Making Europe: The Global Origins of the Old World

Making Europe The Global Origins of the Old World
27-29 May 2010, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies

http://www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/history/veranstaltungen/resolveuid/c3c1083335d1f179612aca4c93be77c1

In recent years, a new specter is haunting Europe - the explosion of
writings on the history of the continent. These works all advocate an
internalist view of Europe that explains Europe - its successes, its
failures and its tragedies - largely out of itself, a perspective that
contrasts Europe starkly to its Others. Making Europe will offer one
of the first sustained critiques of that vision by investigating the
economic, cultural, ideological, scientific, and political connections
of Europe (and, especially, its regions) to the rest of the world.
This conference will argue, in contrast to much of the existing
literature, that much of what is allegedly distinctly "European" is
the result of interactions between particular European regions and
other parts of the world. It will show that the efforts to write a
history of Europe confined to its own ill-defined boundaries might
serve particular political needs of the contemporary moment, but is,
in fact, historically inaccurate.

27-29 May 2010
Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS)
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Albertstr. 19
79104 Freiburg
Germany

Alma Melchers
Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS)
School of History
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Stadtstr. 5
79104 Freiburg
Phone: +49(0)761 – 203 97376
Fax: +49(0)761 – 203 97422

Email: europe@frias.uni-freiburg.de
Visit the website at http://www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/history/events