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Alle locaties SPUI25 Online Rialto Posthoornkerk Paradiso Odeonzaal Amsterdamse Academische Club (AAC) Doelenzaal Nationale Opera & Ballet De Brug (Roeterseiland) De Duif De Brakke Grond Binnengasthuisstraat 9 Aula Roeterseiland Nationale Opera & Ballet, Odeonzaal Singelkerk OBA Theater Vondelkerk Agnietenkapel

11 07 23

‘Strategic foresight’ building ‘strategic preparedness’ for a rapidly evolving world

Navigating the Future

In a rapidly evolving world driven by innovation, the ability to anticipate and prepare for future advancements is crucial. ‘Technological foresight’ has become paramount for policymakers as they navigate the path ahead, serving as a compass to evaluate the potential societal impacts of complex scientific and technological developments. It also aids decision-makers in gaining a more strategic understanding of the issues they must address.

29 06 23

German and Dutch Perspectives

Debating Holocaust and Colonial Memory Culture: Historikerstreit 2.0

In 2021, a heated debate ignited what the Australian historian A. Dirk Moses called “The German Catechism.” Moses criticized the German consensus on the uniqueness of the Holocaust. While defending this uniqueness, comparisons with other genocides are often not taken into account. Moses depicted German intellectuals as “high priests” who by all means defend their ideas. Simultaneously, they tend to overlook the colonial context of German atrocities in Eastern Europe, as well as wider debates on a variety of memory cultures. In his lecture, historian Michael Wildt sheds light on this new “Historikerstreit.”

27 06 23

Algorithmic Injustice

Algorithms play an increasingly important role in our daily life but come with serious societal risks. In recent years we have seen many cases of algorithms that show unfair biased behavior towards particular groups or individuals, for instance the Dutch Toeslagenaffaire. This leads to growing concerns about harmful discrimination and reproduction of structural inequalities once these technologies become institutionalized in society. During this evening on algorithmic injustice we explore and discuss both the philosophical and technical aspects as well as the lived experiences of people who suffered from unfair algorithms.

26 06 23

The 1981 Massacre in Iran: Uncovering a Forgotten Mass Atrocity

June 2023 marks the 42nd anniversary of the 1981 massacre in Iran, the most extensive massacre in its recent history. In the past few years, a group of scholars and investigative journalists formed a research collective (Rastyad Collective) and studied this highly neglected massacre. In this event, the speakers will discuss the historical, legal, and political significance of the 1981 Massacre and reflect on the results of this research project.

22 06 23

Character assassination and antiliberalism in (pre-)Revolutionary France

Tyranny and Terror

Character assassination and antiliberalism often go hand in hand. Two distinguished British historians will speak about character assassination and antiliberal elements in the 1700s. While Enlightenment ideals led to a surge of liberalism and sparked the birth of Europe’s first liberal democracies, these developments also triggered strong counter reactions.

20 06 23

Book Launch

The Lost Future and How to Reclaim It

The future seems increasingly uncertain. Our democracies are failing to prevent financial crises, energy shortages, climate change and war—so how can we look to the future with confidence? In his new book, The Lost Future: And How to Reclaim It, Jan Zielonka argues that it is democracy’s shortsightedness that makes politics stumble in our increasingly connected world. Tonight, he will discuss his book with Caroline de Gruyter and Luiza Bialasiewicz.

15 06 23

The road from state socialism through liberal democracy to autocracy

Democratic Erosion: The Case of Hungary

In the last decade, Hungary has received international attention for its democratic erosion. The country has been the first institutionally consolidated democracy to turn into an autocracy. How has this effect of ‘backsliding’ been possible? And what has marked the transition from democracy to autocracy? In this lecture the process of democratic transition as well as the main factors that allowed the Hungarian government to undergo the development without meaningful push-back will be discussed.

14 06 23

Uncommon Transitions? Memory and Forgetting between Eastern and Western Europe

Why do memories of transitions in the late 1980s and 1990s remain disconnected between Eastern and Western Europe? This NIAS talk explores the diverging interpretations and memory cultures of this turbulent time in history that have emerged in the ‘former East’ and the ‘former West’. Together with experts working on different parts of Central and Eastern Europe, we shed light on how these transitions are remembered and forgotten in the Netherlands as well as in other countries of the ‘former West’.

