; and the social problems that accompany globalization provide a context in which it is increasingly difficult to define “citizenship.”

The Institute for the Humanities has undertaken a 3-year initiative to examine issues of citizenship from the perspective of the humanities and will be addressing such questions as: How do we define our relationship to the place where we live and work? What are our links to the institutions of the country of which we are citizens? The reasons for the uncertainties about our relationship to society and the cultural anxieties of our time need to be better understood.

A number of study groups have been organized to examine different aspects of the problems associated with citizenship. The groups will focus on the following themes: citizenship in relation to the environment, to culture, to domestic space, to social justice, to religion, to the media, to the university, and to modernity.