Alberto Alemanno (Italy, 1975) is an Italian lawyer. He has been Jean Monnet
Professor in EU Law at HEC Paris since 2009, and also Global Clinical Professor of Law
at New York University School of Law. Among his many achievements, Alemanno
campaigned and drafted the first EU directive aimed at protecting whistleblowers in
the European Union. He is also the founder of The Good Lobby aimed at fostering
active citizenship and accountability via citizen-lobbyists at the European level.
Eniola Aluko (United Kingdom, 1987) is an English former professional footballer, lawyer, philanthropist, author and Aston Villa Women’s current sporting director. She last played as a forward for Serie A club Juventus. She regularly writes for the Guardian and also appears for television commentary on football, for both men’s and women’s World Cups. “Women are using their voices and their feet to break barriers all over the world. I would say that women have never been in a more empowered position, and I am proud to have been part of the generation that has made that happen.”
Anne Applebaum (United States, 1964) is a staff writer at the Atlantic and a historian who has written numerous award-winning books and articles on history and civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. She is a senior fellow of the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and a Visiting Professor of Practice at the London School of Economics. Her latest book is Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine (2017).
Elena Arzak is the fourth generation of her family to run the kitchen at triple Michelin-starred Restaurante Arzak in San Sebastián, Spain. Schooled in the tenets of The New Basque Cuisine Movement championed by her legendary father Chef Juan Mari Arzak and the vanguard of Spanish cuisine which followed in the early part of this century, she has established a method of collaborative creativity with her team which fuels the continuous innovation of Arzak’s Basque, research-based, contemporary cuisine.
Gijs Scholten van Aschat (1959) is one of the most famous actors in the Netherlands, and is part of the ITA ensemble since 2008.
In season 19|20 he will perform in the premiere of The homecoming (director Nanouk Leopold) and in the revivals of The wood, The cherry orchard, The year of cancer (nomination Louis d’Or), After the rehearsal / Persona, Husbands and wives and Roman Tragedies.
Gijs Scholten van Aschat contributes to ‘De Smekelingen‘ September 19th and 20th, 14.00 at Tolhuistuin – Tuin
Nathalie Azoulai is an author who observes with a sharp eye the place and role of women in society and analyses human relations through the prism of politics and societal changes. Her novel Titus n’aimait pas Bérénice (2015, P.O.L.) won the prestigious French literature award « Prix Médicis ». She just published Juvenia (2020, Stock), a “gynophile” utopia (may be a dystopia for men?) full of humor.
Abdelkader Benali (1975) was born in Ighazzazen, Morocco, and has lived in The Netherlands since 1979. He studied history in Leiden and now lives in Amsterdam. His debut novel Wedding by the Sea (1996) immediately propelled him to literary fame, and he has remained among the most prominent Dutch authors ever since. Apart from writing novels Benali has also written several plays and short story collections.
Joris Bijdendijk (Netherlands, 1984) is the executive chef at RIJKS®, the restaurant connected to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. He is one of the founders of the Low Food Movement, focusing on locally-sourced products, some of which have a long history in Dutch cuisine, while others are more recent additions. Combined with an interest in underused and so-called ignored products, this movement seeks to increase the sustainability of Dutch cooking by connecting chefs, producers, creatives and scientists. He received a Michelin star for his work at RIJKS®.
“Agriculture should be seen as culture and not as an industry. Authentic food and drink should be given a culturally protected status. That will make us more proud of what we have.”
Dilara Bilgic (2002), just graduated from grammar school in the Netherlands, is the author of the book ‘The Black Box Democracy’. In her book, published by Boom uitgevers, she analyses the current Dutch political system and adumbrates an alternative political system. Bilgic also posts articles on her newsblog specula.nl.
Pierluigi Bizzini (Sicily, 1992) is a freelance writer and reporter. His focus is on the minorities living in the Mediterranean basin and the new forms of active citizenship in Mediterranean cities. He is the author of Bagliore; published by Il Saggiatore in collaboration with CheFare. He is the editor of ALEA, an independent magazine of cultural anthropology.
Philipp Blom (1970, DE) is a German historian, novelist, journalist and translator. After he obtained his PhD Modern History in Oxford, he worked as a journalist, contributing to newspapers, magazines and radio programmes in Europe and the US. His historical books on European history such as The Vertigo Years (2008) and A Wicked Company (2010) have been awarded with many international prizes. For his current project “At Breaking Point” he is working on a historical overview of culture and life during the inter-War period in Europe and the United States.
Basje Boer (1980, Netherlands) is a writer and journalist. She wrote the collection of short stories Kiestoon (2006) and the novels Bermuda (2016) and Naamloos (2019). Her stories were published in magazines such as De Gids, Hollands Maandblad and Das Magazin. She also writes about film and (pop) culture for De Groene Amsterdammer & De Filmkrant.
Eva Line de Boer (Breda, 1988) is an award winning theater director. Her oeuvre is a highly stylised yet heartfelt investigation into the ways in which people find themselves being looked at, and how this visibility informs their behaviour. Her work has a strong visual aesthetic, which is inspired by YouTube vloggers as well as film directors like Ulrich Seidl and Roy Andersson. She has won the Ton Lutz Award for her graduation show Euphoria, the BNG Nieuwe Makersprijs for Dit gebeurt allemaal tegelijk, and in 2019 the Charlotte Köhlerprijs for her entire oeuvre. She currently directs Ik voel Amor for Bellevue Lunch Theater (on show from 22 September-15 October).
