Katayoun Alidadi

Katayoun Alidadi is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies in the Politics, Law & Society Department. Her teaching and research interests are in comparative law, law and society, international business law, gender and the law, and housing law and development. She joined Bryant University in 2017 after teaching at the University of Houston Law Center and practicing corporate, banking and business law in Belgium and in California. She was also affilliated with the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Halle/Saale, Germany) as a post-doctoral fellow and later a Research Partner.

Prof. Alidadi holds a PhD in Law from the KULeuven (Leuven, Belgium). In her doctoral thesis, she compared the legal treatment of religious symbols and practices in employment relations and unemployment benefits litigation in both Europe and North America. She holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School (Cambridge, Mass.) and has won a number of research and writing awards, including the 2013 Ius Commune Prize for her research on reasonable accommodation for religion and belief and the Addison Brown Prize at Harvard Law School for her paper on the recognition of Islamic talaq (divorce) in Western jurisdictions.

A proponent of life-long learning, Prof. Alidadi obtained an MBA in International Business from Bryant University in 2023 and travelled to Dubai on the Graduate International Experience (GIE).

She is the author of Religion, Equality and Employment in Europe: the Case for Reasonable Accommodation (Hart, 2017). She is also co-editor of four scholarly volumes: A Test of Faith? Religious diversity and accommodation in the European workplace (Ashgate, 2012); Belief, Law and Politics. What Future for a Secular Europe? (Ashgate, 2014); Public Commissions on Cultural and Religious Diversity: National Narratives, Multiple Identities and Minorities (Routledge, 2018) and Redesigning Justice for Plural Societies: Case Studies of Minority Accommodation from Around the World (Routledge, 2022).

MBA, Bryant University

Ph D, KU Leuven

LLM, Harvard Law School

MS, KU Leuven

Alidadi, K., Divergent stepping-stones towards equality? Indirect Discrimination and Reasonable Accommodation on the basis of Religion competing for attention in the European Workplace, HARVARD HUMAN RIGHTS JOURNAL.

Alidadi, K., What’s in a name? Juxtaposing Indirect Discrimination and Reasonable Accommodation on the basis of Religion in the European Workplace, HARVARD HUMAN RIGHTS JOURNAL ONLINE.

Alidadi, K., Redesigning Justice for Plural Societies: Case studies of Minority Accommodation from around the Globe, Routledge, 2022.

Alidadi, K., The search for justice in plural societies: opportunities and pitfalls of accommodative law and practices , Routledge, 2022.

Alidadi, K., A Conversation with an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Family During the Pandemic, “Religious Services in the Age of Social Distancing: Rhode Island Narratives and Snapshots” -Series of Posters focused on diverse religious communities in Rhode Island" (Sept. 2021), 2021.

Alidadi, K., Imam Farid Ansari About Islam During the Pandemic in Rhode Island, , 2021.

Alidadi, K., Lutheran Chur an Church of the Good Shepard in Covid Times, , 2021.

Alidadi, K., Anti-Discrimination Rules and Religious Minorities in the Workplace, Oxford UP, 2020.

Alidadi, K.,Foblets, M., 'Between Sovereignty and Transnationalism: the European Union as an Incomplete “Transnational Legal Space”' in Landscapes of Law: Practicing Sovereignty in Transnational Terrain, U Penn Press, 2020.

Alidadi, K., 'Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: Personal Autonomy as a Pillar for the Accommodation of Employees’ Religious Practices?' in Personal Autonomy in Plural Societies: A Principle and its Paradoxes , Routledge, 2018.

Alidadi, K.,Foblets, M., Public Commissions on Cultural and Religious Diversity: National Narratives, Multiple Identities and Minorities, Routledge, 2018.

Alidadi, K., Religion, Equality and Employment in Europe. The Case for Reasonable Accommodation, Hart/Bloomsbury, 2017.

