Night of Ideas - Institut français du Royaume-Uni

Old Empires and New Umpires

19:35-20:35 - Debate

A half-century of post-colonial studies has enshrined the idea that empires have essentially undermined societies around the world and left psychological scars that may never heal. Contemporary anti-imperialists construe colonial empires as historical singularities that mankind has a moral duty not to replicate. Yet, aren’t we witnessing a rebirth of imperialist temptations whose raison d’être seems more acceptable only because they are the product of new regional powers?

With

Pierre Singaravélou, Historian & Professor of contemporary history, Sorbonne University
Samir Puri, Senior Fellow, Singapore’s International Institute for Strategic Studies
Olivette Otele, Professor of history of slavery and memory of enslavement, University of Bristol

Chaired by Natalya Vince, Historian & Reader in North African and French Studies, University of Portsmouth

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Part of the Night of Ideas

Different Together

Learning (Décolonisations)

Liberation (Décolonisations)

The World is Ours (Décolonisations)

Part of Before the Night

Liberation (Décolonisations)

20:40-21:35 - Film - Episode 2

Booking

Film
FRA/BEL | 2020 | 53 mins | dir.s Karim Miské, Marc Ball & Pierre Singaravélou | In English

The second episode of the Décolonisations docu-series, Liberation (La Libération), is that of confrontations taking place between 1927 and 1954, whether through the words of the Algerian writer Kateb Yacine who, at 15, discovers, with the 1945 Sétif Massacre, that the new French Republican values are unequally applied, or that of poet Sarojini Naidu, close to Gandhi, who will see her dreams of fraternity fall apart with the bloodbath of the 1947 partition of India. Thus a wave of resistance emerges, leading to the independence of almost all colonies in the 1960s.

£2 | ⏯️ Watch it online on 27 Jan

In partnership with Arte

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Part of the Night of Ideas

Different Together

Old Empires and New Umpires

Learning (Décolonisations)

The World is Ours (Décolonisations)

Part of Before the Night

The World is Ours (Décolonisations)

21:40-22:35 - Film - Episode 3

Booking

Film
FRA/BEL | 2020 | 52mins | dir.s Karim Miské, Marc Ball & Pierre Singaravélou | In English

This third episode of the Décolonisations docu-series, The World is Ours (Le Monde est à nous), presents us events and characters active between the era of independence and that of post-colonies, between 1956 and 2013. It opens with the words of renowned French psychiatrist, philosopher and activist Frantz Fanon, who will go underground and join the National Liberation Front during the Algerian war of independence.

£2 | ⏯️ Watch it online on 27 Jan

In partnership with Arte

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Part of the Night of Ideas

Different Together

Old Empires and New Umpires

Learning (Décolonisations)

Liberation (Décolonisations)

Part of Before the Night

2:44 : Living with One Another
56:11 : Speaking to Each Other

28 January

Watch the Replay Day 3

Living with One Another

18:05-19:05 - Debate
Now that the UK is not a member of the EU anymore, maybe it’s time to question the European identity. Is the idea of “nation” back on tracks or are there new forms of social cohesion, a new sense of belonging and citizenship? Where do younger generations place their hopes? What do we mean when we say “we” on a political level?

With
- Stephen Clark, Director for the European Parliament Liaison Offices at European Parliament
- Robert Tombs, Historian & Author, Cambridge University
- Ulrike Guérot, Head of the Department for European Policy and the Study of Democracy, Danube University Krems
- Louis Williams, Author of An Optimist’s Brexit: A Millennial’s Vision
Chaired by Matthew Parris, Former MP, Writer & Broadcaster

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Game On: Not Tonight

Part of the Night of Ideas
Feeling for Others
Different Together

Speaking to Each Other

19:10-20:10 - Debate

The social fabric is being ripped apart by violent forms of intolerance. The increasing number of conflicts born of intellectual oppositions often lead to radicalisation that affects us all. How can we produce a genuine debate of ideas while avoiding intolerance, exclusion or ideological conformism? Is free speech still a right?

With

Lionel Shriver, Author of The Motion of the Body through Space

Thomas Chatterton Williams, Author & Contributing Writer for The New York Times Magazine
Anastasia Colosimo, Professor of political theology, Sciences Po Paris

Chaired by Philippe Sands, Professor of Law, University College London

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Part of the Night of Ideas

Different Together

Living with One Another

Part of Before the Night

Fritzi – a Revolutionary Tale

29 January

Watch the Replay Day 4

4:15 : Looking at Others
59:48 : Different Together
2:05:27 : Closing Concert: Angèle David-Guilloux

Looking at Others

18:00-19:00 - Debate
The history of art can be read as an objectification of women, not only in one of its major tropes – the nude, always understood as being a naked woman; but also in its designations of greatness. As we fight against structural stereotypes, what new representations, narratives, and relationships are emerging? How do we understand them and each other? How is the “female gaze” that we can now experience in some contemporary works of art revolutionary?

With
- Fatoş Üstek, Curator, Author & former Director of the Liverpool Biennial
- Laure Prouvost, Visual Artist
- Camille Morineau, Art Curator & Co-founder and Director of AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions)
Chaired by Hilary Robinson, Professor of Feminism, Art, and Theory, Loughborough University

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Part of the Night of Ideas
Different Together
Living with One Another
Speaking to Each Other
Looking at Others

Different Together

19:05-20:05 - Debate

Racial discrimination has been an awful part of European history. Successive waves of national emancipation and progressive laws have slowly built a theoretically inclusive society of equals, regardless of race or origin. However, aren’t Africa and the people (wrongly or duly) associated to it still objectified in European discourse, be it artistic or political?

With

Éric Baudelaire, Artist & Filmmaker Un Film Dramatique (Prix Marcel Duchamp 2019)
Pap NDiaye, Author & Professor of history, Sciences Po Paris
Chi-chi Nwanoku, Founder, Artistic & Executive Director of Chineke! Orchestra and Chineke! Junior Orchestra
Patrice Naiambana, African Performing Artist & Founder of Tribal Soul Arts

Chaired by Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, Journalist & Columnist for The Telegraph

See the livestream on Youtube
See the livestream on Facebook

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Game On: Dreams

Part of the Night of Ideas

Speaking to Each Other

Living with One Another

Looking at Others

Old Empires and New Umpires

Learning (Décolonisations)

“Un film dramatique”

Part of Before the Night