AltSOU

Exposing Fortress Europe? The role of the University
2024-05-21 18:15 - 19:15 (Europe/Rome) | Sala del Capitolo (Badia) + on zoom, European University Insitute, Florence, Italy
WHO?
José Bautista
WHAT?
Our goal during this summative session on Migration is to plan direct involvement, as university members, in the fight against the migration control industry and the externalisation of EU border controls. With the help of an independent investigative journalist from Spain, we shall discuss how migration control mechanisms are sustained by political fear-mongering and public spending, maintained through EU regulations, and promoted by academia. In line with the 2024 EU New Pact on Migration and Asylum, democratic governments with connections to authoritarian regimes, universities, corporations and large NGOs work together to support a model based on detention, deportation and externalisation. We shall also revisit questions and perspectives explored during our roundtable on Political Humanitarianism, the Mediterranean and Border Violence, with the practical purpose of creating an action plan that university members can use, in collaboration with activists, journalists, and members of civil society, to work towards alternatives to these models.
About the speaker
José Bautista is an independent investigative journalist based in Spain and specialized in economics migrations. He leads the investigative journalism team at Fundación porCausa, and also works for The New York Times and Der Spiegel. Bautista has worked for other media outlets and organizations, including The Wall Street Journal, Público, La Marea, Agencia EFE, El País, El Confidencial, Lighthouse Reports, OCCRP, Folha de São Paulo, eldiario.es, and CEPAL, among others. He holds a double master ‘s degree at Sorbonne Paris and the ESCP Business School.

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Venue – TBC

It’s (still) capitalism, stupid!
2024-05-22 09:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Rome) | Sala del Consiglio (Villa Salviati) + on zoom, European University Insitute, Florence, Italy
WHO?
Daniela Chironi (Scuola Normale Superiore)
Eraldo Souza Dos Santos (Université Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Jessica Whyte (University of New South Wales)
Lorenzo Zamponi (Scuola Normale Superiore)
Lorenzo Cini (University College Cork)
Veronika Zablotsky (Freie Universität Berlin)
WHAT?
In 2013, the Collettivo Prezzemolo, a group of politically engaged PhD researchers and PostDocs at the EUI, organised the “Festival of the other Europe – It’s capitalism, stupid!”. This event can be regarded as the precursor to the Alternative State of the Union (un)conference, which held a pilot event in May last year. Eleven years on from the original “Festival of the other Europe”, we are inviting alumna members of the Colletivo Prezzemolo, as well as other activist-academics, to lead a horizontal discussion entitled “It’s (still) capitalism, stupid!”, picking up on the themes and topics of the conversation (policing, surveillance, civil society, radical democracy, nationalism, austerity, etc), especially when it comes to social movements, how the economic situation is influencing the political situation at present, and how we as activist-academics can respond with a progressive or radical agenda that can give hope in a period of poly-crisis. We will also be discussing what it means to be an activist-academic. This event is also an opportunity to link with EUI alumni, SNS, Paris 1, FU Berlin, and even further afield.
About the speakers

Daniela Chironi (bio tbc)

Eraldo Souza dos Santos (they/them/theirs), MA, is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Panthéon-Sorbonne University, in France. They will be a Klarman Fellow at the Department of Government of Cornell University from August 2024) and will become an Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California – Irvine from July 2025. They are a historian of legal and political thought. Their research explores how political concepts have come to shape political discourse and political practice, and how political actors have come to contest the meaning of these concepts in turn. In their current book project, they trace the global history of the idea of civil disobedience. They are also currently writing a family memoir on race and modern slavery in Brazil. Their next project and monograph will provide a racial genealogy of the idea that it is necessary to defend democracy against its enemies. They engage in anti- racist, anti-war, and climate activism. More information can be found at their website: https://eraldosouzadossantos.com/

Jessica Whyte (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of New South Wales, in Australia. Her research interests include the intersection of political economy and legal/moral discourses, particularly when it comes to human rights and humanitarianism, as well as the use of economic power in international politics, including economic sanctions.

