Europe’s current challenges and past legacies will be the focus of the Spring International Seminar Series.

Under the theme “Europe in a Global Context,” speakers will address topics ranging from the resurgence of far-right groups in Germany, the implications of Brexit, and the independence movement in Spain, to causes of Europe’s economic crisis and struggles for refugees.

Talks will take place at noon on Wednesdays in the Bone Student Center through April 25. The series is free and open to the public. Find a full list of speakers on the International Seminar Series website.

April 25
“Europe’s Crisis of Multiculturalism?”

Professor of History Rita Chin from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor will discuss the growing belief of multiculturalism failure in Europe. Chin will offer an overview of Britain’s 1989 Rushdie affair and the headscarf controversy in France and how these events laid the groundwork for present-day doubts about Muslim immigrants and their incompatibility with European society and values. Some of Chin’s work includes The Crisis of Multiculturalism in Europe: A History (2017) and The Guest Worker Question in Postwar Germany (2007). She is also the co-author of After the Nazi Racial State: Difference and Democracy in Germany and Beyond (2009).

The series is sponsored by the Office of International Studies and Programs and co-sponsored by the Harold K. Sage Fund and the Illinois State University Foundation; Milner Library; the College of Arts and Sciences; the Department of Economics; the Department of Politics and Government; the Department of English; the Department of Sociology and Anthropology; the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; the School of Art; and the Department of History.

For additional information, contact the Office of International Studies and Programs at (309) 438-5276.

Go to the International Seminar Series website for a full list of speakers.