Francesca Bria (Italy, 1977) is the President of the Italian National Innovation Fund. She
is an Italian information technologist who lectures at various universities and is a
consultant to the United Nations and the European Commission. Bria is Honorary
Professor in the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL in London.
Costanza Caminita (Sicily, 1989) Born and raised in Sicily, Palermo, and lived in Amsterdam for a couple of years I am representative and internationally oriented with a committed approach to service, precision in execution, and a refined eye for quality. My background in the law’s field allowed me to prioritize, organizing, planning, dealing with ambiguity and develop an extremely high level of ethics, professionalism, and confidentiality at all times. I am passionate about art, in all its expressions and I strongly believe as Malala Yousafzai does that “our books and our pens are the most powerful weapons”. To own your truth is your own superpower after all.
Lorenzo Castellani (Italy, 1989) is the author of l’Ingranaggio del potere’, In this essay, Castellani, who teaches History of Political Institutions at Luiss, traces the unexplored history of the entanglement between democracy and technocracy – from the nineteenth century onwards, when professional bureaucrats enter the state machine starting to maneuver the threads of power up to today’s techno-
democracy, in which irresponsible elites and demagogic policies collide fatally, and deep cracks open in the legitimacy of our power structures.
Fernando Sánchez Castillo (1970, Spain), the artist behind the iconic Tank Man (2013) explores the relationships between history and politics, art and power, public space and collective memory and their manifestations in the form of monuments. He is among today’s most prominent Spanish artists.
Eric Ngalle Charlesis a story-teller par-excellence. A writer, poet, actor and playwright with many tales to tell, a unique theatrical voice. After nearly a decade seeking sanctuary as a refee from Cameroon, he reached Wales where he studies modern history and popular culture. His plays have been performed at London Southbank Centre, Hay Festival, Llandeilo Festival and many more.
Eric Ngalle Charles contributes to European Literature Night on Friday 18 September 9:00 pm at Brakke Grond
Vasyl Cherepanyn (Ukraine, 1980) is the director of the Visual Culture Research Center in Kyiv, a platform for collaboration between artists, activists, and academics. He holds a PhD in Philosophy and teaches at the Cultural Studies Department of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In 2015, the European Cultural Foundation presented Visual Culture Research Center with the ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture.
Giulia Crisci (Sicily, 1989) is an independent art researcher and curator based in Palermo. Her work exists in the space of intersection between art and activism. She is interested in experimenting forms of mutual knowledge and reciprocal learning, crossing radical pedagogies and artistic and cultural processes. Since 2018 she is part of the curatorial board and pedagogical coordinator of the I-team learning lab, an itinerant educational program of Relais Culture Europe, which is a space for experimentation on the relationships between art, culture and democracy. In 2020 she co-founded L’assemblea delle lucciole with Diaria, composed by artists, performers, researchers, scientists, journalists, writers engaged and committed with the real, interested in experimenting pedagogies and cultural creation as space of everyday politics and conviviality situated in the Global South. She is member of the anti-fascist collective Porco Rosso, based in Ballarò (Palermo).
Henri Julien (Hans) Croiset (1935) is a Dutch theater director, and actor for theater, films and television. Since 2007 he became an author as well and published several autobiographical books.
Henri Croiset contributes to “Smekelingen” on 19&20 September 2:oo pm.
Sudeep Dasgupta is Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He is co-author of What’s Queer about Europe? Productive Encounters and Re-enchanting Paradigms (Fordham University Press, 2014) and visual culture essays in the fields of globalization, post-colonialism, feminism and queer studies.
Sudeep Dasgupta is an associate professor of media studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is a researcher and lecturer and has published extensively in the area of media, post-colonialism and gender. Dasgupta has studied in Pune, India and Pittsburgh, USA and graduated from the Amsterdam School of Communications Research, the Netherlands. His current work deals with the relationship between media studies, Jacques Rancière’s philosophy and postcolonial theories.
Sudeep Dasgupta contributes to the colloquium on cosmopolitanism.
Sophie Derkzen is an Amsterdam-based journalist and moderator who spent various phases of her life in Germany and has expertise in international politics. She started her career in Amsterdam as a journalist focusing on domestic politics and socio-economic issues. From 2009 until 2014 she worked as a staff reporter for the Dutch opinion magazine Vrij Nederland and she is currently the host of the daily radio-show ‘Bureau Buitenland’.
Sophie Derkzen is the moderator of the following sessions: ‘Who Gets Europe‘ (September 18, 8.30pm, Grote Zaal, De Balie) and ‘Power to the People‘ (September 18, 5:00pm, Grote Zaal, De Balie).
Margot Dijkgraaf is a literary critic, working for NRC Handelsblad, and ambassador for French literature in The Netherlands and the other way around. She is author of Franstalige literatuur van nu (2003), Lezen in Frankrijk. Een literaire tour de France (2018) and Zij namen het woord. Rebelse schrijfsters in de Franse letteren (Atlas Contact).
Bryan Doerries (United States, 1976) is a writer and director. He is the founder of Theater of War, a project which uses readings of Greek tragedies as a starting point and basis for discussions about social issues. While initially focused on veterans, service members and their families, the project now addresses a wide variety of social issues including domestic violence, racism & social justice, addiction and sexual violence. His work shows how theater can be used to discuss and address social issues.
Bryan Doerries contributes to The Suppliants on 19 & 20 September at 2:00 pm at Tolhuistuin.
