Decentering Europe

The aim of the Decentering Europe initiative at BU’s Center for the Study of Europe, which launched in the spring of 2025 with a series of lectures focused on Europe’s relationship to Africa, is to promote a critical understanding of Europe through its complex heritage, which owes its richness to countless contributions from other regions of the world, including Africa. In an increasingly multipolar world, we believe Europe can only be understood in relation to other sites of socio-cultural production, political engagement, and economic transformation.

In future years, the initiative will look at Europe’s relations to the Middle East (2025-26), Asia, and Latin America.