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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260202T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260202T190000
DTSTAMP:20260216T120513Z
CREATED:20251204T091101Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260216T120513Z
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SUMMARY:Public Lecture – Big Ideas for Democracy: Amanda Machin
DESCRIPTION:  \nRegister here\nDemocracy and the More-Than-Human Carnivalesque\nAbstract\nFrom corporate zombies to mermaids to dead bees\, political protests have frequently featured comic\, ironic\, grotesque\, absurd and profane moments of the carnivalesque. Carnivalesque activities are said to open heterotopic spaces in which dominant values are subverted\, conventions are transgressed\, and civil disobedience is catalysed. The carnivalesque is interesting for scholars of democracy not only because it entails the production of the common and the enactment of critical citizenship\, but also because it involves the active cultivation of difference. To participate in the carnivalesque is not only to witness otherness but to become other. By dressing up as fantasy figures\, absurd halflings or extinct species\, activists ostensibly perform the more-than-human. In this lecture I consider the appearance of the carnivalesque in protests and its democratic capacity and implications. Do carnivalesque protests challenge political boundaries and promote hybrid identities? Or\, since carnivals are restricted to certain times and places\, do they on the contrary remind us of the rules\, and reinforce the existing order? I point to the dangers of both dismissing and romanticizing the carnivalesque. \nBio\nAmanda Machin is Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Agder in Kristiansand\, Norway. She is interested in the dynamics\, theories\, discourses\, imaginaries\, protests\, identifications\, performances and bodies of ecological and radical democratic transformation and has researched these topics in various positions at universities in UK and Germany before she moved to Norway in 2022. She has published five books including Bodies of Democracy: Modes of Embodied Politics (Transcript 2022) and Negotiating Climate Change: Radical Democracy and the Illusion of Consensus (Zed Books\, 2013). With Marcel Wissenburg she has recently completed editing the collection Environmental Political Theory in the Anthropocene for Edward Elgar. Amanda is also an editor for the journal Environmental Politics and the co-ordinator of a project on the governance of twin transition (RECODE MLG\, funded by Horizon Europe). She also participates in projects on populism in the Nordics (POL-AID\, funded by the Norwegian Research Council) and the project Democracy and Controversy in the green transition (funded by the MWW Foundation).
URL:https://brias.be/event/public-lecture-big-ideas-for-democracy-amanda-machin/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260203T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260203T150000
DTSTAMP:20260204T095836Z
CREATED:20251209T081635Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260204T095836Z
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SUMMARY:Thursday Seminars by Gefjon Off
DESCRIPTION:Young men’s and women’s gender equality attitudes – a Gen Z gender divide?\nBio\nGefjon Off is a postdoctoral researcher at Hamburg University. Previously\, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Leuphana University of Lüneburg and a PhD student at Gothenburg University. Her research takes a comparative approach to the study of gender and political behavior. It is published in form of a Cambridge Element\, and as journal articles in the European Journal of Political Research and West European Politics\, amongst others. 