Didier Eribon (France, 1953) is a sociologist, philosopher, and historian of French intellectual life. In his book RetouràReims (2009), he describes how the mainstream political left abandoned the interests of the people he grew up with, driving them into the arms of populists. His other notable works include Insult and the Making of the Gay Self and a biography of Michel Foucault. He is a professor at the School of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the University of Amiens.
Emma Esini (Italy) is “the brains and the brawn behind every project proposal” at Maghweb, a social promotion association from Palermo that mainly deals with information and communication for international cooperation and social activities. Esini recently launched Palermo è fimmina, a 12-month project that will try to counter the false and poor representation of women in society.
Clare Farrell (United Kingdom) is the co-founder of the environmental action group Extinction Rebellion. This global environmental movement uses nonviolent civil disobedience to raise widespread awareness for climate change as an existential threat and to compel governments to immediately act on this. As a fashion designer and visual artist, she leads the XR Art team, which is responsible for the action group’s successful branding.
Orlando Figes (United Kingdom, 1959) is a professor of history at Birbeck College, University of London. He has written extensively on ninetieth and early twentieth-century Russian history, and recently published the book The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture (2019). In the book, “… a reminder of the unifying force of European civilisation…” he traces the origin of a European identity, expressed and experienced through the arts.
Orlando Figes presents his keynote on a European demos on Friday 18 September, at 7:00 pm in de Balie’s Salon, followed by a conversation.
Virginia Fiume is an environmental, democracy and fundamental rights activist, currently active as Coordinator of the Eumans project. Eumans, based in Brussels, involves individuals, groups and organizations to prepare a package of “European Citizen Initiatives” to influence the European political agenda from the bottom across national, partisan and philosophical boundaries.
Federico Fubini (Italy, 1966) is deputy editor-in-chief at Italy’s
Corriere della Sera, where he covers economy and finance. Fubini has also contributed stories and columns to Project Syndicate, Die Zeit, and Foreign Policy. In his articles, Fubini describes the contemporary economic situation, while in his books he tells the stories and depicts the lives of those who come to grips with economic crises. Fubini uses these stories to show how people deal with an evolving globalized society and find the courage to pursue their own personal revolution. He is the award-winning author of four books.
Anna Galas-Kosil is a theatre studies expert and the curator of the International Warsaw Biennale, which supports the role of art in shaping public debate. She is a graduate in theatre studies at The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw and helped prepare the first Polish exhibit for The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, an international exhibition in set design. In addition to curating the Warsaw Biennale, Galas-Kosil is the managing director of the On the Move network, which focuses on mobility in the cultural sector.
Andrea Garreffa (Italy, 1990) is one of the founders of the popular Italian protest movement 6000Sardine. The grassroots movement has enjoyed incredible momentum in late 2019, when they mobilized in huge numbers to speak up against the growing polarization and xenophobia brought on by the political presence and the discourse of Matteo Salvini’s Lega and other far-right groups.
Livia Gerster (1990) is a German journalist who writes for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She studied the Middle East and Arabic at the University of Leipzig, and Cádiz (Spain). She specialized in the economic and social geography of the Middle East and wrote her thesis about rural Morocco. After graduating, Livia worked in Abu Dhabi as a teacher and did a journalistic internship in Paris. As an ambassador to the ‘Arbeit an Europa’ project, she strongly advocates the creation of new narratives and revitalizing dialogues across borders and generations of Europeans.
Alicja Gescinska (Belgium/Poland, 1981) is a writer, TV-presenter and philosopher. She has written columns for Trouw, De Morgen and Filosofie Magazine, giving philosophical commentary and perspectives on current events. She was the maker and presenter of Wanderlust, a television programme in which she discussed the large questions of life with numerous influential thinkers of our time. She is also the author of numerous books, including ‘Allmensch: Van middelmaat tot meesterschap’, about the nature of humanity and individual development.
David Goldblatt (United Kingdom, 1965) is a journalist, author and broadcaster writing on the history, sociology and influence of football in society. He has authored a number of books, including ‘The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football’ and ‘The Age of Football: The Global Game in the Twenty-first Century’. He won the European Press Prize in 2019 for his unique interview with Viktor Orbán about football. “Football creates solidarities, identities and the possibility of opposition.”
Francio Guadeloupe‘s roots and routes connect the French, Dutch, English, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. He was born on the Dutch West Indian Island of Aruba, but has lived most of his life in Europe. His principal areas of research have been on the ways in which nationalism, multiculturality, media, and religion continue to be impacted by the long colonial moment and global capital. Currently, Dr. Guadeloupe is researching the culturalisation of citizenship in Europe.
Francio Guadeloupe contributes to Afropean on Friday 18 September at 8:00 pm at Foam
Jochum ten Haaf (Netherlands, 1978) is a Dutch actor and writer, notable for stage, film and television work including Vincent in Brixton, Nightwatching (2008), Bankier van het verzet (2018) and Dunkirk (2017).
Jochum ten Haaf is contributing to The Suppliants on 19 & 20 September at 2:00 pm.
After a knee injury ended her professional street football career, Rocky Hehakaija (1984) founded Favela Street, a personal development program training young people to become role models through street football. As a social entrepreneur, she convinces young people all over the globe that they matter and belong here so that they can break away from the image that society projects on them. Rocky works closely with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as a consultant for large organizations such as Nike and UEFA. More recently, Rocky achieved another milestone as she became the first-ever female street footballer to appear in the massively popular game FIFA20.
