"The Idea of Europe: Memories and Postcoloniality," Utrecht University, October 29-30, 2009.

THE IDEA OF EUROPE: Memories and Postcoloniality is a two-part event to discuss how Europe can be rethought from a postcolonial and postsecular perspective. The first day brings together memory thinking, heritage practice and postcolonial theory to explore challenges and potentialities in the making of a new European memory which can account for its multicultural past. The second day discusses from different intellectual traditions and perspectives the idea of Europe as an imagined and actual space. It focuses in particular on the relationship between ‘Occidentalism, Orientalism, and the idea of a postcolonial Europe’ which requires a further understanding of the contemporary postsecular climate both within and beyond Europe’s borders. Thursday 29 October, 2009 "The Ethics of European Memory: what is to be done?" Chair: Ann Rigney (Utrecht University, on behalf of Culture and Identities) Keynote Speaker: Luisa Passerini (Prof. Cultural History, Turin University, Italy) Discussion Speaker: Luisa Passerini, Irit Rogoff (Prof. Cultural History, Turin University, Italy & Prof. of Visual Cultures, Goldsmith University, UK) Friday 30 October, 2009 "Occidentalism, Orientalism, and the Idea of a Postcolonial Europe" Chair: Sandra Ponzanesi (Utrecht University, on behalf of AHRC, UK) Keynote Speakers: Avishai Margalit (Kennan Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton University/ Schulman Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem) and Paul Gilroy (Anthony Giddens Professorship in Social Theory, London School of Economics, UK) Respondents: Max Silverman & John McLeod (Professor of French, University of Leeds & Reader in Postcolonial and Diaspora Literatures, University of Leeds) Discussion Speakers: Luisa Passerini & Simon Glendinning (Prof. Cultural History, Turin University, Italy & Reader in European Philosophy, London School of Economics, UK).