Post-Colonial Europe, 1945 to the Present

Migrants crossing illegally into Hungary under the Hungary–Serbia border fence, 25 August 2015
Photo by Gémes Sándor/SzomSzed                    CC BY SA

This course embarks upon a critical historical and interdisciplinary analysis of Europe’s “post-colonial condition,” encompassing both the ending of European empire in the twentieth century and Europe’s contemporary experience of immigration, integration and conflicted multicultural coexistence.

We will reflect in particular upon the historical course of decolonization, as that played out---and arguably continues to play out---in both European and in world historical context. To what extent, we will ask, has Europe remembered and come to terms with its imperial past? In what ways is that past still operable?