The IEE-ULB invites Professor Chris Bickerton for a series of online lectures

The holder of the 2022-2023 Ganshof van der Meersch Chair, Chris Bickerton, will participate as guest lecturer in a series of conferences organised by the Institute for European Studies of the Université libre de Bruxelles, as part of Professor Ramona Coman’s course Rotating International Chair of the Specialised Master in EU Interdisciplinary Studies.

Professor Bickerton, reader in Modern European Politics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge, has been invited by the IEE-ULB in the context of the collaborative research project “Conflicts of sovereignty in a European Union in crisis”, coordinated by Professors Nathalie Brack, Ramona Coman, Amandine Crespy, with the support of the Wiener Anspach Foundation.

Due to restrictions imposed in the pandemic context, the activities of the chair have been postponed, but IEE students will benefit from a series of online conferences with professor Bickerton around the Chair’s general theme “On the Brink: A History of Europe since 1989”.

About Professor Bickerton

Chris Bickerton is a Reader in Modern European Politics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge. Educated at Oxford and in Geneva, he has taught at the universities of Oxford, Amsterdam and Sciences Po (Paris).

His research has focused on multiple aspects of contemporary European politics, including European integration and transformations in the continent’s democracies. His 2012 book, European Integration: From Nation States to Member States (Oxford) was awarded the Best Book Prize by the University Association of Contemporary European Studies. He published in 2016 a best-selling book, The European Union: A Citizen’s Guide (Penguin) and his most recent book (co-authored with Carlo Invernizzi Accetti) is called Technopopulism: The New Logic of Democratic Politics, forthcoming with Oxford University Press.

Chris Bickerton is a visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges and director of the Europe Centre, at the department of politics and international studies, Cambridge. As well as academic writing, he regularly contributes to the international print media and has written for the New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian, and the Monde Diplomatique. He is a regular panelist on the podcast, Talking Politics.

About the series of lectures

On the Brink: A History of Europe since 1989

Prof. Bickerton’s series of lectures will be focused on the theme of a history of Europe since 1989, which will form the basis for new and important book. This will be a work of contemporary history, inquiring into how the events of the last three decades have come to shape our present era. Europe was associated with the so-called “end of history” after 1989; this project will develop the idea that history has very much returned to the continent in recent years and that Europe has become the crucible for many of what we consider to be contemporary global challenges.

This project will focus on four themes that will serve as frames through which we can interpret the post-1989 era in Europe (1) the return of mass politics and the crises of liberal democracy; (2) demilitarization as a social and political phenomenon within Europe combined with a return of conflict at Europe’s borders; (3) the rise and fall of neoliberalism in Europe; (4) religion, identity politics and free speech in Europe.

The online lectures by Professor Bickerton