Historically as well as in the current moment, “Europe” has been mystified and contested in various ways. The question of contestation and its relationship to advancing a praxis of human liberation and solidarity is the central question of this conference. To what extent has contesting the imaginary of Europe furthered or hindered emancipatory politics – both “inside” and “outside” of Europe?
This interdisciplinary conference encourages critical contributions on “Europe” as a process of becoming that takes place amid contestations, negotiations, and competing identity claims. Problematizing “Europe” from both above and below is to bring in analyses of complex social relations of power. Our goal is to create a space for discourses challenging the predominant imaginary of Europe that underlies a top-down process of institution building, the creation of a common identity, and the economic integration at the level of the European Union (EU).

We aim to examine the conflicts and contradictions of “Europe” through a range of contributions that touch on questions such as: What does it mean to be “European” in a changing “Europe”? How have processes and dynamics of class, racialization, gendering, religion, etc. materialized and been contested in lived experiences? What is the legacy of European imperialism? What are the linkages between the consolidation of the “new Europe/an” and the neo-liberal paradigm? To what extent and in which ways has research on “Europe” reproduced, deconstructed, or challenged hegemonic views? Can comparative references to Europe foster progressive politics “outside” of Europe?

More details on this event are available at the conference website: http://www.yorku.ca/europe.

To contact conference organizers, please write: contestingeurope@gmail.com