What is your role at the European Institute, and how does your role relate to the Beyond Eurocentrism programme?
I am a first year PhD student at the European Institute. My research focuses on the role that embodiment and bodies play in complicating the ‘universal’ discourses of Europe. How can we explain the simultaneous affirmation of Europe as the space of the universal (rationality, consciousness, the exemplarity of the world) and the conditionality of this universality to a certain type of embodiment (gendered and racialized, in particular)? With my thesis, I am hoping to contribute to an understanding of Europe’s philosophical and political boundaries, to be able to better critique them. This would yield another ground for the hospitality of difference within Europe – and beyond. My research, in a few words, invites to go beyond Eurocentrism by critically assessing the Eurocentric discourses and their dangerous inconsistences.
What do you think about the EI's commitment to going beyond Eurocentrism?
The European Institute, as a leading academic institution in European studies, has a primordial responsibility in ensuring that European studies stop reproducing patterns that have been both conceptually and materially harmful. Questioning the assumptions of the European community, its political and economic underpinnings, is the first step toward a fairer, more acute, and critically aware understanding of who we are and who we want to become – both as political agents and as young (and less young!) scholars. The plethora of social events, conferences, and courses which are offered to students are a decisive step in that direction.
Do you have any highlights from your time at the EI that relate to the focus of the Beyond Eurocentrism programme?
The people behind the Beyond Eurocentrism programme are doing a fantastic job in speaking to all audiences, may they be interested in political economy, conflict, culture, or public policy. I find the conferences particularly appealing: they are often treating many different topics (anthropology, history, sexuality studies) from a neglected angle, and have always very much enriched my understanding of these topics.
What parts of the Beyond Eurocentrism programme do you find the most exciting?
The diversity of events that are planned! I do think that there’s something for everyone in the programme. Whether you are interested in economic issues, public policy, or philosophical questions, the programme is an invaluable opportunity to broaden one’s horizons and critically assess one’s position towards one’s studies – and this is, in my view, the very first step toward good and responsible research.