Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project (10/26/23)
The Center for the Study of Europe at Boston University presents: Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project – A Book Talk by Hans Kundnani. This event launches the Center for the Study of Europe’s Decentering Europe series, the aim of which is to understand Europe in relation to other sites of socio-cultural production, political engagement, and economic transformation.
Thursday, October 26, 2023
5 to 6:30 PM
Howard Thurman Center, 808 Commonwealth Avenue (FLR 205)
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The European Union is often seen as a cosmopolitan rejection of violent nationalism. Yet the idea of Europe has a long, problematic history—in medieval times, it was synonymous with Christianity; in the modern era, it became associated with ‘whiteness’. Eurowhiteness exposes the EU as a vehicle for imperial amnesia. Narratives of European integration emphasise the lessons of war and the Holocaust, but not the lessons of colonial history. The EU is about power as much as peace—and civic ideas of Europe are being displaced by ethnic and cultural ones. Since the 2015 refugee crisis, whiteness has become even more central to European identity—a troubling new turn in Europe’s long civilisational project. It is time to confront the relationship between ideas of Europe and ideas of race.
Hans Kundnani is an associate fellow at Chatham House, and the author of Utopia or Auschwitz; The Paradox of German Power; and Eurowhiteness. Hans writes regularly for The Observer, The Guardian, The New Statesman and Foreign Affairs, among other publications.
Moderated by Kaija Schilde, Associate Professor of International Relations, Director of the Center for the Study of Europe, and Jean Monnet Chair in European Security and Defense.
* Free copies of Eurowhiteness will be given to the first 25 BU community members (students, faculty, staff) to register for this event. You must attend the event to receive your book.