Lorenzo Zamponi (bio tbc)

Lorenzo Cini (he/his/him) is a lecturer in Employment Relations at University College Cork in the Ireland. His teaching and research focus is on employment relations, labour movements, and labour conflicts. He also engages in social movements and is a labour activist.

Prof Dr Veronika Zablotsky (she/her) is affiliated to Universität Koblenz and to Freie Universität Berlin, both in Germany. Her teaching and research focus is on political theories, transnational feminist theory, postcolonial theory and post-socialism in Eurasia, and critical migration and diaspora studies. She engages in social justice, anti- racist, queer-feminist activism, and advocates for no borders, internationalism, and contemporary abolitionism.

About the event’s format and timetable

Introduction

0900-0920: Introductory round (names, pronouns, occupation, activism, feelings today – reveal only what comfortable with). Self-introductions only. Outline of today’s schedule. Go around the room asking if there are any particular points or issues they would like to see raised today and if they would like to see something come out of today’s discussion.
EUI activism, past and present
0920-0930: What was the Colletivo Prezzemollo? (Daniela Chironi or Lorenzo Zamponi)
0930-0940: What was the Festival of the other Europe – It’s capitalism, stupid, event? (Daniela Chironi or Lorenzo Zamponi)
0940-0945: What is the EUI Researchers’ Union? (EUIRU delegate) 0945-0950: What is the Alternative State of the Union?
0950-10:00: Short break.
Why is it (still) capitalism, stupid? Do you think it is (still) capitalism?
1000-1010: Jessica Whyte
10:10-1020: Lorenzo Cini
1020-1100: Open discussion
1100-1130: Long break
What is it to be an activist-academic in the modern, neo-liberal university? Would you call yourself an activist-academic?
1130-1140: Veronika Zablotsky
1140-1150: Eraldo Souza dos Santos
1150-1230: Open discussion
1230-1240: Short break
1240-1300: Cool-down, breathing exercises. Roundtable on feelings and positive take-aways from today’s session and the past few days. Roundtable on what we would have maybe liked to see discussed that we could not fit in. Roundtable on what we would like to see into the future.

After the event closes at 1300, attendees are invited to join us as we walk to Badia Fiesolana for lunch. The Alternative State of the Union Unconference will continue at 1400 in the EUI Library Garden for our concluding participatory brainstorming session.

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Venue

Collective Brainstorming and Concluding Event
2024-05-22 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Rome) | Badia’s gardens, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
Participatory assembly on concluding Alt-SoU’24 & co-designing potential output
Open to all critical minds interested in building radical futures!
More info soon!

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Venue

Protect Academic Freedom & The Right to Protest: Anti-Zionism ≠ Anti-Semitism!
2024-06-11 14:00 - 17:00 UTC | Sala Europa, Villa Schifanoia, EUI, Via Boccaccio 121, Firenze, Toscana, 50133, Italy
“Toscana Aperta – Demands Symposium Against Scholasticide in Gaza and Palestine” is a follow-up to the Florence Encampment for Palestine, organised by students, researchers and workers from University of Florence, Scuola Normale Superiore and the European University Institute.

Protect Academic Freedom & The Right to Protest: Anti-Zionism ≠ Anti-Semitism!

This event is the first in a series of events organized by students and researchers from EUI, SNS, and UniFi with the goal of opening up a constructive space to address the collective demands formulated in Piazza Shireen Abu Akleh.

11.06.2024, we will explore how certain definitions of antisemitism are used to shut down dissent and create an environment that is hostile to the critique of Israel and of Zionism. This represents a real danger to academic freedom and freedom of expression, which needs to be addressed by Universities that have to guarantee a space for critical discussions.