Noreena Hertz (United Kingdom, 1967) is an English economist, author and broadcaster. Mrs Hertz gained a reputation as a leading thinker due to her impressive track record in predicting global trends and her activities as a strategic advisor to the world’s key figures in business and politics. Her best-selling books, which include The Silent Takeover, IOU:The Debt Threat, and Eyes Wide Open, have been published in 22 languages. Vogue named Mrs Hertz “one of the world’s most inspiring women.” Her upcoming book The Lonely Century argues that the advances of the modern age cause widespread loneliness across the globe.
Paulus Hochgatterer (1961) lives as a writer and child therapist in Vienna. He has received various literary prizes and commendations, including 2009 the European Literature Prize for his book The Sweetness of Life (2006). Hochgatterer often writes crime novels, but rather than focusing on the mystery and the chase, his books revolve around the experiences of trauma, violence, and cruelty of the characters, especially the children in his stories. His writing is heavily indebted to his work as child therapist, enabling him to write with keen insights into themes like mental health and trauma.
Paulus Hochgatterer contributes to European Literature Night on Friday 18 September 9:00 pm at Brakke Grond
Pavla Horáková (1974) is a Prague-based author, radio journalist and literary translator. She has translated over 20 books from English and Serbian, worked for the international section for the Czech Radio. In 2018 she published her first novel for adults, Teorie podivnosti [A Theory of Strangeness]. She also hosts a show on Czech Radio’s arts & culture station Vltava for which she co-wrote and co-presented a series marking the centenary of WW1.
Pavla Horáková contributes to European Literature Night on Friday 18 September 9:00 pm at Brakke Grond
Ivo van Hove (Belgium, 1958) began his career as a theatre director in 1981 with his own productions (Germs, Rumours). Since 2001, he is the director fo International Theater Amsterdam. His often awarded productions have been performed at e.g. the Festival d’Avignon, Edinburgh International Festival, the Venice Biennale, the Holland Festival, Theater der Welt and the Wiener Festwochen.
Virginia Ingarao (Sicily, 1994) was born and lives in Sicily; she is a Modern Philology student at the University of Catania but her main interest also comprehends history of religion, poetry, art and foreign literature. She is really curious towards different cultures and she loves to travel. Even if she has a really practical and grounded personality, deep inside she is a dreamer who firmly believes in the power of ideas and words.
Lina Issa (Netherlands / Sicily / Lebanon 1981) a multidisciplinary artist. She studied graphic design at the American University of Beirut, after which she completed courses at the Jan van Eyck Academy and the Piet Zwart Institute. Through her work, she creates conditions for personal relationships within complex contexts and for insisting on the personal as political. In her work, Lina questions the ways we construct and (re)enact our subjectivities.
She was recently invited to make work in the context of COVID-19 by Studio Rizoma in Palermo, A Space to Hold .
Pierre Jarawan (1985) was born to a Lebanese father and a German mother and moved to Germany with his family at the age of three. He has won international prizes as a slam poet, and in 2016 was named Literature Star of the Year by the daily newspaper Abendzeitung. Jarawan received a literary scholarship from the City of Munich (the Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis) for The Storyteller, which went on to become a bestseller and booksellers’ favorite in Germany and the Netherlands. His new book, A Song for the Missing, will be released in Dutch in May 2020.
Pierre Jarawan contributes to European Literature Night on Friday 18 September 9:00 pm at Brakke Grond
Journalist Eric Jozsef (France, 1966) has worked for Libération since 1989 and has
been a correspondent for this French newspaper in Rome since 1992. He has a
column in Internazionale and also writes for other French-language newspapers.
He has also written several books on Italian politics, including in 2001 L’irrésistible
ascension de Silvio Berlusconi (‘The irresistible Rise of Silvio Berlusconi’) and in
2008 Les années Cavalière . De Berlusconi a Berlusconi and he made a television
documentary about the Italian mafia.
Vanja Kaludjercic is artistic director of IFFR, the International Film Festival Rotterdam. In the past she has worked for MUBI, Les Arcs European Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Nederlands Filmfestival and as head of the ‘Talks & Masterclasses’-programme of the IFFR. With her team she is currently working on the 50th edition of IFFR, which takes place early 2021.
Barbara Leda Kenny (Italy) was trained as an anthropologist, is editor-in-chief of
InGenere , an in-depth online magazine that deals with social and current gender issues.
She is one of the founders of Tuba, the bookshop dedicated to the imaginary and the
world of women in the Pigneto district of Rome.
Flavia Kleiner (Switzerland, 1990) is the founder of Operation Libero, which in 2016 managed to defeat a proposal by the right-wing populist party SVP to deport immigrants who had committed any criminal offence, regardless of severity. Since then, she has continued her work with Operation Libero, defeating a number of populist initiatives and formulating strategies for opposing populist arguments and methods in Switzerland and throughout Europe.
NatašaKramberger (1983) is a Slovenian writer, columnist, cultural producer and eco-farmer. In the winter, she works and lives in Berlin, where she works for the Slovenian German cultural institute Periskop, and in the summer she runs a biodynamic farm in her hometown in Jurovski Dol. In 2010, she won the European Literature Prize for Heaven in a Blackberry Bush (2007).
