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*Apologies for cross-posting* Dear colleagues, you are warmly invited to attend the last event of our 2013/2014 research project "Weltanschauungen". This is a panel discussion entitled "The Dark Side of EU-rope: ‘Imperium Europaeum’?" bringing together the authors of two of the most exciting, cross-disciplinary recent publications on European integration in German to exchange ideas on the future development of the European Union: Prof. David Engels (Université Libre de Bruxelles): Auf dem Weg ins Imperium. Die Krise der Europäischen Union und der Untergang der Römischen Republik. Historische Parallelen, (Berlin: Europa Verlag, 2014). Prof. Hauke Brunkhorst (University of Flensburg): Das doppelte Gesicht Europas – Zwischen Kapitalismus und Demokratie (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2014). The European Union is contested as never before. After five years of crisis, the Union is widely perceived to be an outdated model and a technocratic monster. Is the European Union on the verge of turning into an empire – like the late Roman Republic – as the German-Belgian historian, David Engels, argues? He compares various symptoms of crisis in the EU and the late Roman Republic, identifying a number of disturbing parallels: population decrease and migration issues, materialism and globalization, deteriorating values and fundamentalism, bureaucracy and political disaffection. European democracy is on the brink of the abyss, according to Engels, and the Union will turn into an authoritarian and conservative empire. The German political sociologist Hauke Brunkhorst presents an alternative reading: Like the Roman god Janus, the EU shows a ‘dual face’, in which vision and technocracy are mutually linked. The European project remains an open process. Its emancipatory potential can be unleashed, for example by mobilizing the highly qualified young people in precarious employment in the Southern Mediterranean. The discussion will be chaired by Julian Pänke (IGS Birmingham) and followed by a wine reception. WHEN: Monday 1 December 2014, 5-7pm WHERE: Room 714-15, 7th Floor (East), Muirhead Tower, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT The event is free to attend, but please RSVP by 21 November 2014 to Josefin Graef, [log in to unmask] Best wishes, Josefin ------------ Josefin Graef Doctoral Researcher and Project Assistant Institute for German Studies Department of Political Science and International Studies Muirhead Tower University of Birmingham Edgbaston B15 2TT