‘Anthony Clifford Grayling in conversation with Luuk van Middelaar’

On Thursday April 27th, the prominent British philosopher Anthony C. Grayling and incisive 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.

About the speakers:
Anthony C. Grayling is a philosopher, public intellectual, author, 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. In 2011 he 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. He has been a judge on the Booker Prize twice. He is a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a supernumerary fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford.

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.