URL:https://brias.be/event/thursday-seminars-by-gefjon-off/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260204
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260207
DTSTAMP:20260129T123802Z
CREATED:20260129T123802Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260129T123802Z
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SUMMARY:3rd BrIAS Conference on Smart Agriculture
DESCRIPTION:We wish to invite you to the 3rd Brussels Institute of Advanced Studies conference on Smart Agriculture BrIAS Agri2026 which will be held on the 4-6th of February 2026 in Brussels. The BrIAS Agri2026 is a recurrent annual event for a multidisciplinary scientific community to present and discuss the most recent studies on smart agriculture. This year\, our collaborators at Research Station for Vegetable Production (Proefstation voor de Gronteteelt) will welcome us for a visit of their facilities on the afternoon of the 6th February. Limited places are available\, click here for more information! \n\n\n\nTopics\n\nModelling and control for the smart agriculture of tomorrow.\nAutomated remote sensing and estimation for agriculture\nSustainable approaches for bio-aggressors control: plant protection molecules and biotechnologies\nPlant-omics and bioinformatics for sustainable agriculture\nPolicy makers corner: cross-talk among regulatory bodies in agriculture\nMetrology for agriculture\nCrop Protection\nInsect Farming Technologies\nRobotics and technologies for precision farming\nBreeding and automatic phenotyping\nModelling of agroecological systems\nAutomatic support to decisions for agriculture\nData-driven approaches for smart agriculture
URL:https://brias.be/event/3rd-brias-conference-on-smart-agriculture/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Other Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260211T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260211T140000
DTSTAMP:20260126T102123Z
CREATED:20260120T095854Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260126T102123Z
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SUMMARY:Political Masculinities in Europe – Public Panel
DESCRIPTION:Register here \nAbout the Event\nHow do ideas about “proper” masculine behavior in politics shape who speaks\, who leads\, and whose interests count in European democracies? This public roundtable in gathers members of the International Advisory Board of the project Political Masculinities in Europe—with panelists from Poland\, Italy\, Sweden\, and the US/UK and expertise in socialization\, interventions\, social movements\, violence\, backlash\, gender and sexuality —to discuss how political masculinities are constructed\, reinforced\, and contested across countries and political institutions. Aimed at academics\, students\, and policymakers\, the panel will unpack how these often implicit norms sustain gendered political inequalities and consider what it would take to change them. \n\nProgramme\n\n10:00 – 10:30 Welcome coffee\n10:30 – 12:00 Panel session\n\nWelcome speech Prof. Karen Celis (VUB / BrIAS)\, WP4 Leader\nChair Dr. Liza Mügge (University of Amsterdam / Senior Fellow BrIAS)\n\nPanelists \n\nProf. Philip Ayoub (University College London)\nDr. Tomasz Besta (University of Gdańsk)\nProf. Elin Bjarnegård (University of Uppsala)\nDr. Vera Lomazzi (University of Bergamo)\n\n12:00 – 14:00 Lunch\n\n\nThis panel is part of a VICI-project funded by the Dutch Research Council (VI.C.231.0390)
URL:https://brias.be/event/political-masculinities-in-europe-public-panel/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260212T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260212T150000
DTSTAMP:20260205T093127Z
CREATED:20251209T081803Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260205T093127Z
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SUMMARY:Thursday Seminars by Bruno Castanho Silva and Giulia Fuochi
DESCRIPTION:Second Class: Public Opinion Perceptions of Naturalized Citizens’ Rights and Duties \nBio\nBruno Castanho Silva is an Assistant Professor for Methods in Empirical Social Research at the Institute of Sociology and Otto-Suhr Institute of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin\, Germany. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Central European University (Budapest\, Hungary) and is also an Executive Board member of the Methods Excellence Initiative (MethodsNET). Bruno’s research uses a variety of quantitative and computational methods to study issues connected to populism and radicalism\, social media and politics\, and the representation of underrepresented groups. His work has been published in journals such as the American Political Science Review\, American Journal of Political Science\, and Political Analysis\, among others.  \nAbstract\nCitizenship has once again become a politicized issue across developed countries\, at the same time as demographic changes lead to higher numbers of dual and naturalized citizens. However\, empirical political research has dedicated little attention to natural-born citizens views’ on those topics. This paper argues that naturalized citizens\, while in theory having (almost) all the legal rights of natural-born ones\, are still seen as second-class citizens in European countries when it comes to their rights\, but are expected to fulfil their whole share of citizenship obligations. It tests these expectations with a survey experiment fielded in four EU countries (n ca. 2\,000 per country)\, in which respondents indicate how much they approve of certain rights and obligations for natural-born or naturalized citizens\, and of long-term non-citizen residents. Findings indicate that the public has less tolerance for naturalized citizens who are critical of the country to vote and participate in politics\, but holds them to the same level of duty as the natural-born when it comes to serving the military in case of foreign threats. These findings shed the first empirical light on the  re-emerging politicized issue of citizenship rights in Europe and beyond.  \n\nDeprovincialization and other pathways to intergroup and societal harmony\nBio\nGiulia Fuochi is assistant professor and researcher in social psychology at the University of Padova. Her work explores how people relate to others across group boundaries\, with a focus on prejudice\, intergroup contact\, mindfulness\, and openness toward diversity. She has published extensively on these topics in international journals.  \nAbstract \nRecent decades have seen a rise in identity-based polarization in several democratic societies\, exacerbating conflict among social groups. One process that may counteract this trend could be that of deprovincialization\, a shift in perspective through which individuals come to view their own group’s norms and values as less absolute or superior\, while becoming more open to and accepting of cultural differences. Deprovincialization typically emerges from positive intergroup contact – i.e.\, interactions between members of different social groups – but also entails a strong component of cognitive change\, transforming how people interpret social diversity and group or national identity. This presentation will first shed light on the concept of deprovincialization\, also illustrating its links with intergroup variables (intergroup contact\, prejudice\, and anxiety)\, socio-political dispositions (right-wing authoritarianism\, social dominance orientation) and other individual tendencies (curiosity\, values) through network analysis. Second\, results from latent profile analysis\, a person-centered approach that identifies latent subgroups of individuals based on similar patterns of responses across variables\, will show how deprovincialization tends to cluster within profiles characterized by cognitive flexibility\, curiosity\, pro-diversity and anti-hierarchy beliefs. Third\, the potential behavioral outcomes of deprovincialization in an experimental setting will be explored: participants exposed to an audio clip designed to elicit deprovincialization – compared to those assigned to an active control condition – reported lower levels of national ingroup identification (i.e.\, Italians)\, and\, more importantly\, stronger intentions to engage in collective action to improve the conditions of the outgroup (i.e.\, Arab people living in Italy). Overall\, these findings highlight deprovincialization as a core mechanism for social change\, fostering openness toward diversity and pluralism\, reducing ethnocentrism\, and mobilizing advantaged groups to support disadvantaged ones. 
URL:https://brias.be/event/thursday-seminars-by-bruno-castanho-silva-and-giulia-fuochi/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260219T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260219T150000
DTSTAMP:20260205T093309Z
CREATED:20251209T081950Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260205T093309Z
UID:2528-1771502400-1771513200@brias.be
SUMMARY:Thursday Seminars by Franziska Höhne
DESCRIPTION:Stating the obvious? Far-right frames of climate change acceptance in the European Parliament\nAbstract\nIn a rapidly warming world\, climate obstruction has become a central challenge of global governance – exacerbated by the rising influence of far-right actors. Far-right ideology is understood as inherently incompatible with climate policy\, particularly when interpreted through a populist lens. When considered a thin-centred ideology\, the complexity of climate governance clashes with Manichean\, anti- cosmopolitan worldview of the populist far-right.  \nYet\, recent scholarship paints a more nuanced picture. Not only has the European far-right shifted from primary to secondary obstruction\, i.e. from denial to response scepticism\, some parties have also been found to selectively embrace international climate cooperation. This variation remains underexplored.  \nBuilding on research that highlights the role of contextual factors over ideology for far-right stances on climate policy\, this paper compares the impact of domestic factors such as issue salience\, green party strength\, and office opportunities. In a comparative case study design\, the paper analyses justifications provided in MEPs’ speeches and voting records\, supplemented by interviews with far-right MEPs and their staff. Understanding the nuances of far-right climate obstructionism is essential for a comprehensive grasp of the phenomenon and for designing effective responses. \nBio\nFranziska Höhne is a PhD researcher in the field of International Relations\, based at Goethe University Frankfurt\, and is currently affiliated as a visiting researcher at CEVIPOL\, ULB. Her research is situated at the far-right climate nexus\, with a focus on the international institutions intended to govern the climate crisis. For her PhD thesis\, she analyses how far-right parties in Europe approach international climate policy\, what influences their positions and how we can explain variance between the parties. Franziska Höhne obtained a M.Sc. degree in Global Studies from Gothenburg University in 2021 and a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Erfurt in 2019.