05 06 23

Rethinking Our News Diet: On Polarisation and Online News Consumption

When talking about polarization, populism, and misinformed publics, we often focus on the role of echo chambers, fake news, and radical rabbit holes on social media. A new project argues this is the wrong focus. Instead, we should turn our eye on our news diet and – specifically – on the alarming lack of quality news in this diet. This lack is a risk to democratic societies because less informed citizens are more susceptible to populist and manipulative messages. Join the presentation of this project and a discussion on how to increase our news exposure.

31 05 23

Reflections on wild game in the modern world

Photographing Hunting Cultures

Photographer and writer Isabella Rozendaal will be speaking about her documentary project Isabella Hunts and the time she spent among various hunting communities. Rozendaal is intrigued by man’s ambivalent relation to animals. Would we treat them differently if we had to hunt and kill our own food?

25 05 23

Cold War Camera

From Kabul to Kyiv and beyond, photography plays a prominent role in mediating the global Cold War and its protracted afterlife. This public event explores the visual culture of the global Cold War and features Pippa Oldfield, who will moderate a dialogue with Thy Phu and Erina Duganne, the editors of the new book, Cold War Camera, award-winning photographer Susan Meiselas, and historian and photographer Tong Lam.

23 05 23

Public Spaces, Contested Places, Cultural Encounters

Diversity of Belonging in Europe

Belonging – or not belonging – lies at the core of many of the recent ‘crises’ and ongoing processes of change that continue to shape as well as to shake up contemporary Europe. New forms of socio-spatial inclusion and exclusion have been both embraced and contested – and always (re)negotiated – as part of ongoing processes of social change, connected to migration and displacement, post-socialism and decolonisation, populism and polarisation.

19 05 23

The Hmm ON

Co-Creation with AI

AI technologies have been around for a long time, but it is only recently that we’ve had a chance to experience some of these tools ourselves in our daily lives. For instance, with ChatGPT, an advanced and exponentially popular AI chatbot, and with AI image generators such as DALL-E and Midjourney. Now that we have had the opportunity to personally collaborate with AI through image, text and audio generating tools, ethical and socio-political questions have started to surface about what it means to co-create with AI. How will these advancements in AI technologies reshape and reconfigure our daily lives? During this special evening it is time to reflect on AI and take on some new approaches to co-creation.

17 05 23

European Press Freedom under Pressure

Press freedom is increasingly coming under pressure across Europe. Reporters Without Borders have repeatedly measured a decline in press freedom in many European countries over the last few years, including the Netherlands. Where does this come from? And what are the various problems associated with and arising from declining press freedom?

11 05 23

NIAS Talk

Dutch Colonies of Benevolence

Last year, the UNESCO World Heritage recognized the lasting cultural significance of the unfree ‘colony of benevolence’ at Veenhuizen (now home to the National Prison Museum). This round table brings together three leading researchers on domestic colonies to discuss the international significance of this colony, which opened its doors 200 years ago.

11 05 23

Amsterdam German Studies Lecture

Living in a Vortex: On Writing World History at a Time of Globalisation Blues

The glory days of globalisation are over. After the sobering experiences of the last few years, little remains of the faith that growing international exchange will foster mutual understanding and cooperation. At the same, the environmental crisis makes it ever more important to think on a global scale. Pollution knows no borders, and the same holds true for erosion, loss of biodiversity, climate change and other issues at the interface of man and the natural world. The predicament of our times urges a new type of world history. In his Amsterdam German Studies Lecture, Frank Uekötter offers a novel approach.

10 05 23

Islam, Democracy and Development

Many Muslim-majority countries struggle with problems of authoritarianism and underdevelopment. In this year’s ACMES annual lecture, Ahmet Kuru will explore this issue by discussing Islam and its relation to Western political and socioeconomic institutions. He will address the matter by referring to his award-winning book Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

08 05 23

On epics and counter-epics

Is Europe a Joke?

As the The European Review of Books turns one year old, the questions remain: Books? Review? Europe? To ask what makes a “European” magazine is to ask what and who makes (or unmakes) a European culture.

19 04 23

Digital Childhoods: Learning Within New Media

How do digital media impact children’s experiences and learning? What is at stake when apps, robots, voice assistants and the so-called internet of toys are used by children? What role do big tech companies play in this critical period of life? With the help of experts in linguistics, communications, media studies, and cognitive science, this thought-provoking roundtable explores challenges and opportunities that digital technologies pose to bringing up children today.

18 04 23

Climate Change and Academia: What Role to Play?

What is the role of academics in confronting the climate crisis? Do academics have a special responsibility to get involved in climate justice activism? During this panel discussion, Gerrit Schaafsma discusses the subject with the academics Harriët Bergman, Thomas Wells, Anne Kervers, Christel van Eck and Marthe Wens.

