This project addresses two themes of the call, the emerging politics of threat and shifting identities and representations, in relation to the presence of Muslims in European public spheres. Through two phases of research, followed by an action phase involving civil society and policy actors, the project aims to (a) consider common discourses of threat accompanying the growing presence of Muslims in four European societies with different traditions of minority inclusion; (b) to move beyond such ‘problem oriented’ approaches by examining the shifting identities and representations of Muslims as these are emerging in an era of ‘democratic deficit’. A key aim is to identify individual and collective discourses, practices and strategies in the re-elaboration process of what it means to ‘be Muslim’ in a polarized Europe, by focusing on responses to stigmatization and exclusion. A final action phase (c) will seek to transfer innovative practices of engagement and dialogue across the different European contexts. The project will make use of an ethnographic approach that involves mapping cultural production and activism through extended engagement with Muslims in urban settings, and with a special focus on youth and gender. While acknowledging the discourses of threat that pervade representations of Muslims in European public spheres, the project distinguishes itself from much of the research that represents Muslim agency in a stultifying manner. By focusing on new forms of engagement and dialogue in collaboration with civil society actors, the project seeks to promote more inclusive societies in a period of growing anxiety and mistrust.

DeCoSEAS is a transnational NL-FR-UK research project that renegotiates established understandings of heritage curation. An experienced, cross-disciplinary team opens up three unique collections, located in Europe, with extremely rare music and sound from Southeast Asia (SEA), that have worldwide fame in terms of their quality, quantity and diversity, but are barely accessible. DeCoSEAS facilitates: ● physical access for SE Asian stakeholders (WP1), ● online access for scholars, artists and stakeholders worldwide (WP2), ● publication channels about heritage curation for SE Asian stakeholders (WP3), and ● outreach projects for culture consumers worldwide (WP4). Each WP is devised to achieve corresponding objectives: 1. Interrogate the colonial patrimony of archives, 2. Conceive a new digital curational framework, 3. Transfer publishing and editing agencies about heritage curation to heritage stakeholders, and 4. Democratize curatorial practices. The objectives constitute DeCoSEAS envisaged decolonization of heritage curation that acutely responds to current public and academic debates on de/colonization and heritage restitution. The project is a pilot study for this vision adopting a knowledge chain with three formative orientation points: the improvement of access to heritage, the transfer of agency to stakeholders of heritage, and the diversification of the dialogue about heritage curation. DeCoSEAS employs a paradigm-shifting methodological approach focused on hearing and listening as dialogical modes of knowledge formation. It complements conventional academic faculties of watching and reading as modes of singular objectification. DeCoSEAS strives for the inclusion of voices, stances and interpretations that have hitherto remained unheard in existing discourses about heritage by attending to multiple, time-bound and intricately entangled voices simultaneously (those recorded from the past and those from SE Asian partners today). With these action plans, DeCoSEAS aims to provide new insights in and new practices of heritage curation and participation.