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Viadrina Institute for European Studies (IFES)

Summer Term 2019

Kulturwissenschaftliches Europa-Kolloquium, (Reading Group: Europe and Critique), Tuesdays (biweekly), 16:00-18:00 Uhr (c.t.) LH 101/102

In the last three semesters, the Research Seminars IFES has devoted itself primarily to the topic of "Europe and Criticism". The main aim was to receive theoretical and empirical approaches from various disciplines that contribute to the mapping of critical European research. This semester, these research approaches should be reflected and discussed together with relevant reading in the sense of profiling an interdisciplinary Critical European Research. How do we understand criticism? How can European research position itself "critically"? Which understandings of (Europe) criticism can be made fruitful for our work?

Interested parties are invited. Please register: ifes@europa-uni.de


April 2019

Tuesday, 16 April 2019 

Introductory conversation (This event will be held in German)

Tuesday, 30 April 2019

Anker, Elizabeth/Felski, Rita Felski: »Introduction.« In: dies. (Hg.), Critique and Postcritique. 2017, Duke University Press, S. 1-28. (This event will be held in German)

Introduction: Hendrikje Schauer (Kleist-Institut für Literatur und Politik, EUV)


May 2019

Tuesday, 14 May 2019

Horkheimer, Max. Traditionelle und kritische Theorie, 1937, Fischer. (This event will be held in German)

Introduction: E. Schindel


Tuesday, 25 May 2019

Boltanski, Luc. Soziologie und Sozialkritik, 2010, Suhrkamp. (This event will be held in German)

Introduction tbc


June 2019

Tuesday, 11 June 2019

Foucault, Michel. Was ist Kritik? 1992, Merve. (This event will be held in German)

Introduction: Ch. Barnickel


Tuesday, 25 June 2019

Boatcă, Manuela. „Multiple Europas und die interne Politik der Differenz“. In: Globale, multiple und postkoloniale Modernen, hg. v. Manuela Boatcă/ Willfried Spohn, München 2010, S. 341–358.

Chakrabarty, Dipesh. Provincializing Europe. Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference, 2000, Princeton University Press. (Auszüge)

(This event will be held in German)

Introduction: C. Frysztacka


July 2019

Tuesday, 16 July 2019

Guest Lecture: The contribution of the Latin American Critical Cultural Studies. (Lecture tbc)

Juan Ricardo Aparicio Cuervo (Uniandes, Bogotá/Erasmus+).


Lunch Lectures

Tuesday, 14 May 2019, 6.15pm, HG 109 (Senatssaal) Please note: Changed time!

Panel discussion: Protest culture in France (This event will be held in German).

Prisca Martaguet (photographer and student of the European University Viadrina)
Fabien Jobard (Centre de recherches sociologiques sur le droit et les institutions pénales)
Dieter Rucht (Berlin Social Science Center)
Facilitation: Michael Minkenberg (European University Viadrina)

In May, IFES Lunch Lecture deals with the so-called "yellow vests" and considers them in a larger (historical) context in French protest culture.

A cooperation with the Chair of Comparative Politics.


Tuesday, 28.05.2019, 1-2pm, GD Hs01

Panel discussion
Analysis of the results of the European elections: Coherence or corrosion of the European integration? 
(This event will be held in German).

Jarosław Jańczak (EUV),
Nicolai von Ondarza (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin)
Facilitation: Timm Beichelt (EUV)

A cooperation of the Viadrina Institute for European Studies (IFES) with the Master in European Studies.

Conception and organization: Claire Gauthier and Stefan Hanisch (IFES).

A livestream will be available for this event.

Publication Talks

Wednesday, 26 June 2019, 1-2 pm, LH 101/102

Postdemokratisierung der Legitimationspolitik:
Diskursnetzwerke in bundesdeutschen Großen Regierungserklärungen und Aussprachen 1949–2014

Book presentation

Christiane Barnickel stellt ihr kürzlich erschienenes Buch „Postdemokratisierung der Legitimationspolitik: Diskursnetzwerke in bundesdeutschen Großen Regierungserklärungen und Aussprachen 1949–2014“ vor.

In der Monographie wird untersucht, wie im bundesrepublikanischen politischen Diskurs seit 1949 Legitimität ‚hergestellt‘ wird. Sie zeigt, auf welche argumentativen Figuren Politikerinnen und Politiker zurückgreifen und zeichnet nach, wie Legitimität zunehmend über die Verwendung postdemokratischer Argumente konstruiert wird. Damit wird erstmals die in der Literatur seit Langem geführte Postdemokratisierungsdebatte mit legitimationstheoretischen Überlegungen verknüpft und die Frage nach der Demokratiehaftigkeit politischer Legitimationsdiskurse umfangreich empirisch fundiert.

Nach einer kurzen inhaltlichen Einführung werden die Ergebnisse der Studie im Gespräch mit Timm Beichelt und dem Publikum diskutiert. Da der Termin auf der Mittagszeit liegt, können Sie sich sehr gerne Verpflegung mitbringen – für kühle Getränke wird gesorgt.

Christiane_Buchvorstellung ©Estela Schindel

Weitere Informationen zum Buch finden Sie auf der Seite des Verlages.


Tuesday, 02 July 2019, 6 pm, LH 101/102

Who Embodies Europe? Explorations into the construction of european Bodies 
Launch of the special Issue “European Bodies” by Paweł Lewicki and Anika Keinz at the Anthropological Journal of European Cultures

EuropeanBodies_hp ©Estela Schindel

The thematic focus ‘European Bodies’ of the Anthropological Journal of European Cultures discusses the role of the processes of Europeanisation and of colonial legacies on the production of the European body as a racialised, classed, and gendered body. The construction of a ‘European body’ can be observed in discourses and practices that constitute the normal/desired/legitimate body and has an impact on notions about the ‘civilized’ or ‘cultivated’ body, which is often linked to whiteness, secularism, and legitimate class and gender performances.

The aim of the texts gathered in this thematic focus is to look back across pasts and into the present in order to explore the boundaries of what comes to be considered as a ‘European’   body. Who or what embodies the present? Which and whose body epitomises Europeaness and how does Europeanisation generate (tacit) knowledge about the legitimate body?

In this roundtable, the editors Anika Keinz and Paweł Lewicki will introduce the thematic focus together with two of the authors, Jennifer Ramme and Victor Trofimov, and discuss their findings and perspectives with the audience.

Prof Anika Keinz is Junior Professor for Comparative Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Late Modern Societies at the European University Viadrina.

Dr Paweł Lewicki is an anthropologist and an associate professor at the chair for Comparative Central European Studies at the European University Viadrina.

More information about the publication can be found here.

IFES Keynote Lecture Series

Wednesday, 10th April 2019, 6-8 pm, HG 109

„Achtung, Europa!"
with Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Ágnes Heller

Keynote Lecture as the IFES semester opening in cooperation with Professur für Deutsch-Polnische Kultur- und Literaturbeziehungen und Gender Studies.

Agnes_12_600pixel ©Heide Fest

The video documentation of the event is available here, and to read the report by the Viadrina-Logbuck please follow this link (both are in German).