Nataša Kramberger contributes to the European Literature Night on Friday 18 September 9:00 pm at Brakke Grond
Niels Kuiters (1987, NL), graduated from Amsterdam University of Arts in 2009, since then he has worked as a dancer with Nicole Beutler, as a puppeteer with Ulrike Quade and he played with Boogaert and v/d Schoot and Suzanne Kennedy. Last season Niels performed in the Unpleasant surprise by Davy Pieters, part of the official selection at the biennial of Venice 2018. Besides dancing and acting he also makes music for theatre since 2010. His musical work is a combination of samples, electro and acoustic recordings. Within the theatre, he always looks for the right genre and style that works for the specific performance.
Simon Kuper (United Kingdom, 1969) has written extensively on the history, sociology and economics of football. He is a general correspondent at Financial Times and has written for Het Financieele Dagblad, De Pers, and the literary football magazine Hard Gras. “Some people draw a rigid line between “low” and “high” culture. They regard sport as profane or stupid and opera or politics as sacred or adult. But I’m with the critic Walter Benjamin, who went from reading Goethe to reading popular culture.”
Nicola Lagioia (born 1973) is an Italian writer. Born in Bari, Lagioia debuted as a novelist in 2001 with Tre sistemi per sbarazzarsi di Tolstoj (senza risparmiare se stessi). With his novel Riportando tutto a casa he won several awards, including the 2010 Viareggio Prize.In 2013 and in 2014 he was among the film selectors of the Venice International Venice Film Festival.In 2015 he won the Strega Prize with the novel La ferocia (a.k.a. “The ferocity“).[3]
Charl Landvreugd is an artist and researcher who grew up in Rotterdam in an environment and time when many different migrant communities were making the Netherlands their home. Being part of this vibrant space, he advocates for local continental European concepts and language. Using a broad range of artistic disciplines, he applies the results of his research to think about citizenship and belonging and how this is expressed in the visual arts in continental Europe. As a Goldsmiths (BA), Fulbright and Columbia University (MA) alumnus he completed his PhD in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art in London.
Priscilla Ludosky (1985) is an activist and one of the founders of the yellow vest movement. In 2018 she published an online petition about the need for ‘lower taxes on essential goods, the implemenation of citizens’ initiative referendum, lower pensions and salaries of senior officials and election officials.’ Although some political parties’ MP contacted her to see if she was interested in joining them, she refuses to participate in political parties.
Priscilla Ludosky is contributing to Power to the People on 18 September at 5:oo pm.
Marcia Luyten is a Dutch journalist, publicist and author. She presented the Dutch talkshow ‘Buitenhof’ for several years, is the author of Queen Maxima’s biography and is passionate about literature, music and politics.
Kishore Mahbubani (Singapore, 1948) is a political scientist, writer, and former diplomat. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, and served as Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. His books, Has the West Lost It? (2018) and Has China Won? (2020) discuss the decline of European and US power and the rise of China and India on the world stage.
Lucas De Man (Belgium) is a Flemish artist, director, and TV-presenter who specializes in performance pieces. In his work, he tries to transform public space to facilitate openness and vulnerability. He was selected as the first artist in residence of the Rabobank in 2017-2018, and was guest curator for Theater aan Zee in 2019.
Serena Manno (Palermo, 1984) made in Sicily, Berliner by adoption. Her field of interest is Cultural Studies, with particular focus on Gender and Post-Colonial Theories. Currently activist for Mediterranea Saving Humans, stands for open borders as a right for every individual and an opportunity for social and cultural growth; believes in the importance of establishing transnational interconnection between grassroots movements for a more democratic, inclusive, and humane Europe.
Marta Cillero Manzano (Spain / Italy, 1992) works at European Alternatives. She graduated in Media Studies, Journalism and Communication (Madrid, Istanbul and Chicago) and has a master degree in Gender Studies (Rome). She is the author of research reports about gender violence in Mediterranean countries. She is a member of the executive board and project manager at Chayn Italia, an award-winning organisation based in Italy, Pakistan, India, Belgium and the UK.
Mario Margani (Sicily, 1985) is a curator, artist and writer based in Berlin and Enna (Sicily). He is co-founder of Garage Arts Platform (2018), a project in his hometown Enna organizing art exhibitions and residencies, screenings, talks, and live performances in its premises as well as in the public space. He collaborates with different independent art spaces, editorial projects and other cultural institutions in Berlin as well as in Italy and is part of the collective n-Leben. He graduated in Communication and Management in Art and Cultural Markets (B.A.) and Arts, Heritages and Markets (M.A.) at IULM, Milan, and is currently attending a M.A. in Global Art History at the Free University (Berlin).
Francesca Melandri (Italy, 1964) is an Italian author, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker. Her novels, such as her award-winning debut Eva Sleeps (2010) and Sangue giusto (2017, translated into Dutch under the name De lange weg naar Rome), deal with themes such as regional identity, Italy’s national identity, and its amnesia with respect to its fascist and colonial past.
Niccolò Milanese (London, 1984) is one of the directors of European Alternatives, a civil society organisation promoting democracy, equality and culture beyond the nation-state (www.euroalter.com). He is currently a Europe’s Futures Fellow at the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna. Together with his colleague Lorenzo Marsili, in 2018 he published ‘Citizens of Nowhere: How Europe can be saved from itself’ with Zed books, and the updated German version ‘Wir Heimatlosen Weltburger’ appeared from Suhrkamp in 2019. Niccolò has over 13 years of experience in civil society activism across Europe and the Mediterranean and has been involved in setting numerous cultural, political and intellectual organisations and projects in these regions.
