XClose

UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES)

Home
Menu

The  Meaning of Central Europe in Today's World by Timothy Garton Ash

03 October 2024, 5:00 pm–7:00 pm

Vaclav Havel European dialogues poster

Václav Havel Dialogues and the launch of the the new Research Centre for the Study of Places, Identities, and Memories (PIMs)

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

SSEES

Location

Masaryk room
UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies
16 Taviton street
London
WC1H 0BW

Join us for a special collaborative event hosted by SSEES and the Czech Center London, marking the launch of the new Research Center for the Study of Places, Identities, and Memories (PIMs). This event celebrates the inauguration of PIMs and serves as part of the annual Václav Havel European Dialogues, a global series of discussions inspired by Havel’s enduring legacy.

The event will feature a keynote address by Timothy Garton Ash (University of Oxford), who will explore the evolving meanings of Central Europe—a theme that resonates deeply with Václav Havel’s intellectual legacy. Where does Central Europe stand in the contemporary world and politics, and what does it represent today? Garton Ash will delve into the diverse interpretations of Central Europe throughout history and culture, its varied and debates uses and its constant search for its “other”. He will also reflect on Central Europe’s significance in today’s increasingly polarized global landscape, with particular emphasis on the impact of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This discussion promises to offer profound insights into identities of a diverse region and its role in shaping the future of Europe and beyond.

The event will be moderated by Jessie Barton Hronešová and will feature an esteemed panel of speakers, including Richard Mole, director of SSEES, and a word of welcome by Přemysl Pela, the director of the Czech Center in London as well as Pawel Bukowski, co-director of the new Research Center for the Study of Places, Identities, and Memories (PIMs).

Image credit: Czech Centre London

About the Speakers

Timothy Garton Ash

is a distinguished British historian, political writer, and commentator, celebrated for his extensive work on the contemporary history of Europe in general and Central and Eastern Europe in particular. He has authored eleven influential books on the ‘history of the present’ which document the profound transformations across Europe since 1989. Notable among these are The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague (1990), In Europe’s Name: Germany and the Divided Continent (1993), The File: A Personal History (1997), History of the Present: Essays, Sketches and Despatches from Europe in the 1990s (2000), Free World (2004), Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World (2016), and his most recent work, Homelands: A Personal History of Europe – now translated into 24 languages. These works have become essential reading for anyone interested in European history and politics. He is currently a Professor Emeritus of European Studies at the University of Oxford and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A prolific contributor to leading international publications like The Guardian and The New York Review of Books, his work continues to shape debates on European identity, democracy, and the challenges posed by authoritarianism in today's world. He also runs his substack with weekly essays called History of the Present.

Richard Mole

is a Professor in Political Sociology and the Director of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at UCL. His research focuses on the interplay between identity and power, with particular reference to nationalism, populism, sexualities and migration. He is particularly interested in the ways that powerful social and political actors discursively construct identities to create in-groups/out-groups and social and moral hierarchies in a bid to legitimise certain actors, groups and beliefs and delegitimise others. From 2018-22, he was Principal Investigator of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network 'Delayed Transformational Fatigue in Central and Eastern Europe: Responding to the Rise of Populism' and from 2019-23 he was the Director of Research of the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme 'Populist rebellion against modernity in 21st-century Eastern Europe: neo-traditionalism and neofeudalism’. He is the author of The Baltic States from the Soviet Union to the European Union : identity, discourse and power in the post-Communist transition of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (2012), and editor of Discursive constructions of identity in European politics (2007), Soviet and post-Soviet sexualities (2019), and Queer migration and asylum in Europe (2021).

Jessie Barton Hronešová

is a Lecturer in Political Sociology at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL, and Co-Director of the Centre for Study of Places, Identities and Memories. In her work, she focuses on victimhood narratives, the politics of memory, transitional justice and dealing with the past in Central and Southeast Europe. She is particularly interested in the political uses of emotionally charged and traumatic memories as well as how victims and survivors navigate politics. She is the author of The Struggle of Redress: Victim Capital in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2020) and Post-War Ethno-National Identities of Young People in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2012) and co-editor of The Nexus between Democracy, Collective Identity Formation, and EU Enlargement (2011). From 2019 to 2021 she was the ESRC Postdoctoral research Fellow at the University of Oxford and then a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at UNC Chapel Hill and Ca' Foscari. Outside of academia, she is a frequent policy advisor and consultant in international development in Central and Southeast Europe.

Pawel Bukowski

is a Lecturer in Economics at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL, and Polish Academy of Sciences, and Co-Director of the Centre for Study of Places, Identities and Memories at UCL. He is also affiliated with London School of Economics. His research consists of two inter-related streams. The first considers labour market inequalities, in particular, the role of firms in wage determination, worker power and gender discrimination. The second focuses on understanding the evolution of national and sub-national economic inequalities, with particular focus on Central and Eastern Europe. He has played a reading role as both principal and co-investigator on competitive funding bids including Open Research Area, ESRC Rebuilding Macroeconomics, or LSE Research and Impact Fund. He has founded an expert group – Dobrobyt na Pokolenia (Prosperity for Generations), and is a member of Concilium Civitas. He is the author of Nierówności po Polsku – the first comprehensive book on inequalities in Poland (2024).

Přemysl Pela

is the director of the Czech Centre London and worked, among others, for the Charles University's CERGE-EI Institute and the Czech Academy of Sciences. In the private sector, he held various top managerial roles. He also headed the Strategy and Innovation Department at the Czech Centre's HQ in Prague, and developed an innovative project presenting achievements in science in a unique interactive and novel format. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Ostrava's University, the New York University, Michigan University and the Civil Management College in London.