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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

28 02 24

Don’t Stop the Music! The Cold Winds Facing Culture

Have the ghosts of ‘Cultuur als linkse hobby’ returned with the prospects of a PVV-led coalition in the Netherlands? With political leaders like Geert Wilders intoning the words ‘kunstenaars zijn profiteurs’ it is important to shed light on crucial issues, and discuss how cultural stakeholders could join to change perceptions of culture-as-work. Why is a diverse and fair cultural practice so important?

23 02 24

Welcome to the New Future of the Tech Industry

Data Is Dead

The future of the tech industry is in infrastructure, not data. This means that those companies that control key infrastructure, like chips and cloud computing, hold sway. Companies like ASML, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), rather than X or Meta, will become the most powerful players. Is it their choices that will influence what our collective futures look like? Do we need to adapt our understanding of power in the tech sector to this new reality?

21 02 24

Do We Really Care? Public Values and Digital Technology in the Netherlands

What do the Dutch value in digital technologies? This roundtable presents the results of the first survey to explore the relation between public values, human rights, and technology design. We find that most people take measures to protect their online privacy, but also that half of the population has never heard of technical standards.

19 02 24

Never Again: Germans and Genocide after the Holocaust

Germans remember the Nazi past so that it may never happen again. But how has the abstract vow to remember been translated into concrete action to prevent new genocides abroad? In this lecture, historian Andrew Port will examine this question in relation to the genocides that took place in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda.

16 02 24

The Joy of Consent

In the age of #MeToo, consent has become the answer to problems of sexual harassment and violence: only if all parties agree to sex, the act is legitimate. Critics argue that consent, and the awkwardness of confirming it, rob sex of its sexiness. However, opposing the consent regime means defending a masculine erotic of silence and mystery, a pillar of patriarchy.

08 02 24

Knowledge-Driven Power in a Digitized World

Who holds, controls, and creates power in contemporary societies? On the occasion of their new book, The New Knowledge: Information, Data and the Remaking of Global Power, Blayne Haggart and Natasha Tusikov will present their answer to this question. They will take us along from Google’s Internet-of-Things projects, new modes of property and knowing that arose during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the ideology through which power is exercised.

07 02 24

Waves of Restitution, Reparation and Cultural Memory after the Second World War

The debate on reparations and restitution for victims of war, persecution, and human rights violations remains an ongoing process. In this lecture, historian Constantin Goschler will explain why and how these debates have changed in the German context, due to a memory boom, globalisation, changes in the domestic and foreign policy, and generational shifts. Lorena De Vita will comment upon Goschler’s lecture.

02 02 24

Unboxing Gaza: Disrupted Histories and Photo Kegham

Kegham Djeghalian Sr founded the first photography studio of Gaza. Focusing on the legacy of this exceptional photographer, Özge Calafato and Karène Sanchez Summerer will be in discussion with his grandson, Kegham Djeghalian Jr, who works on activating the surviving fraction of his grandfather’s endangered archive. The talk will address the significance of preserving Gaza’s precarious visual history and cultural heritage in the light of the current critical crisis of Gaza.

29 01 24

The Unmarked Burial Sites in Lebanon

The Soil and the Sea

In Lebanon there are more than 100 untouched mass graves dating back from the Civil War, and thousands of families awaiting a missing relative or at least a bone to bury. The documentary The Soil and the Sea unveils the violence lying beneath a garden, a school, a cafe, a hotel, and other unremarkable landscapes. As the camera interrogates these everyday spaces, voices fill them with erased stories. After screening the documentary, we will have a discussion with film director Daniele Rugo, Yara El Murr and Eleri Connick.

26 01 24

Political challenges after the EU’s AI Act

Building the European AI Future

In December 2023, the EU finally reached agreement over the AI Act, celebrated as the legal fundament for a safe and prosperous digital European future. Look past the political accord, however, and central questions are unanswered: from managing the wider societal impact of AI and its military implications to ensuring that the AI Act rules are actually enforced. This event explores the political challenges that emerge—or remain—in AI governance now that an EU framework has been agreed upon.

