"[U]niversities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically."

1/10 Theessay explores Raymond Geuss as an “anti-heroic” philosopher in our postmetaphysical age. Geuss rejects grand narratives, embracing skepticism & historical context over normative certainties. #Philosophy #Geuss #PoliticalTheory #Philsky das.ubernerden.com/ott-geuss.html

PIR’s Dr. Alicia Steinmetz recently published, “Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Raymond Geuss on Realism, Liberalism, and Political Imagination.” Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Philosophy’s claim to universal truth is a “cultural artifact." In positing a Nietzschean genealogy to explore the violent origins of our concepts, our podcast of the week rejects any search for an abstract primordial reality. With Raymond Geuss at @standrewsiih.bsky.social buff.ly/oleBSEJ

This Thrusday, I was able to join Prof. Nicolas Standaert‘s emeritation lecture on “The Art of Turning Muddled” (難得糊塗). From challenges universities are facing over their achievements to his famous 4Vs, it felt like he really brought together insights from his whole career.

New piece! Stéphane Vibert on the French philosopher Marcel Gauchet, his rejection of teleological history, and “otherness” as a core element of modernity and human sociality. Check it out!

ICYMI: Dick Howard, 'Is Anti-totalitarian Theory Still Relevant? The Example of Claude Lefort' - asks if the concept of totalitarianism still has meaning in today’s world, then turns to Lefort’s attempts to understand totalitarianism over the past 60 years. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Why, when, and how did #europeanvalues over their rivals as a tool to legitimize the European project? Find out in this new essay "Young and Ambivalent. A New Look at the Recent Rise of European Values, Their History, Precursors and Critics" (open access) www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-...

New publication, open access: Happy to see this last and maybe most important article of my PhD research published. I argue that liberal democracies cannot require 'shared values', neither of migrants (only), as is the case for the integration requirement... (1/4) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Bart Verheijen: Het zoeken naar zondebokken zal de democratie blijvend beschadigen www.bnnvara.nl/joop/artikel...

"Quentin Skinner has [focused on] the loss of a republican vision of freedom from domination, as opposed to modern & libertarian freedom from interference that prevails today. And yet he's never shown much interest in what freedom is for" - @samuelmoyn.bsky.social www.thenation.com/article/poli...

The great scholar of intellectual history, Quentin Skinner, has set the terms for a debate that is only just beginning about what liberty looks like after liberalism. Conflicting ideas of liberty | David Wootton engelsbergideas.com/essays/confl...

For Sidecar, Raymond Geuss remembers Alasdair MacIntyre: 'He was one of the very few anglophone philosophers of the past two hundred years whom one could imagine emerging from the pages of Plutarch or Diogenes Laertius.' newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Congress has decided to claw back previously approved funding for public media. This decision hurts people in communities across the country, but it has only strengthened our resolve to keep Americans informed and connected. (1/2)

“It’s been very serious, but serious fun.” The conductor Sir Roger Norrington has died, aged 91. bachtrack.com/news-roger-n...

Michel Foucault and Daniel Defert's library at 285 rue de Vaugirard - online catalogue soon available progressivegeographies.com/2025/07/07/l...

The French Socialist Party sinks into the mire: tocqueville21.com/art-goldhamm...

Another recent open-access book some will find interesting: Inside Asylum Appeals by Nick Gill and others. It's a comparative study involving observations of appeal hearings + research interviews covering Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and the UK. www.routledge.com/Inside-Asylu...

[Event] The Institut d'études européennes ULB welcomes you to the Book pre-launch Debate: 'What do judges do, and how do they perceive their role when democracy is under strain?' June the 5th at 5pm.

L’historien Pierre Nora est mort

The Hall of Uselessness by Simon Leys (NYRB, 2011) A delight in the finest prose. Legendary Belgian sinologists on emptiness, claptrap from Western Maoists, Chesterton—democrat and thus journalist, Liu Xiaobo, the sea. I return again and again. 4/🧵

#SaveTheDate Le 26 mai 2025, nous explorons la désobéissance sous toutes ses formes, du Moyen Âge à nos jours ! 10ᵉ journée d’étude #ModerNum à la KBR (Bruxelles). Programme & inscriptions : modernum.hypotheses.org/je2025 #histoire #recherche #colloque

‘Whereas Berlin saw no necessary connection between liberty and democracy, Skinner argues that representative democracy is the only form of governance that can guarantee liberty as independence: “No democracy, no liberty.”’ Colin Kidd on Quentin Skinner and liberty: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Michel de Certeau SJ (1925-1986) war einer der originellsten Theolog:innen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Am 17.5.2025 wäre sein 100. Geburtstag. Margit Eckholt mit einer Analyse. www.feinschwarz.net/michel-de-ce...

++NEUERSCHEINUNG++ Der Demokratietheoretiker Pierre Rosanvallon regt in »Unsichtbare Institutionen« mithilfe der Konzepte Vertrauen, Autorität und Legitimität zur Wiederherstellung des sozialen Zusammenhalts an: www.hamburger-edition.de/buecher-e-bo...

Très heureux de ce nouveau colloque co-organisé avec Guillaume Coissard: "Diderot Critique" 4 et 5 juin 2025 à l'ULB phi.phisoc.ulb.be/diderot-pens...

