The Future of Europe in an Age of Global Disruption
Speaker: Lorenzo Marsili, Director, Berggruen Institute Europe
Time: 10.00-12.00am, March 19th, 2026
Venue: Room 510, Wenke Building, Fudan University
Host:Dr. YAN Shaohua, Deputy Director, Center for China-Europe Relations, Fudan University
Discussants:
Prof. Ding Chun, Director, Center for European Studies, Fudan University;
Prof. Zhang Ji, Vice-dean, School of International and Public Affairs, Fudan University;
Prof. Yin Zhiguang, School of International and Public Affairs, Fudan University;
Associate Prof. Jian Junbo, Director, Center for China-Europe Relations, Fudan University.
Lorenzo Marsili is a philosopher and the European director of the Berggruen Institute, a global research institute based in Los Angeles (USA), Venice (Italy), and Beijing (China). He is also the founder of several social enterprises including transnational NGO European Alternatives and cultural institution Fondazione Studio Rizoma. A regular public speaker and international media commentator, his research focuses on defining and promoting futures beyond the nation-state, investigating questions of transnationalism, the place of Europe, and philosophical multipolarity. His books include Citizens of Nowhere (Zed Books, 2018), Planetary Politics (Polity Press, 2020), and Concrete Universality (Polity Press, forthcoming 2026).
Abstract: In this talk, Lorenzo Marsili will address not the Europe we know, but the Europe that can be. At first sight, Europe seems to keep its gaze fixed on the world of yesterday. Reluctant and distrustful, like Walter Benjamin's angel it turns its back to the future that pushes it forward. And yet, Europe hosts today the world’s most ambitious project of human transformation. The continent that has invented nationalism has begun to set in motion its overcoming. In a world marching toward renewed fragmentation, Europe keeps the possibility of a new history alive.
