[In Conversation] AC Grayling & Luuk van Middelaar

ON BREXIT, EUROPEAN IDENTITY, AND THE FUTURE OF THE EU

Prominent British philosopher A.C. Grayling and insightful Dutch historian Luuk van Middelaar challenge each other on the issues and questions at the heart of our troubled times. The exchange will prove to be a whirlwind tour through history, philosophy, culture and identity, and lead to an in-depth conversation on the future of Europe. Join us for thought-provoking insights, streamlined argumentation, impeccable delivery and engage with two brilliant minds at work. A Full Circle-BOZAR co-production.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

A.C. Grayling is an outstanding British philosopher and public intellectual, as well as a prolific author (over 30 books) and frequent writer, columnist, broadcaster and commentator on all of the main national media in the United Kingdom. He contributes to the ongoing reflection on how we should live and about possibilities for good lives in good societies. In 2011 he founded and became the first Master of New College of the Humanities, an independent undergraduate college in London. He was previously Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, where he taught from 1991. He is also a supernumerary fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. He has been a judge on the Booker Prize twice, in 2015 serving as the Chair of the judging panel. He is a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. 

Luuk van Middelaar is a political theorist, historian, author, and a brilliant thinker from the Netherlands. He is one of the most engaged and passionate observers of European affairs, providing unrivalled insights on European history and politics, and what it means to be a European today. He is a professor of EU law and European studies at the universities of Leiden and Louvain and a political commentator for NRC Handelsblad and De Tijd. Van Middelaar was the chief speechwriter and a close advisor to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy from 2010 to 2014. Since its original publication in 2009, his best-seller The Passage to Europe has received the Socrates Prize for the best Dutch philosophy book and the European Book Prize 2012.

GOOD READS 

The Age of Genius (2016)

The God Argument (2013)

Liberty in the Age of Terror (2009)

Against All Gods (2007)

Ideas That Matter: A Personal Guide For The 21st Century (2008)

and many more!

The Passage to Europe (2009)

Politicide (1999)

KEY LINKS

AC Grayling’s website, www.acgrayling.com

New College of the Humanities, www.nchlondon.ac.uk