To kick off the new series of events entitled "Meditations on Europe", Peter Sloterdijk, Barbara Vinken and Joseph de Weck discuss the question "Quo vadis, Europe?".
Thursday, 07. May 2026, 18:30 – 20:00 h
At the University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zurich, KOL-G-201 (Aula)
As a new format, SIAF is adding a series of panel discussions to its programme. With these “Meditations on Europe”, we want to explore new perspectives on our continent. To kick things off, we welcome an prominent group of guests from the fields of philosophy, cultural studies, literary studies, politics and history.
-
Die Veranstaltung ist öffentlich, der Eintritt frei. Voranmeldung nicht nötig. Platzreservation nicht möglich. Das Security-Personal behält sich das Recht vor, Taschen/Rucksäcke zu kontrollieren.
Foto- und Filmaufnahmen sind ohne Bewilligung verboten und sind zu unterlassen. Die Veranstaltung wird ausserdem live übertragen und zum Replay zur Verfügung gestellt.
Peter Sloterdijk, born in 1947, is one of the most renowned philosophers and essayists in the German language. From 1992 to 2016 he was Professsor of Philosophy and Aesthetics at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, of which he was also rector from 2001 to 2015. He co-hosted the television programme Das Philosophische Quartett (‘The Philosophical Quartet’) on ZDF along with Rüdiger Safranski from 2002 to 2012. His most recent publications include: "What Happened in the Twentieth Century?" (2018), "After God" (2020), "Infinite Mobilization" (2020), "Prometheus’s Remorse. From the Gift of Fire to Global Arson" (2024), "Out of the World. Cultural Memory in the Present" (2024), "Der Kontinent ohne Eigenschaften. Lesezeichen im Buch Europa" ("The Continent Without Qualities. Bookmarks in the Book of Europe", 2024) and "Der Fürst und seine Nachfolger" ("The Prince and His Successors", 2026).
Peter Sloterdijk received numerous awards, including the Ludwig-Börne-Preis (2013), the Helmuth Plessner Award 2017 and the European Prize for Political Culture (Hans Ringier Foundation). In 2024, he was a guest lecturer at the Collège de France in Paris with a highly acclaimed series of lectures on the topic of "Le continent sans qualités : des marque-pages dans le livre de l’Europe".
Photo: © Thomas Oberniedermayr
Barbara Vinken received her doctorate in Konstanz in 1989 and at Yale in 1991. She also obtained her habilitation in Jena in 1996. Before moving to LMU Munich, she held chairs in Romance studies in Hamburg and Zurich. She has been a visiting professor at New York University, Harvard University, Humboldt University in Berlin, EHESS Paris, Université Michel de Montaigne in Bordeaux, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and the University of Chicago (The Franke Institute for the Humanities, Centre for Disciplinary Innovation), among others.
Barbara Vinken also writes regularly for "Die Zeit", the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung", the SZ and "Philosophie Magazin". She is a regular guest on "3satbuchzeit". For many years, she was responsible for the radio column "Stilfältig" for Radio Bremen.Joseph de Weck, born in 1986, is a political scientist and historian. He is the European head of Greenmantle, a consulting firm specialising in geopolitical and macroeconomic risks. The Zurich native is a columnist for the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Aussenpolitik” (DGAP) magazine “Internationale Politik Quarterly” and writes for The Atlantic and “Le Grand Continent”. His book “Emmanuel Macron: Der revolutionäre Präsident” (Emmanuel Macron: The Revolutionary President) was published in 2021.
De Weck is a senior fellow at the Institut Montaigne in Paris and a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.
Foto: zVg