NICA recommends | OSL Workshop: Moving Europe: A Podcast Series

NICA recommends | OSL Workshop: Moving Europe: A Podcast Series
Dates and Locations: 25 September (Amsterdam), 9 October (Leiden, podcast workshop),30 October and 6 November (Amsterdam), 27 November (Leiden, podcast recording), 11 and 18 December (Amsterdam).
Time: All classes will take place at 15:00-18:00, with the exception of the recording session on 27/11 (13:00-17:00).
Registration: here
Credits: 5 ECTS
Read more here.

As Delanty (1995) reminds us, Europe is more than a geo-political reality, it is also an idea that is continuously reinvented as collective identities transform. In essence, ‘Europe’ is a signifier filled with competing narratives and meanings. But although the way in which Europe is given meaning has never been stable or unifold, in the contemporary political climate the debate about what and where ‘Europe‘ is, and who Europeans are or should be, seems increasingly heated. In this debate two types of narratives about ‘Europe‘ can be discerned, with some referring to Europe as a culture and as a civilization, and others primarily understanding Europe as a polity, de facto using it as a synonym for the EU. That these types of narratives can clash violently is clear, for example, from the populist rhetoric of politicians such as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands or Victor Orban in Hungary.

In this workshop, we will investigate how literature is able to reflect, talk back, deconstruct and challenge different narratives of Europe that circulate in the European public sphere. Narratives, for example, that teleologically construct Europe as having a clear historical origin; that rewrite European history to serve a specific political agenda; that function as bordering spaces of in- and exclusion; that imagine Europeans as a homogeneous group; or that conceive of Europe as a social constitution of overlapping and potentially conflicting identities.

We will use the popular format of the podcast to communicate our scholarly findings to a broader audience. Therefore, this course is also a practical exercise in science communication. Our plenary sessions will serve as editorial meetings where students and staff collectively act as an editorial board with a shared responsibility for the podcast production. This requires a professional work attitude from those who choose this course. Participants will receive practical training in podcasting from Thomas Vorisek (Leiden University), who will also supervise the recording and editing of the podcasts.  The goal is to publish four podcasts.