Alidadi, K., 'Everyday Strategizing in Africa: Local Actors Negotiating State Norms, Histories and Local Custom', Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History Rg, 2017.

Alidadi, K., 'Gauging Progress towards Equality? Challenges and Best Practices of Equality Data Collection in the EU', European Equality Law Review, 2017.

Alidadi, K., 'Religion and Unemployment Benefits: Comparing Belgium, the Netherlands and Great Britain', European Labour Law Journal, 2017.

Alidadi, K., 'Protecting Muslim Minorities in the Work Place? From Anti-Discrimination Legislation in Europe to Scheduled Cast Reservation in India' in States and Muslims in Europe and India: Politics of Accommodation of Islamic Identities, New Century Publication, 2016.

Alidadi, K., 'The "Integrative Function" of Labour Law in Ebb? Reasonable Accommodation for Religion or Belief and Company "Neutrality Policies" in Belgium' in Reasonable Accommodation in the Modern Workplace , Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations, 2016.

Alidadi, K.,Foblets, M., 'European Supranational Courts and Human Rights Protection for the Freedom of Religion or Belief: Convergence or Competition?', Oxford Journal of Law & Religion, 2016.

Alidadi, K.,Foblets, M., 'European Supranational Courts and the Fundamental Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief: Convergence or Competition?', Oxford Journal of Law & Religion, 2016.

Alidadi, K.,Foblets, M.,Nielsen, J.,Yanasmayan, Z., Belief, Law and Politics. What Future for a Secular Europe?, Routledge, 2014.

Alidadi, K., 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Implications of Routing Religiously Dressed Employees away from Front-office Positions in Europe', Quaderni di Diritto e Politica Ecclesiastica, 2013.

Alidadi, K.,Bader, V.,Vermeulen, F., 'Basic Tensions and Reasonable Accommodation of Religious Claims in the Workplace. Comparing Socio-legal debates and (Quasi-) Judicial Decisions in 6 European Countries', International Journal for Discrimination and the Law, 2013.

Alidadi, K., 'From Front-Office to Back-Office: Religious Dress Crossing the Public-Private Divide in the Workplace' in Religion and the Public-Private Divide, Routledge, 2012.

Alidadi, K., 'Muslim Women Made Redundant: Unintended Signals in Belgian and Dutch Case law on Religious Dress in Private Sector Employment and Unemployment' in A Test of faith? Religious Diversity and Accommodation in the European Workplace, Routledge, 2012.

Alidadi, K., 'Through the Door, Up the Stairs: Religion and its Sins Striding up the Equality Ladder', International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, 2012.

Alidadi, K., Reasonable Accommodations for Religion and Belief: Adding Value to Article 9 ECHR and the European Union’s Anti-Discrimination Approach to Employment? , EUROPEAN LAW REVIEW , 2012.

Alidadi, K.,Foblets, M., 'Framing Multicultural Challenges in Freedom of Religion Terms' Limitations of minimal human rights for managing religious diversity in Europe, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 2012.

Alidadi, K.,Foblets, M.,Vrielink, J., A Test of faith? Religious Diversity and Accommodation in the European Workplace, Routledge , 2012.

Alidadi, K., 'Opening Doors to Muslim Minorities in the Workplace? From India's Employment Quota to EU and Belgian Anti-Discrimination Legislation', Pace International Law Review, 2011.

Alidadi, K., 'Review of: Cultural Diversity and the Law. State Responses from around the World’, Journal of Legal Pluralism, 2010.

Alidadi, K., 'The Western Judicial Answer to Islamic Talaq: Peeking through the Gate of Conflict of Laws in the U.S. and Belgium', UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law, 2005.

Faculty Innovation Grant, 2024

Faculty Innovation Grant, 2020

honorable mention from the International Academy of Comparative Law for the 2018 Canada Prize, 2018

Faculty Innovation Grant, 2018

Ius Commune Prize 2013, 2013

Addison Brown Prize , 2005

Fulbright scholarship, 2004