Event Highlights: Eurowhiteness Book Talk
This book talk by Hans Kundnani launched 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.
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.
This event took place at Boston University’s Howard Thurman Center on Thursday, October 26, 2023. It was 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.
In his remarks, Kundnani challenged the common perception of the European Union as a site of global cosmopolitanism, exposing it instead as a “vehicle for cultural amnesia.” He described how, in particular in the wake of the 2010 financial crisis and the 2015 refugee crisis, civic notions of European identity are being replaced by ethnic and cultural ones, noting the openness of Europe to the East and to refugees from Ukraine while it remains firmly closed to the south.