23 01 24

Deleuze and Guattari and the Psychedelic Revival

We are in the midst of a psychedelic revival. Scientifically, the therapeutic potentialities of psychedelics get a lot of attention. The philosophical and aesthetic dimensions of the inner journeys and its implied significance that often transgress medical scientific frameworks has received relatively less attention. Tonight, our panel will offer ideas and thought on these current developments with the launch of a special issue of the journal Deleuze and Guattari Studies.

22 01 24

Listening Exercises: Towards an Ethics of Silent Resistance

Is it possible to be in the world without being devoured by it, to care without getting lost, to contribute sincerely without projecting yourself over others? Public philosophers Miriam Rasch and Costica Bradatan invite you to a conversation about alternative ways of engaging.

11 01 24

Moderate Modernity: The Newspaper Tempo and the Transformation of Weimar Democracy

The collapse of the Weimar Republic, Germany’s first liberal democracy, is still one of the most intensely debated topics in modern history. With Western democracies currently under pressure by populists and authoritarian regimes worldwide, the question why the Weimar Republic failed has acquired renewed urgency and relevance. In his book Moderate Modernity, Jochen Hung offers a new perspective on this question. Hung will discuss his new book and the meaning of Weimar democracy for today in conversation with Moritz Föllmer and Mario Daniels.

10 01 24

On Display: Instagram, the Self, and the City

Two billion global Instagram users, yet minimal social science research. Beyond its perceived superficiality, Instagram’s self-presentation raises profound questions: Who are we? What do we want to show of ourselves? What do we aspire to be? Justus Uitermark and John Boy present On Display: Instagram, the Self, and the City. The book launch features a talk with Princeton’s ‘sociologist of technology’ Zeynep Tufekci.

15 12 23

The Danger of Conflation

What is Antisemitism?

Since Hamas’s atrocious attack on October 7 and Israel’s near-immediate retaliatory bombings that have killed more than 18,000 Palestinians, Europe has seen a troubling surge in both state and private efforts to restrict criticism of Israel or support of “the Palestinian cause” with the stated goal of protecting against anti-Semitism. But how is anti-Semitism being defined, why so, and with what results?

12 12 23

Border Forensics: Documenting and Contesting Violence at the External Borders of Europe

Recent developments at Europe’s borders indicate a transformation of the forms of violence inflicted upon illegalised migrants from the Global South. During this event, Charles Heller and Stefan Salomon discuss how forensic practices are used to address these forms of violence, and explore their impact as well as the challenges that these challenges bring about.

08 12 23

The Western Liberal Order from Foundation to Fracture

Geopolitics and Democracy

With the launch of the book Geopolitics and Democracy we explore the fortunes and fragility of the international liberal order, where nation-states invest in international openness and multilateralism on the one hand and in military preparedness on the other. The book provides a novel argument and historical evidence explaining why the Western liberal international order emerged and why it is under threat from anti-globalist forces today.

07 12 23

Art, Technology, and Intimacy: Writing Fiction in the Sharing Economy

In her debut novel The Sharing Economy (Gedeelde liefde in Dutch) Sophie Berrebi brings together art, social media, and love, and explores various, modern modes of intimacy. She will discuss her book and the ways we view relationships with cultural theorist Pınar Türer and author Ilse Josepha Lazaroms.

05 12 23

Making it Political: China, the EU, and Technology Standards

Technological standards are at the center stage of the competition between China and the EU. China promotes their own standards in the EU and on the international stage, which gives them a leading role in the geopolitics of technology. This evening we discuss the nature of this interaction between China and the EU.

04 12 23

LGBTQI+ and Women’s Rights in The Face of Democratic Erosion

The rise of transnational conservative networks in Latin America and Europe forms a threat to LGBTQI+ and women’s rights. This event aims to discuss the challenges that arise in the LGBTQI+ and women’s rights movement in Latin America and Europe, as well as the role of civil society and academia in counteracting these challenges.

29 11 23

Update Language: On Current (Sign) Linguistics

In Update Language 2023, two of the UvA’s leading linguistics researchers talk about current trends in their specific take on linguistics. Floris Roelofsen and Titia Benders will each give a lecture about their respective research fields: sign languages and spoken languages. Afterwards they will engage in conversation about the current research developments in their fields.

