When: Tuesday April 3, 9:30-11:00 AM
Where: Indiana Historic Landmarks Foundation Building 340 W. Michigan St. Indianapolis 46202
Maritta Soininen is an Associate Professor at the University of Stockholm. Her research interests are public policy, policy implementation, and political participation in the field of migration and ethnic relations. She is currently program leader responsible for ‘Diversity Practice and Policy’, a multidisciplinary research programme (2000-2006), at the Swedish National Institute for Working Life. The aim of the program is to develop strategies for diversity in the multi-ethnic Swedish working life. The research is being carried out in collaboration with research groups, in among other countries, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Denmark and the USA. She is further responsible for a multidisciplinary comparative research project entitled Diversity and Anti-Discrimination Policies in the Diverse World of Work, 2003-2005, funded by Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research. The project addresses the translation of the EU anti-discrimination and diversity policy and legislation into legislative policies, administrative practices, and also public discourses.
In the research project Municipal Parties, Immigrant Politicians and Immigration Policies, she examined the relative exclusion of immigrants from participation in the Swedish political arena. She has further studied the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion of minorities in Swedish political parties, in particular in processes of nomination of political candidates. Together with Dr. Mark Graham, Stockholm University, she has also analysed Swedish national policies for combating ethnic discrimination in the working life for the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. They have also contributed with Positive action in Sweden: from central solutions to local responsibility for combating ethnic discrimination.