During the symposium “Re-thinking Europe”, Sandra Ponzanesi presented “Phantoms of Europe: Intellectual Legacies and Cultural Transitions in Postcolonial Europe. The symposium was organized by the ‘Postcolonial Europe Group’ and took place at the University of Kent in Canterbury.
At a time when Europe is being questioned culturally and politically, there is a need to re-think its significance. Adopting a postcolonial lens, the symposium and network have brought into the spotlight a different map of Europe that is not solely shaped by its colonial legacy but also by different dynamics of subalternity, conditions of un/belonging, cultural, economic and geographical displacement.
The event has brought together scholars, activists and artists from across disciplines and fields to re-think critically and creatively the significance of Europe. It has focus particularly on a number of contested conjunctural spaces: from Europe’s Southern frontiers to its inner cities.
Other speakers included:
- Prof. Lars Jensen (Roskilde University) on ‘Writing Postcolonial Europe’
- Dr. Norbert Bugeja (University of Malta) on ‘The Edge(s) of Memoir in Ageing Europe: Postcolonial Notes’
- Prof. Miguel Mellino (Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale) on ‘Policing the Refugee Crisis: Neoliberalism between Biopolitics and Necropolitcs’
- Dr. Paula McCloskey (University of Derby) and dr. Sam Vardy (Sheffield Hallam University) on ‘The Eile Project; a place, of their own’
- Dr. Maria Ridda (University of Kent) on ‘Remaking Europe from its Lawless Frontiers’
- Agnes Purgatorio (artist, Podbiesky Contemporary, Milan) on ‘The Immobile Nomad’
For more information and the full symposium programma, see here.