The goals of the initiative are:

Present to the communities of SNS, EUI, and Unifi the Encampment initiative and its core 4 shared demands and create a dialogue on the military-industrial-academic complex in Israeli and its impact on the daily life of the Palestinian people, during this war in Gaza and in Palestine in general

Hold the 3 universities accountable for the written commitments they approved during the 10 days of the encampment

Create an opportunity of dialogue within the different academic communities both to gain the support of those faculty members that are still reluctant to support the 4-demands and to create a meaningful dialogue on the role of scholars, students and researchers in the Israeli system of occupation and war.

Increase the mobilization within the different universities and create a more favourable environment for other “academic activists” who want to come out and join the broader mobilization

Ultimately the initiative is another “instrument” of the shared political strategy developed between Unifi, SNS and EUI students and researchers and it is part of the “transparency” and “truth” efforts aiming at putting pressure on the academic institutions to act quickly.

You can join us in Person, or online under the following link:

https://zoom.us/j/95341245239?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID: 953 4124 5239

Passcode: [REDACTED] READINGS ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANTIZIONISM AND ANTISEMITISM AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM

You can download here the booklet “Florence Students Encampent: demands and political materials” (v1 – 7th June 2024)Studente ebreo all’Occupazione per la Palestina: “Antisemita? No. Giusto condannare i crimini israeliani”. (FirenzeToday)The Palestine exception to Academic Freedom (Decolonial Thought and Praxis)The Jerusalem Declaration on Anti-Semitism is an Orientalist text (Al Jazeera)Summary of the webinar “The anti-semitism label: Fighting Discrimination v. Silencing Critical Voices” (Law4Palestine)Why are America’s elite uWhy are America’s elite universities so afraid of this scholar’s paper?niversities so afraid of this scholar’s paper? (The Guardian)Whatever happend to anti-semitism? (Plutopress)Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic tropes in the Palestine Israel Discourse (Rutgers University Law School)Younes, Anna-Esther. “Fighting Anti-Semitism in Contemporary Germany.” Islamophobia Studies Journal, vol. 5, no. 2, 2020, pp. 249–66. JSTOR,

A lot of Palestinians here have the feeling of being invisible (The Left Berlin)Invention of the Mizrahim (Al Jazeera)A victory for anti-zionists in the UK (Al Jazeera)DETAILS ON THE FORMAT – SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION

The first session of our three-part symposium series for a toscana aperta will not be structured according to the traditional format of academic presentations followed by a q and a. Instead, our roundtable will follow a more participatory format, wherein we shall engage in an egalitarian exchange of questions. This will permit all participants, regardless of their level of expertise, to exchange stories, gain insight into each others points of view, and collectively answer questions that will help us think about how to protect academic freedom and the right to protest for palestine.

We ask you to choose from among the following guiding questions or come up with questions of your own that you would like to address collectively tomorrow. You can also submit your questions anonymously if you wish to do so.

GUIDING QUESTIONS – SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION ANONYMOUSLY

why should we distinguish between anti-zionism and anti-semitism?

1) How would investigation into the official definition of these concepts promote academic freedom?

2) When and how can the weaponisation of antisemitism become a way to silence protest, critical thinking and dissent?

3) How does the confusion between these two concepts, as well as the lack of research on palestine and the occupation, contribute to the invisibilisation of palestinian people and their points of view?

How can universities integrate the demand for academic freedom and the right to protest into their initiatives for equality, diversity and inclusivity?

1) How can a demand for academic freedom be formulated, that would protect the rights of palestinian, arab, muslim, jewish, pro-palestinian students and other concerned identities to research palestine and the occupation?

2) How can an edi programme be reformulated to protect these freedoms, in the context of sns, unifi, the eui and other universities?

What do you need, as a researcher and scholar, to feel empowered to take a stand and act in support of palestine and against the occupation, genocide and apartheid engaged in by the israeli state?

1)In terms of logistical, legal and psychological support, as well as academic resources, what would help you take action for palestine?

2) What do you need in terms of communication channels with administration and practical support from unions and other representative collectives, in order to feel safe and supported while acting for palestine?