17 04 23

Beter denken met Marcus du Sautoy

Wiskunde als kunst van de shortcut

In zijn nieuwe boek Beter denken introduceert Marcus du Sautoy de wiskunde als kunst van de shortcut. Aan de hand van verhalen, raadsels en puzzels verhaalt hij over zowel shortcuts waardoor de menselijke beschaving mogelijk werd, als handige shortcuts die ons dagelijks leven makkelijker maken. Vanavond presenteert Du Sautoy deze ingenieuze strategieën, waarna hij in gesprek gaat met Desiree Agterberg.

13 04 23

Female rewritings of ancient myths

The End of the Silence of the Girls

Unlike holy texts such as the Bible, Greek myths have always been extremely flexible and open to all kinds of rewriting. Recent years have witnessed a notable surge of rewritings of female characters, largely by female authors. Scholar Jacqueline Klooster and author Natalie Haynes will jointly reflect on this phenomenon.

05 04 23

Christoph Menke in dialogue with Beate Roessler and Titus Stahl

What is Liberation?

In his latest book A Theory of Liberation (Suhrkamp, 2022), German philosopher Christoph Menke claims that we live in a time of failed liberations: Sooner or later, all attempts at liberation have produced new forms of domination and thus of servitude. Tonight, Menke discusses this topic with philosophers Titus Stahl and Beate Roessler.

29 03 23

Navigating between nostalgic nativism and hopeful liberalism

Promises and Pitfalls of Liberalism

Liberalism has been much maligned in the last decade for its failure to provide people with a sense of collective identity and meaning. But for many people, liberal ideas themselves provide this meaning. In this interdisciplinary exchange, two books are discussed that, respectively, explore the extraordinary rise of nativism in liberal societies, and the possibilities for revivifying liberal ideals in a changing world.

27 03 23

Politics of Corruption and the Earthquake in Turkey, Syria, and Kurdistan

The two disastrous earthquakes that struck Turkey, Syria, and Kurdistan on February 6 were not isolated incidents. It is clear that this was not simply a natural disaster, but a catastrophe created by corruption, the erosion of institutions and politicization of disaster prevention. The inadequacy of mitigation measures, failure to implement regulations for safe urban planning, fraudulent construction practices, and lack of investments on emergency response made a preventable destruction inevitable.

23 03 23

The Geopolitics of Foreign Technologies

Europe and the Technologies of ‘Others’

In this edition of the ‘Europe and the Geopolitics of Technology’ series, experts scrutinize various urgent questions of European technology regulation. When does foreign innovation become a threat, and how do European technology regulators and publics imagine and differentiate sovereign spaces and practices of technology regulation and application? How do practices of various technology actors (private and public) produce security and sovereignty in Europe, China, Russia and beyond? And how are these spaces, digital infrastructures and practices mutually imagined, othered, and (self-)orientalized?

23 03 23

The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt

In the celebrated book The Last Ghetto, Anna Hájková, provides an in-depth analytical history of a prison society during the Holocaust. During this event, Laurien Vastenhout and Geraldien von Frijtag Drabbe Kunzel will have a conversation with Hájková about the importance of her work and some of the main themes it addresses. These include life inside the camp, Jewish agency, and gender.

09 03 23

Hybrid Tactics in the Crisis Era

In-Between Media

The Covid pandemic has catalyzed experimental approaches to hybrid cultural programming and togetherness, mixing online, offline, and everything in-between. How can we translate the lessons learned into ways of dealing with post-pandemic urgencies? Can we use hybrid tactics in response to violent displacement, physical impairments, and the war in Ukraine? What kind of tactical media can exist within these (new) digital spaces, and which potential for resistance do they have? Data and information used as a tool for power might not be new, but some of the strategies being looked at in this conference—hopefully—are.

08 03 23

The Future of Global Workers in the Platform Age

For marginalized laborers in the Global South, the future of work is already here—from youth gaining new freedom through the creator economy to algorithmically exploited gig workers. Authors from the new book Feminist Futures of Work: Reimagining Labour in the Digital Economy (eds. Payal Arora, Usha Raman & René König) and beyond engage with this fast-moving market and discuss how we can reshape work platforms to be fair and inclusive.

23 02 23

Michel Krielaars in conversation with Bernard Wasserstein

A Small Town in Ukraine

The historian Bernard Wasserstein set out to uncover the hidden past of the town forty miles west of Lviv where his family originated: Krakowiec. This evening, on the occasion of the book launch of A Small Town in Ukraine, he recounts its dramatic and traumatic history. ‘I want to observe and understand how some of the great forces that determined the shape of our times affected ordinary people.’ Wasserstein will talk about his new book and engage in a conversation with Michel Krielaars.

