Thursday, December 6, 2007
5:00 AM
1636 SSWB/International Institute, 1080 S. University Ave.
Participants:
Agnieszka Graff, assistant professor, Center for American Studies, University of Warsaw;
Joshua Cole, associate professor, Department of History, U-M; and
Hadley Renkin, visiting assistant professor, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Albion College. Moderator:
Brian Porter-Szucs, associate professor, Department of History, U-M. This symposium is open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Copernicus Endowment, Center for Russian and East European Studies, and Center for European Studies-European Union Center.
Intolerance is a problem that transcends time and place, but in every context it takes on specific forms. In Europe today we see the emergence of new prejudices and the reconfiguration of old ones, as people draw upon familiar rhetoric to talk about unfamiliar problems. The formation and expansion of the European Union, the influx of new immigrants, the new visibility of old immigrants, and the changing position of Europe on the global stage--all this has transformed the ways people think about themselves and their communities, calling into question the boundaries between "us" and "them," between "approved" and "deviant." Against this backdrop, Europeans have had to think anew about how to understand and cope with intolerance, and how to cultivate new forms of tolerance. Our panelists will explore the intermingling of old and new attitudes towards race, nationality, sexuality, and gender in the evolving cultural and political landscape of 21st century Europe.
Agnieszka Graff teaches American studies and gender studies at the University of Warsaw. The author of Swiat bez kobiet. Plec w polskim zyciu publicznym [A World Without Women: Gender in Polish Public Life] (Warsaw: W.A.B., 2001), she is a regular contributor to Gazeta Wyborcza, Krytyka Polityczna, Res Publica Nowa, and many other Polish periodicals. She is also the translator of Virginia Wolff's A Room of One's Own and a leading figure in the Polish women's movement.
Intolerance is a problem that transcends time and place, but in every context it takes on specific forms. In Europe today we see the emergence of new prejudices and the reconfiguration of old ones, as people draw upon familiar rhetoric to talk about unfamiliar problems. The formation and expansion of the European Union, the influx of new immigrants, the new visibility of old immigrants, and the changing position of Europe on the global stage--all this has transformed the ways people think about themselves and their communities, calling into question the boundaries between "us" and "them," between "approved" and "deviant." Against this backdrop, Europeans have had to think anew about how to understand and cope with intolerance, and how to cultivate new forms of tolerance. Our panelists will explore the intermingling of old and new attitudes towards race, nationality, sexuality, and gender in the evolving cultural and political landscape of 21st century Europe.
Agnieszka Graff teaches American studies and gender studies at the University of Warsaw. The author of Swiat bez kobiet. Plec w polskim zyciu publicznym [A World Without Women: Gender in Polish Public Life] (Warsaw: W.A.B., 2001), she is a regular contributor to Gazeta Wyborcza, Krytyka Polityczna, Res Publica Nowa, and many other Polish periodicals. She is also the translator of Virginia Wolff's A Room of One's Own and a leading figure in the Polish women's movement.