24 11 23

Debating Muslim Marriage

Unconventional Muslim marriages have been topics of heated public debate around the globe. Religious scholars, policy makers, political actors, media personalities, and women’s activists discuss, promote, or reject unregistered, transnational, interreligious and other boundary-crossing marriages. Couples entering into such marriages, however, have different concerns from those publicly discussed. At this event, we will present chapters from a newly published book that examines these debated marriages: Muslim Marriage and Non-Marriage. Where Religion and Politics Meet Intimate Lives, edited by Julie McBrien and Annelies Moors.

23 11 23

Against Aggression: Monstrous and Resonant Forms of Uncontrollability

In his book The Uncontrollability of the World (2020), German sociologist Hartmut Rosa argues that the late modern human being desires to control the world. However, to truly experience “life” and achieve resonance with the world, we must be open to its uncontrollability. Tonight, Rosa will be in conversation with philosophers Daniel Loick and Beate Roessler.

21 11 23

Why we fall for it – and how we build immunity

Diagnosis: Disinformed

In all its various forms, disinformation is one of the great threats to modern democracy. Especially in times of crisis, fake news and conspiracy theories fall into fertile ground. Through new technologies and social media channels, disinformation spreads at lightning speed—and divides society. We saw that happening during the corona crisis and we see it now in the war in Ukraine. Indeed, disinformation can radicalize people and incite them to violence. Putin’s war, but also the right-wing attacks in Halle and Hanau in Germany and the burning of 5G transmission masts in the Netherlands are examples of this.

21 11 23

Double Book Launch with Carolyn Birdsall and Elodie A. Roy

Sonic Objects of Desire?

In contemporary culture, outdated ideas persist about sound media, such as radio, as being for the ears only. Yet sound media cultures have also variously engaged vision, touch, smell, and taste. This event will focus on the cross-sensory and material qualities of sound media by a double book launch of new books in Media Studies by Carolyn Birdsall and Elodie A. Roy.

13 11 23

Data and Social Justice

From #BlackLivesMatter to #DalitLivesMatter

Appearing on Twitter/X for the first time in 2014, #DalitLivesMatter (#DLM) is one of the latest chapters in a long history of offline and online cross-fertilisation between Dalit and African American struggles for social justice. What can a digital humanities approach tell us about the productive and counterproductive effects of this association, and by extension about such activist associations in general?

10 11 23

‘The family’ in migration politics

Strange(r) Families

“Family” is the main reason why migrants are permitted to move to European countries. But who decides what a ‘proper’ family is? Or what families are ‘deserving’ enough to live here? Families which include “strangers” – meaning non-citizens – require state permission to live together in Europe. For families which are “strange” – who diverge from the norm – such state permission is not self-evident. Same-sex families or polygamous families are commonly denied family migration rights. Who and what states consider “family” is therefore key to defining who gets to legally migrate to and reside in Europe.

09 11 23

Growing Prominence and Influence of the EU’s Eastern Member States

Europe’s Periphery at the Core

Almost twenty years after the accession of the first post-communist countries to the EU, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) today is a crucial venue of Europe’s geopolitics. Not only do current events such as the war in Ukraine take place within the broader Eastern European sphere, but the member states of the region themselves have become ever more assertive and influential on a number of terrains.

03 11 23

Activists and Scholars on Security and Peace

How to Build a Caring Feminist Foreign Policy?

Last year the Dutch government announced that it would pursue a Feminist Foreign Policy, which was to be developed in consultation with civil society and knowledge institutions. On 1 and 2 November 2023 the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosts an international conference on ‘Shaping Feminist Foreign Policy’, thereby profiling itself as the latest adopter of a Feminist Foreign Policy. But whose voices and knowledge have actually made it into the Dutch Feminist Foreign Policy? And whose voices and knowledge have been sidelined?

03 11 23

Objects, Emotions, Connections

Soviet Cultural Entanglements During the Cold War

On the occasion of the publication of the book Journeys of Soviet Things: Cold War as Lived Experience (Routledge 2023) by Sudha Rajagopalan, we explore the subject of Cold War era cultural connections between the Soviet Union and the world. Putting “things” at the centre of the history of the Cold War, a panel of three speakers will share their research about the role of everyday objects in shaping popular imagination at a time of a deep ideological divide between East and West.