++NEUERSCHEINUNG++ Micha Knuth beleuchtet in »Die stille Revolution« das Leben und die Theorien von Marcel Gauchet, einem der wichtigsten Intellektuellen Frankreichs, und fasst zugleich die französische Geistesgeschichte seit den 1970er Jahren zusammen: www.hamburger-edition.de/buecher-e-bo...

[Activité] Le REPI Recherche et Etudes en Politique Internationale vous invite au séminaire «La Trahison des mots. Notes sur le langage abîmé de la guerre de Gaza». Avec Didier Fassin (Professeur au Collège de France) Le 14 mai à 12h00 Auditoire Lallemand.

CFP: 250 Years of Franco-American Relations. Tocqueville Review Conference, AUP Paris, May 29-30, 2026 with @davidavrombell.bsky.social and Steve Sawyer tocqueville21.com/blog-info/ca...

[Event] The Cevipol and the Institute for European Studies welcome you to the seminar: «What Narrative for Europe? Taking Stock and Looking Ahead» With Antoine Bailleux, Matin Deleixhe, François Foret & Didier Georgiakakis Wednesday the 16th of April at 14:00 Spaak Room Roosevelt av., 39 1050 Bxl

[Activité] Journée de l'Europe à l'ULB Conférence-Débat 'L'impossible possibilité de la fédération européenne: hier, aujourd'hui, demain' Avec Etienne Balibar, professeur émérite à Paris X-Nanterre Discutant: Martin Deleixhe, professeur à SciencePo ULB (CTP/IEE) www.iee-ulb.eu/evenements/c...

On 14/4 I will give a talk in Brussels, presenting my @hertieschool.bsky.social Enderlein Fellowship research. Central question: Where Union law mentions “democracy”, what meaning(s) can we infer from that (and why care)? Interested? You can still register here: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Dernière chance pour s’inscrire à la « soirée littéraire »! Ce soir à la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique. Il y aura de la musique, de l’art graphique et des petits fours (et des sciences sociales)

Our friend and colleague George Ross passed away on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. A sociologist by training and a political scientist at heart, he left his mark on political ethnography and the field of European studies.

📢 Conférence sur l’accueil des demandeur.euses d’asile en🇧🇪 Depuis 25 ans, des initiatives locales structurent et humanisent cette mission essentielle. Bilan & perspectives avec un panel d’expert.es 📅 24/04/25 – 14h-17h 📍 UCLouvain 👉 Programme et inscription⬇️ link.vandenbroele.be/m/1/90973868...

What will Le Pen's conviction do to the 2027 French presidential race? tocqueville21.com/blog-info/le...

Le néerlandais is niet meer... Matthieu Sergier en ik schreven over de sluiting van het departement Germaanse studies aan UCLouvain in Brussel. Laten we meer "denken in termen van ‘waardevol’ in plaats van ‘niet rendabel’ [en] alle middelen aanwenden om elkaar zo goed mogelijk te proberen verstaan."

"Castoriadis et l’Institution imaginaire de la société: 50 ans après", Paris, 10-11 avril 2025 www.castoriadis.org/fr/articles....

[Activité] Le Centre de théorie politique vous invite au séminaire: « Sources of Solidarity » Avec Guido Barbi Mardi 18 mars à 17h00 Salle Geremek Av. Franklin Roosevelt 39 1050 Bruxelles

[Event] The Institut d'études européennes ULB welcomes you to the seminar: «Political narratives of immigration in comparison» With Virgine Guiraudon (Sciences Po) Thursday the 13th of March at 14h00 Sappak Room Franklin Roosevelt Av. 39 1050 Brussels

[Event] The Institut d'études européennes ULB welcomes you to the seminar: "Illiberalism within the EU: How to Solve the Value Crisis?" With Gábor Halmai (European University Institute) Monday the 17th of March at 18:00 Spaak Room Roosevelt Av., 39 1050 Brussels

University presidents are staying quiet as Trump tries to destroy their institutions. It won’t work, writes @gregggonsalves.bsky.social

Concentrating the European Mind -- Europe after the clash in the Oval Office tocqueville21.com/art-goldhamm...

We're excited to host @lalamur.bsky.social at the Centre for Voting & Democracy on 25 March for the launch of her Cambridge Element! We'll have a discussion of the book with comments from Karen Celis, @annakern.bsky.social and @neerdaels.bsky.social Join us for this event if you're around!

Given that the Trump people did nothing to induce Russia to end the war, it’s fair to conclude that the whole idea of pursuing peace was just a pretext to renew relations with Russia.

Trump bullies Zelensky and throws the US into the arms of Putin: tocqueville21.com/art-goldhamm...

Questions à Jacques Rancière. Autour Les voyages de l’art (2023) et Au loin la liberté (2024), UCLouvain, 11 mars 2025, 14h00-17h00

Pierre Clastres, en héritage Vient de paraître aux Cahiers d'anthropologie sociale www.editionsdelherne.com/publication/...

Mooie aandacht voor Claude Lefort in de Volkskrant van afgelopen weekend.

"Making Sense of an Unsettling World" I'll be in conversation with Ivan Krastev @iwm.at this evening, Feb 13, 18:00 CET / 12:00 ET. Livestream available: www.youtube.com/live/Bc6hZqB...