Wong Yik Mo is an activist from Hong Kong. He is one of the faces of the pro-democracy political party Demosisto and organised major demonstrations and assemblies in Hong Kong in the last years, including those with over 1.2 and 1.7 million participants.
Douglas Murray (United Kingdom, 1979) is a British conservative author, journalist, and political commentator. He works as editor for The Spectator and wrote multiple books, such as Neoconservatism: Why We Need It (2005), The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race, and Identity (2019) and The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam (2017). The latter argues that Europe civilisation is complicit in its own demise, allowing mass migration into its continent and lacking confidence in its “beliefs, traditions, and legitimacy.”
Taslima Nasrin (Bangladesh, 1962) is an international author, feminist, human rights activist, and Islam critic. Originally a physician, Nasrin switched to writing poetry and prose. Her unflinching criticism of female oppression and Islam led to forced exile and multiple fatwas calling for her death.
Susan Neiman is an American moral philosopher, cultural commentator, and essayist. She has written extensively on the juncture between Enlightenment moral philosophy, metaphysics, and politics, both for scholarly audiences and the general public. She currently lives in Germany, where she is the Director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam.
Susan Neiman contributes to the programme Civic Council – Talks Across Europe.
Lisette Ma Neza is a slam poet, and much more than that. She received various prizes for her poetry that she describes as “a quest for identity”, balancing her life as a resident of Brussels, as a Dutch person, as a young woman with roots in Rwanda. In 2017 she became Belgian Champion Slam Poetry and in 2018 she won silver at the European Championship and also at the Rio Poetry Slam Championship in Rio de Janeiro. In the meantime, she is completing her film studies in Brussels. With her band, she is now touring her first full-length poetry show for the coming year. Her performances balance between painfully direct and naive and often grab the audience by the throat.
Lisette Ma Neza contributes to Afropean on 18 September at 8:00 pm.
Kalypso Nicolaïdis (France/Greece, 1962) is a Professor of International Relations and director at the Centre for International Studies at the university of Oxford. She is currently engaged in the European Demoi-cracy research project, which seeks to redefine the European Union as a project of peoples rather than states. She has written and co-authored a number of books including Echoes of Empire: The Present of Europe’s Colonial Pasts (2014) and most recently Exodus, Reckoning, Sacrifice: Three Meanings of Brexit (2019).
Rasmus Nilausen is a Danish-born, Barcelona-based painter. Recently, he formed part of the residency programme at the Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, The Netherlands. His interest in painting is based on personal mythologies and languages that he reconfigures into new meanings and narratives. He deals with painting as yet another language to be translated, deciphered and most likely misunderstood. Rasmus studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London and at the Faculty of Fine Art in Barcelona where he now teaches painting.
Nazmiye Oral Award winning Actress and writer of movie Niet Meer Zonder Jou/No longer without you. Nazmiye Oral (1969) was born in Hengelo, the Netherlands. She studied screenwriting and worked as a presenter and interviewer for the former Dutch Muslim Broadcasting Communication. While working here, she made a name for herself interviewing such notables as the combative Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh.In 2016 Nazmiye Oral won the highest film award in the Netherlands (Golden Calf) for best actress in the television drama In Freedom
Nazmiye Oral contributes to The Suppliants on the 19 and 20 of September
Yasmine Ouirhrane (Italy / Belgium, 1996) is the host and founder of the podcast
series We Belong – Voices of the New Daughters of Europe . She was awarded the
title of Young European of the Year in 2019, an award that recognized her
contribution to international understanding and European values. An Italian citizen
and a student of a prestigious political school in France, Yasmine is shaping the
discourse of a more hopeful, tolerant Europe. Her numerous projects promote
gender equality, better opportunities for refugees and the representation of young
people from underprivileged backgrounds.
Réka Kinga Papp (Hungary, 1985) is a journalist specialized in environmental, feminist, civil rights and social issues. She is editor-in-chief of Eurozine, a network of European cultural journals that gather together, translate and publish some of the most promising articles and European culture and citizenship from all over Europe. She is also the anchor of the Hungarian social sciences radio program Professzor Paprika.
Intersectional queer and anti-racist activist Naomie Pieter (1990) is the founder of ‘ Pon Di Pride’ and co-founder of ‘Black Queer & Trans Resistance NL’, as well as the founder of Black Pride NL. She is also a leading voice within the Black Lives Matter movement. Having completed her training as a choreographer at Amsterdam’s Academy of Theatre and Dance, Naomie mixes the organisation of protest rallies and designing choreographies effortlessly. “Protest is a social choreography. We’re organizing body, space and time. Who walks up front, what are the visuals, what is the stage?”
Naomie Pieter contributes to Power to the People on 18 September on 5:00 pm.
Johny Pitts (United Kingdom) is an author, presenter, poet, photographer, and musician, performing music with the Bare Knuckle Soul Collective. He recently wrote the book ‘Afropean: Notes from Black Europe’, part of the larger Afropean project which attempts to explore the interaction between black and European cultures in diverse ways including photography, performance and film. In the book, Pitts travels through a number of European cities, searching for a culture that embraces blackness and is yet fundamentally of Europe.
Johny Pitts is contributing to Afropean on 18 September at 8:00 pm at Foam.
