Siena is an ideal space for such a workshop for two reasons. Its status as a Medieval city puts it in an angled relation with a certain narrative of Europe as the endpoint of civilization, which requires a line from antiquity to Renaissance to Enlightenment. At the same time, because of its location as the site of the University for Foreign Students (founded 30 years ago), Siena has a tradition of hosting students from all over the world—in more recent times also thousands of migrants. This makes it a perfect location for a workshop reflecting on how Europe has transformed in the last few decades, what it is becoming, where it is likely to go… and adds to its appeal as a space to host the workshop’s investment in immigration and refugee issues as central to Europe’s future. 

Comprising historians, literary and cultural critics, linguists and anthropologists, this workshop invites scholars from diverse disciplines and methodological orientations to reflect on the idea of Europe, the challenges facing Europe as ethnonationalism rises, the political-economic crises precipitated in the European South and East by the neoliberal capture of the European union, as well as those precipitated by the refugee and migrant presence in the absence of an adequate reckoning with Europe’s colonial past and its continuing colonial practices in Africa.