Race and Remembrance in Contemporary Europe

Date: 

Wednesday, October 21, 2020, 2:00pm to 3:00pm

Location: 

Zoom (RSVP Required)

Following the murder of George Floyd in May, cities not only in the United States but also in Europe erupted in demonstrations challenging police violence and racist legacies.

In the United Kingdom, activists removed a statue honoring a famous slaveholder, Edward Colston, and threw it in the River Avon. In the United States, activists projected Black Lives Matter and other images onto the Robert E. Lee Memorial in Richmond, Virginia. In France, President Emmanuel Macron tried to stave off similar movements by preemptively declaring that the Republic would "erase no trace or names of its history, it will forget none of its works, it will tear down none of its statues.”

This discussion brings together two experts on race and memory to compare, contrast and analyze these movements, as part of a further reflection on the meaning of race in contemporary Europe. Ana Lucia Araujo, author of Slavery in the Age of Memory: Engaging the Past, and Mame Fatou Niang, co-director of Mariannes Noires, will engage in a discussion with CES Resident Faculty Mary D. Lewis.

To RSVP for this Zoom event, please register here.

Hosted by the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. Presented with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.