Dr James Carr, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Limerick, has been appointed as Ireland’s member of the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) for a five-year term.
The appointment recognises Dr Carr’s extensive academic, research and professional experience in the areas of racism, racial equality, anti-Muslim racism and discrimination.
Dr Carr has considerable familiarity with the work of the European Commission against Racism and IntoleranceECRI, having previously worked as a consultant adviser in relation to its General Policy Recommendations and having engaged with ECRI members during work associated with the Commission’s sixth-cycle monitoring of Ireland.
His wider European work has included engagement with the European Commission as an expert adviser on anti-Muslim hatred and anti-racism.
At the University of Limerick, Dr Carr’s research focuses on racism, anti-Muslim racism, racial literacy and public sociology. His work combines academic research with practical initiatives aimed at understanding racism, documenting lived experiences and developing approaches to tackling discrimination.
He is the author of Experiences of Islamophobia: Living with Racism in the Neoliberal Era and has contributed extensively to research examining experiences of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism in Ireland and internationally.
Dr Carr has also led and participated in a number of European-funded research initiatives. These include the Sustainable Alliances Against Anti-Muslim Hatred (SALAAM) project, which brought together academic and community organisations to develop anti-racism initiatives, and more recent European collaborative research examining anti-Muslim discrimination and racism.
In Ireland, he has served on national advisory structures concerned with racial equality and racism, contributing his research expertise to the examination of how racism is experienced and how effective responses can be developed.
His appointment to ECRI will see him contribute to the work of one of the Council of Europe’s principal independent human-rights monitoring bodies dealing specifically with racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
The role provides an opportunity for Irish academic expertise and research experience to contribute to wider European work examining discrimination, promoting equality and developing measures to address racism across Council of Europe member states.
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