Stephen Larin

Research Interests

Politics of majority–minority group relations; politics of artificial intelligence; nationalism, especially civic nationalism; migrant integration; multiculturalism; conflict regulation, especially consociational power-sharing; relational social science; academic integrity

Stephen Larin would be interested in supervising graduate students in the areas of nationalism, migration, or the politics of artificial intelligence.

Brief Biography

Stephen Larin is an Assistant Professor of Political Studies, Coordinator of the Internship in Political Studies, and the Associate Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Diversity. Previously, he has been a Senior Researcher with the Institute for Minority Rights at Eurac Research in South Tyrol, Italy; an Endeavour Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia; and a Visiting Researcher at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Research

Dr. Larin's research is divided into two broad areas: the politics of majority–minority group relations and the politics of artificial intelligence.

The main focus of his research in the first area is the relationship between majority-group nationalism and minorities such as migrants and sub-state nations, and he is engaged in two ongoing projects. The first project focuses on the relationship between majority-group nationalism and migrant integration, especially the role of civic nationalism in so-called ‘civic integration’ policies (see, for example, “Is it really about values? Civic nationalism and migrant integration”). The second project deals with Italy’s predominantly German-speaking province of South Tyrol, and is currently focused on the possibility of revising the province's Autonomy Statute to include ‘Others’—those who do not want to declare membership in one of the three official linguistic groups, such as people from mixed-language families, migrants, and declaration objectors—in its executive proportionality rule. This change would shift South Tyrol from ‘corporate’ toward ‘liberal’ consociation, and could serve as a model for similar transitions in other cases (for the first statement of this proposal, see “Time to invite the ‘Others’ to the table: a proposal to make South Tyrol more inclusive”).

Dr. Larin’s research on the politics of artificial intelligence focuses on how AI affects the distribution of power, problems with using AI in public decision-making such as the violation of due process, how AI affects migrants and other minorities, and the relationship between AI and academic integrity. He has been teaching a fourth-year seminar on the politics of artificial intelligence since 2020.

Teaching

Dr. Larin teaches courses in comparative politics and political theory that also draw on international relations, sociology, and law. He was nominated for the Arts & Science Undergraduate Society’s W.J. Barnes Teaching Award in both 2019 and 2020, and the Alma Mater Society’s Frank Knox Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2020.

For detailed information about political studies courses and instructors, please refer to the Undergraduate and Graduate pages.