Gideon Rachman (United Kingdom, 1963) is a British journalist, author, and commentator. He is the chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times. His main interests include American foreign policy, the European Union, and globalization. Rachman’s books include Zero-Sum World and Easternisation – War and Peace in the Asian Century. The latter argues that the 500 years of Western domination of global politics is coming to an end due to the rise of new powers in Asia.
Bastiaan Rijpkema (Netherlands, 1987) is Associate Professor of Jurisprudence at Leiden University. He writes columns for De Volkskrant and is the author of the book Weerbare Democratie (Militant Democracy), which won the Prinsjesboekenprijs in 2016. In 2017 he was named New Scientist Science Talent.
Marina Roa is an experienced facilitator and designer, passionate about finding creative solutions fostering innovation, collaboration and sustainability. Experienced illustrator and graphic facilitator that believes in the power of images to reinforce messages that contribute to make visible new role models and increase collective awareness. She is also a trainer and process facilitator of visual thinking, graphic facilitation, design thinking and creative problem-solving. During the years working with SenseTribe she also has integrated tools for effective collaboration like Art of Hosting, Sociocracy 3.0 and non-violent communication into her practice. She holds a Degree in Psychology and a Masters in Design. See Marina’s portfolio here: https://www.behance.net/marinaroa
Claudia Roden (United Kingdom/Egypt, 1936) is a culinary writer and cultural anthropologist who specialises in Mediterranean cuisines and is best known for popularising Middle Eastern cooking. “A dish is not just a dish. For exiles especially, it is about roots and identity. It is charged with emotional baggage and gives comfort and joy.”
Benjamin Roll (Czechia, 1995) is the co-founder of the movement Million Moments for Democracy. Benjamin Roll helped to draw over a quarter of a million people to a demonstration against Prime Minister Babis in June 2019. Those were the largest since the Velvet Revolution. But the aims of the Czech activist are larger: “If more and more people will find a moment for democracy — a small gesture — it will change something in society.”
Benjamin Roll contributes to Power to the People on 18 September on 5:00 pm.
Mattia Santori (1987) is the founder and “face” of the Sardine movement in Italy. The grassroots movement has enjoyed incredible momentum in late 2019, when the Sardines mobilized in huge numbers to speak up against the growing polarization and xenophobia brought on by the political presence and the discourse of Matteo Salvini’s Lega and other far-right groups. Despite exerting sizeable influence on public debate, Santori wishes to remain free from direct political affiliations:
“Our strength is to have no flag, that is enough for us: we are independent and free from any power game”.
Marietje Schaake is the international policy director at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center and international policy fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. She was named President of the Cyber Peace Institute. Between 2009 and 2019, Marietje served as a Member of European Parliament for the Dutch liberal democratic party where she focused on trade, foreign affairs and technology policies. Marietje is affiliated with a number of non-profits including the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Observer Research Foundation in India and writes a monthly column for the Financial Times and a bi-monthly column for the Dutch NRC newspaper.
Árpád Schilling (Hungary, 1974) is a theater director. He began staging productions at the age of 19, and is now the artistic director of the Krétakör center for contemporary arts based in Budapest. With the center, he runs education programs and produces works of performing and media arts in an effort to address social issues, both in Hungary and abroad.
Géraldine Schwarz (France/Germany, 1974) is a journalist, author, and documentary filmmaker based in Berlin. Her novel Les Amnésiques (“The Amnesiacs”, 2017) draws on her family heritage – her grandparents were a Nazi Party member and a gendarme under the Vichy regime – and pleas for a confrontation with our past in order to prevent the resurgence of right wing extremism in today’s Europe. It won her the 2018 European Book Prize.
Monique Schwitter was born in 1972 in Zurich and has been living in Hamburg since 2005. She studied acting and directing in Salzburg and went on to perform in Zurich, Frankfurt, Graz and Hamburg.
In 2004, she was awarded the Hermann Lenz Scholarship. For her first volume of short stories, Wenn’s schneit beim Krokodil (If it snows, let’s meet at the crocodile), she was awarded the Robert Walser Prize for the best literary debut of the year 2006 and the promotion award of the Swiss Schillerstiftung. In 2008, she published her novel Ohren haben keine Lider and the play Himmels-W and, in 2011, Goldfischgedächtnis (Goldfish Memory), a collection of short stories. With her very successful novel Eins im Andern (One another, 2015) Schwitter was shortlisted for the German Book Prize and won both the Swiss Book Prize (2015) and one of the Swiss Prizes for Literature (2016).
Monique Schwitter contributes to European Literature Night on Friday 18 September 9:00 pm at Brakke Grond
Mathieu Segers (Netherlands, 1967) is Professor of Contemporary European History and European Integration, and the dean of University College of Maastricht. He writes columns for Het Financieele Dagblad and De Groene Amsterdammer and has a weekly radio contribution to NPO 1 on Europe. He wrote a number of books, including Reis naar het continent, Nederland en de Europese integratie 1950 – heden (2013) and Europa en de terugkeer van de geschiedenis (2016), as well as co-authoring the book Re:Thinking Europe, Thoughts on Europe: Past, Present and Future (2016) on the occasion of the first Forum on European Culture.
Ena SENDIJAREVIĆ (1987, Bosnia) studied Media and Culture at the University of Amsterdam and was subsequently educated at the Dutch Film Academy, also in Amsterdam. Import (2016) was her first project after graduating. The short film premiered at the Cannes film festival in Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. Take Me Somewhere Nice had its world premiere at IFFR 2019.