14 02 23

Book launch

The Politics of Platformization

What is platformization and why is it a relevant category in the contemporary political landscape? How is it related to cybernetics and the history of computation? During this event, interviewees of the recently published The Politics of Platformization: Amsterdam Dialogues on Platform Theory join editor Gianmarco Cristofari in conversation.

08 02 23

Post-Growth Planning: Cities Beyond the Market Economy

Cities cover just 2% of the planet’s surface but consume 75% of all the materials and energy worldwide. In 2050, planetary urbanization will demand ten times more materials, water, and energy than today. This is seriously undermining any possibility to halt climate breakdown. In this event, we will analyse how a degrowth agenda for cities might be the answer to this urgent issue.

26 01 23

The Making of Democracy in Western Europe after 1945

The Certainties of the Past?

Democracy has a long history; or, perhaps more exactly, it has a long past. The electoral and political volatility which has been evident in Europe during the first two decades of the twenty-first century has created a widespread sense that a past era of democratic certainties has ended. That generates civic and intellectual challenges for our present era. But it also enables us to reassess the supposed certainties of past history. How far can we still regard the history of Western Europe in the second half of the century as a democratic era? Or should we now see it as a similar era of political uncertainties?

26 01 23

Science for All: the 2023 OSCAwards

Do you think a transparent research culture is important? Do you get enthusiastic about engaging society in science? Do you want to know more about open education, open data and open access? Join us for the Open Science Community Amsterdam Awards and learn about which projects are currently contributing to Open Science in Amsterdam.

25 01 23

On the long-term health effects of war and humanitarian crises

The Holodomor and Health Heritage

Russia’s deliberate war strategy in Ukraine has disrupted agriculture and food storage and distribution systems to hinder food supplies to the population. The war has created an immediate health and humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions inside and outside Ukraine. Furthermore, research on past wars and conflicts points out that the current crisis could have long-term health repercussions. Tonight, experts will discuss this “health heritage” by taking the case study of the Holodomor, the 1932-1934 period of extreme famine in Soviet Ukraine.

09 01 23

Societal Challenges, Global Mental Health and Humane AI

At this year’s Dies Natalis of the University of Amsterdam, Professor dr. Vikram Patel (Harvard University) and Prof. dr. Chris Manning (Stanford University) will be awarded Honorary Doctorates. During this symposium, a panel of expert speakers will join our honorees to discuss pertinent topics within the fields of mental health and the use of artificial intelligence on a global scale.

13 12 22

Secrets of the Sea in Times of Climate Breakdown

Despite its many secrets and wonders, oceans have been under threat for years. Corals are dying and sea life is disappearing. Although this is a global phenomenon, some people are affected more than others—and as with many a climate issue, these inequalities bear witness of the afterlife of (post)colonialism. In this talk, we shed light on the ambiguous nature of marine protection and the colonial dimensions of ocean health.

08 12 22

Transnationalizing the History of Germany’s First Democracy

Weimar Between East and West

For a long time, research on the Weimar Republic has implicitly assumed a comparison with Western European (liberal) democracy. More recent research emphasizes that the Weimar Republic should also and even especially be understood in the context of Central and Eastern European democracies. In this lecture, historian Thomas Mergel argues for a much broader, transnational perspective on the Weimar Republic.

29 11 22

Over een verleden van dynastieën

De harten van de wereldgeschiedenis

Historicus Simon Sebag Montefiore spreekt aan de hand van zijn nieuwe boek De wereld over een nieuw soort wereldgeschiedenis; van de Inca’s en de Ottomanen, tot de Habsburgers en de Kennedy’s. Voor Montefiore vormen deze machtige dynastieën een mondiale geschiedenis die alle tijdperken en continenten overspant en waarin familiebanden centraal staan.

25 11 22

Ukraine’s Strategic Choices and Future Geopolitics

On November 25 it will be nine months since the beginning of Putin’s three-day blitzkrieg. Ukraine is resolutely holding out and showing notable progress in repelling the aggressor. Having failed on the battlefield with its army largely degraded and in rout, the Russian regime has doubled down on missile and drone attacks on the energy grid, and resorted to a nuclear blackmail aiming to undermine Ukraine’s will to resist and the Western resolve to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom. During this event, Professor Oleksandr Bogomolov will present the Ukrainian perspective on the current situation and various future scenarios.