Professor of Political Theory and Citizenship Studies at the Department of Political Science and Government, Aarhus University. Per Mouritsens primary research interest are migration studies, classical and modern political theory, republicanism, tolerance and multiculturalism, citizenship and public service.

He has held central positions in several international projects under the 6th EU Framework Program EMILIE concerning European perspectives on citizenship and multiculturalism. At present he acts as Head of the Danish part of "ACCEPT PLURALISM: Tolerance, Pluralism and Social Cohesion: Responding To The Challenges of the 21st Century in Europe" under the 7th EU Framework Program.

Professor Mouritsen has published in numerous international journals. His list of publications include  titles such as:

• The Fragility of Liberty:  A Reconstruction of Republican Citizenship, 2001.
• Denmarks Radio and TV2 - In the service of the people [DR og TV2 - I folkets tjeneste] (with Martin B. Carstensen og Flemming Tait Svith), 2007.
• Constituting Communities: Political Solutions to Cultural Conflict (with Knud Erik Jørgensen), 2008.

North-Western European nation states currently experience a civic turn in immigration, naturalization and integration policy and discourse, which renders nineties ideas of ‘post-national membership’ obsolete. Although optimistically diagnosed as constitutional patriotism (J.W.Müller) or liberalism (C. Joppke), the disciplinary elements and onus on social cohesion and national identity is at some distance from Habermas or Rawls. Integration programs, naturalization requirements, tests, declarations, and screening devices  reflect national citizenship cultures as forms of (mis)recognition – in a tough Hegelian sense: The new politics of recognition, far from multicultural minority rights, names good and bad citizenship, ironically recycling liberal, social democratic, and civic republican ideals as so many ways of stereotyping predominantly Muslim identities as un-civic – dependent, un-reasonable, un-democratic, and passive. The lecture suggests elements of a critique of this civic misrecognition.