On 7th-9th June, the Willy Brandt Center (WBZ) held a conference Europe from the Inside/Europe from the Outside, which gathered more than 40 guests from foreign and Polish universities. The conference languages were English and German.
The conference participants were both early career scholars and senior academics from, among others, Brazil, Canada, China, Israel and Japan, all affiliated with the DAAD Centers for German and European Studies. Also, scholars from the best Polish universities (for instance the Jagiellonian University of Cracow, the University of Poznan, the Silesian University Katowice and the Wroclaw University) took part in this event. Moreover, students of the MA Interdisciplinary European Studies (ISE), a program of the Department of History and Pedagogy of the Wroclaw University and the WBZ were active participants, be it as paper-givers or panel chairs.
The conference had two keynote lectures. The first one, opening the conference, was delivered by professor Jan Zielonka from the University of Oxford and the second by professor Stefan Ihrig from the Haifa University. Jan Zielonka lecture was on Counter-Revolution. Liberal Europe in Retreat, while Stefan Ihrig delivered a talk Die deutsch-türkischen Beziehungen – Perspektiven auf europäische Identität, Integration und die Beziehungen zur muslimischen Welt (The German-Turkish relations—Perspectives on the European Identity, Integration and the Relations with the Muslim World). Both lectures raised much interest and provoked discussion among the participants.
The conference touched upon a number of issues including the European identity, the new populism and nationalism in Europe and beyond, the role of media in the political systems of the EU Member States, ideological conflicts, the EU external policy vis-à-vis Israel and the role of Germany in the EU.
In addition to the academic value of the conference, the aim was to deepen collaboration among various DAAD centers and to increase networking between young scholars from various continents.
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Photos © WBZ