Antonella Sgobbo (Sicily, 1982) is a Co-development Project Coordinator specialized in managing projects focused on education, migration, and socio-economic inclusion of vulnerable people (NEETs, women, displaced people in both domestic and international contexts), and she is European Projects Department Director in Promimpresa, Sicily. Bachelor’s in International and Diplomatic Sciences and master’s degree in International Cooperation and Local Development. As a Project Coordinator of International Development Cooperation projects, she worked on health, education, and promotion of socio-economic empowerment in rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Jeroen Smit (1963), graduated in business administration and is a former professor of journalism. He has been researching leadership in business for more than thirty years. Smit gained fame as an investigative journalist by writing books about two spectacular debacles that hit Dutch business in the first decade of the new century, Het Drama Ahold (2004) and De Prooi about ABN Amro (2008). In 2005, “The Drama Ahold” was awarded the “management book of the year” award.
Smit moderates the online programme “A Conversation with Noreena Hertz” on Sunday, September 20, from 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Amsterdam time.
Guido Snel is a writer and translator and works as professor of European Literature at the faculty of European Studies (University of Amsterdam). He is the author of De Mirreberg (2018), Huis voor het hiernamaals (2016) and Naar Istanbul (2014).
Giorgia Spina (Sicily, 1996) is a junior EU project manager for the youth association H.R.Y.O. She is also an activist in the field of human rights, with a focus on gender equality, protection of women and children against abuse. Respect for individual and cultural differences, integrity, and professionalism are among her core values.
Simon Strauss (Germany, 1988) is a historian and author as well as a writer for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He is the initiator of the European Archive of Voices, an initiative to preserve the original vision and importance of the European project by talking to public intellectuals born in the first half of the twentieth century. He seeks to develop a vision that is focused on the promise and ideals of the European project, rather than the technocratic and material benefits it provides.
In the European Parliament, Tineke focuses on the Rule of Law and Justice. She is committed to ensuring the rule of law in particular, Poland and Hungary, where autocrats are increasingly eroding it. She is also contributing to the subject of foreign affairs, that deals with European foreign and security policy, including monitoring the EU’s foreign service and assessing political agreements with countries outside the union.
My name is Sara Sucato (Sicily, 1994), I’m 26, I got my bachelor’s degree in Political Sciences and International Relations at the university of Palermo, where I’m about to get a master’s degree in Cooperation and Development. I studied for six months in Tunis, getting a double degree in English and International Relations. I’m also an activist for Amnesty International and I currently write for an online newspaper, namely Eco Internazionale.
Celil Toksöz (59), is the Kurdish-Turkish-Dutch director of Theater RAST from Amsterdam, who will adapt Bryan Doerries’ the Suppliants for the Forum. In 1986, he started playing Turkish-language performances in the Netherlands, where he ended up as a refugee and sought to connect with society through theatre. Toksöz comes from a rich Kurdish tradition of storytellers; one of his first works was translating Bredero into Turkish and became a drama teacher in the Netherlands in the 1990s.
Recently, Toksöz focuses on adapting classic operas and plays to Kurdish language and storytelling styles. After creating an adaptation of Hamlet, Puccini’s Tosca was made in Kurdish, shown in Toksöz’s hometown of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey.
Celil Toksöz contributes to The Suppliants on 19 & 20 September at 2:oo pm in Tolhuistuin
She has been teaching English and Spanish in Italian state and private schools since 2000. She has also worked as a lecturer of English language and translation at Università degli Studi di Palermo in 2018. As a teacher she has worked in different social contexts and she has realized that Palermo is such a complicated spiderweb of different cultures and realities. In recent years she also came into contact with the growing community of immigrants who live and work in their city, changing it.
Tomas Vaiseta (born 1984) studied journalism. But as soon as he got his PhD, he entered yet another field, that of fiction. His first collection of short stories is clearly influenced by the material of his academic research into bleak, depressed and oppressed Soviet everyday life. His novel seems to draw more on his personal than his academic experience. It is hard to say which of his two books is better, but they are definitely very different from each other. Surprises are sure to follow in the future.
Thomas Vaiseta contributes to European Literature Night on Friday 18 September 9:00 pm at Brakke Grond
Joost de Vries (1983) is the deputy editor-in-chief of De Groene Amsterdammer, for which he wrote about art and literature before becoming deputy editor-in-chief. He is the author of both essays and novels. His novel The Republic (2013) was awarded the Gouden Boekenuil and was translated into almost a dozen languages.
Pawel Wodziński (Poland, 1968) is a director, essayist, and curator. He founded and leads Towarzystwo Teatralne, an association promoting contemporary, socially engaged theatre, and directs the Warsaw Biennale, which supports the role of art in shaping public debate. Wodziński has written dozens of performance pieces and has published articles on theatre in various Polish periodicals.
Jasmijn de Zeeuw works as legal advisor and researcher at Free Press Unlimited for the project ‘A Safer World for the Truth’. A Safer World for the Truth works towards the pursuit of justice for crimes committed against journalists through cold case investigations, public advocacy and legal action. In February 2023, Jasmijn participated in an international advocacy mission to Slovakia on the occasion of the five-year anniversary of the murder of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová.
Since 2016, Rytis Zemkauskas (1969, Lithuania) is an associate professor at the Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. He is a member of the curatorial board for Kaunas, European Capital of Culture 2022. His journalistic and producing work has been awarded numerous public and professional awards. Since 1998 he is active as a writer and director of documentaries on music, literature and science, and he owns a small TV production company.
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