31 10 23

Power and the Future of the Digital Society

Eaten by the Internet

Our world is eaten by the Internet. This means that those who control the Internet control the bounds of public speech, economic production, social cohesion, and politics, making its infrastructure a core political terrain in the networked age. This evening we honor a new book about the power of Big Tech and the future of the digital society, Eaten by the Internet. The discussion with the book’s authors and editor will make Internet infrastructure visible as a key force of political power and urge us to ask how can we ensure the Internet will sustain us, rather than consume us?

30 10 23

NIAS Talk

Voting in Turbulent Times: the Dutch Elections in a Comparative Perspective

On 22 November Dutch voters will cast their ballot in the Parliamentary Elections, bringing new urgency to questions that have been occupying politicians, pundits, and political scientists for years. How has the electoral behavior of key social groups such as the working class changed in the last decades? Are we witnessing a crisis of the Left or is there new hope for social democratic and other parties? Have political elites in the Netherlands and Europe become more diverse, and (why) does it matter who our representatives are?

27 10 23

A Hundred Years Of Republican Turkey

The year 2023 marks the centenary of the Republic of Turkey. The recently published book A Hundred Years of Republican Turkey: A History in a Hundred Fragments, a project of Leiden University’s Turkish Studies, explores Turkey’s complex history since 1923 through one hundred expertly curated fragments of historical sources. Our panel will discuss this innovative new exploration of Turkey’s past century.

24 10 23

Satanic Panic

In response to the brand new documentary Satan Wants You, which will premiere at the Imagine Fantastic Film Festival this October, our panel discusses the so-called “satanic panic” in the 1980s and how it relates to contemporary moral panic about ritual child abuse.

13 10 23

Between Gender, Space and Racialization

Prisons and Urban Inequalities

How do criminal justice interventions impact urban inequalities? Conversely, what would the criminal justice system look like if we were to center the resolution of inequalities instead of crime? These are questions that lead the Amsterdam-based research project The Principle of Inequality: Between City District and Criminal Justice System in Amsterdam. As this project draws to an end, the research team has organized an international colloquium, bringing together critical research on prisons and inequalities from around the world. Dr. Rashad Shabazz will share his work on the ways in which carceral power interacts with urban planning, and the policing and confinement of Blackness.

11 10 23

A Multi-Species Perspective

War Pollution and the Environment

Across the globe, military action and warfare have caused detrimental social, environmental, and multi-species harm. How does war pollution, particularly resulted from explosives and chemical warfare, continue to impact humans, other species, and their ecosystems? How do local and international efforts to address these legacies intersect with our heightened concerns over climate change? Bringing together scholars who research different socio-political contexts, this roundtable is aimed at facilitating a comparative discussion of these questions.

10 10 23

Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science

In her forthcoming book, art historian Catherine Powell explores the intriguing life of Agnes Block, a remarkable seventeenth-century Dutch woman who we can find at the intersection of art and science. Powell will share her findings in a lecture, followed by comments by botanical philosopher Norbert Peeters and a presentation by literary scholar Feike Dietz.

06 10 23

A Conversation with Mark Rowe

J.L. Austin: Philosopher and D-Day Intelligence Officer

Mark Rowe has just published the first full length biography of the celebrated ordinary-language philosopher, J.L. Austin. The book reveals the true complexity of Austin’s character, and the full range and significance of his achievements, including his lesser known role in planning the D-Day landings. Tonight, Rowe will talk about his new book with philosopher Tamara Dobler and English Literature scholar Rudolph Glitz.

02 10 23

Book Launch

Forum Groningen: New Views on Public Space

Forum Groningen gives a kaleidoscopic view on the genesis of the architectural Forum project – the new cultural centre in the inner city of Groningen. This festive book presentation aims to explore the broader significance of this remarkable building by connecting the architects, book makers, invited critics and you, the audience. The panel reflects on the local and international meaning of the Forum in Groningen as a new form of public space that connects diverse cultural functions and merges architecture with cityscape. A large model of the Forum is present to illustrate the speakers’ views. Moderation by writer Dirk van Weelden.

28 09 23

Stories of Climate Breakdown: Emotions and Inequalities

Climate change is having profound and distressing impact across the world. The ways in which the effects of climate breakdown are felt, lived, and experienced are deeply varied and uneven. In this event we will discuss the role of emotions in these lived experiences, exploring in particular the place of storytelling and narratives in emotional responses to climate breakdown.