The Ganshof van der Meersch Chair 2021-2022 public lecture
Prof. Paul Betts, holder of the Ganshof van der Meersch Chair 2021-2022 will hold the public lecture “A Re-Civilising Mission: The Cultural Reconstruction of Europe after 1945” on March 10,2022. The conference (in English) is organised by the Philippe Wiener-Maurice Anspach Foundation, which promotes academic exchanges between the Université libre de Bruxelles and the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. Professor Betts will be welcomed at the IEE-ULB by its President, Professor Ramona Coman, and by its Director, Professor Nicolas Verschueren, in the framework of the “Rotating international Chair” course coordinated by Prof. Coman.
Abstract
In this lecture, Paul Betts will discuss his new book on Europe after 1945, which explores how changing understandings of civilization underpinned a new politics of identity in an era of defeat and division across the Cold War divide. It traces how this long reviled term of European superiority enjoyed a popular comeback in many circles, variously used to imagine Europe as a whole as well as to justify its political differences. The new mission to re-civilize Europe was by no means confined to conservatives, and was seized upon by a surprising array of competing causes and interest groups from across the political spectrum and Iron Curtain. In the aftermath of war, civilization served as a favorite point of reference to grasp Europe’s new postwar condition beyond the nation-state and Cold division, and to reconsider its relationship to the past, the future, and the rest of the world.
Prof. Betts’ research and publications centre on Modern European Cultural History in general and 20th Century German History in particular, with a special focus on the relationship between culture and politics. His books include Ruin and Renewal: Civilizing Europe after World War II (New York: Basic Books/ London: Profile Books, 2020), Within Walls: Private Life in the German Democratic Republic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), and The Authority of Everyday Objects: A Cultural History of West German Industrial Design (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004).
More information about the Chair’s activities here.
Information
The lecture will take place at 6:00 pm at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Campus du Solbosch, avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50, 1050 Brussels) in room UD2.208 (building U, entrance D, floor 2 – see map). It will be followed by a reception, if conditions permit.
The registration for the event is closed but you still can contact the Foundation at fwa.relations@ulb.be