URL:https://brias.be/event/thursday-seminars-by-franziska-hohne/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260224T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260224T180000
DTSTAMP:20260216T120555Z
CREATED:20251204T090734Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260216T120555Z
UID:2481-1771948800-1771956000@brias.be
SUMMARY:Public Lecture – Big Ideas for Democracy: Marija Radoman
DESCRIPTION:  \nRegister here\nBuilding Democracy: Emotions and the Student Movement in Serbia 2024/25\nMy presentation focuses on the experiences and emotions of students involved in the student protests in Serbia 2024/25. The research looks at how emotions shaped both the mobilization of the movement and the students’ collective identity. What began as a student response to the collapse of a canopy in the city of Novi Sad quickly grew into a large-scale social and political movement. The timeframe of the research is limited: the results cover the period from the start of the protests in November 2024 to April 2025\, even though the protests are still ongoing. \nIn the first part of my talk\, I will explain the broader context\, the challenges faced by student and citizens in their struggle for a democratic society\, and the authoritarian tendencies of the goverment. I will also give a short overview of the dynamics of the protests and key events that kept them going\, explaining different protest stages. In the second part\, I will present some findings from research conducted by the team at the Institute for Sociological Research\, Faculty of Philosophy\, University of Belgrade. My research focus was on the role of emotions in the students’ participation in the protests\, and more broadly\, on how emotions contribute to shaping a new political generation in a post-socialist context. The study is based on 32 semi-structured interviews with students participating in the protests. I hypothesize that the student movement\, with its direct democratic practices\, independence from political parties\, and collective life on occupied faculties across the country\, represents alternative forms of democratic organization\, shaped through emotional experiences\, and represents the emergence of a new political generation. \nBio\nMarija Radoman is a PhD sociologist with over a decade of experience in gender and queer studies\, political values\, LGBTQ+ rights\, and research methodologies. Her academic work focuses on the intersections of social structures and individual experiences. She currently serves as a Research Associate at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade\, affiliated with the Institute for Sociological Research.
URL:https://brias.be/event/public-lecture-big-ideas-for-democracy-marija-radoman/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260226T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260226T150000
DTSTAMP:20260205T093208Z
CREATED:20251209T082047Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260205T093208Z
UID:2530-1772107200-1772118000@brias.be
SUMMARY:Thursday Seminar by Gaston Meskens
DESCRIPTION:The Possibility of Global Governance\nAn ethics of care for our contemporary coexistence.  \nAbstract\nThe Possibility of Global Governance is a reflective exercise in the applied philosophy of ethics\, and to some extent also in the poetics of ethics. My aim is to present a normative ethics idea open for reflection and discussion\, namely that the possibility of fair and effective global governance should be perceived from out of an ethics of care perspective – caring for human relationships in making sense of the complexity of complex problems – and that this possibility becomes ‘unlocked’ and enabled with the realisation of methods of politics\, science and education that would allow a fair dealing with the complexity that binds us\, inspired and motivated by that ethics of care perspective. These methods can be characterised as deliberative democracy as a collective reflection and learning process\, transdisciplinary and participatory scientific research and policy advice and education for a reflexive cosmopolitanism. \nThe idea is that these advanced methods of democracy\, scientific research and education together do hold that ‘possibility’: they make our global connectedness in complexity ‘visible’ and are at the same time inspired by it; they stimulate our sense of social and political engagement and at the same time make that engagement practically possible; they take into account the vulnerability of the specific roles we take on and assign to each other in society but at the same time provide the possibility to take our responsibility in those roles … Some proposed aspects of this ‘advanced’ method of global governance are realistic or do even exist already today in some fragmented or ‘light’ form or policy ambition\, as it is the case with transdisciplinarity in scientific policy advice or local public participation in decision making. Others are plainly utopian in terms of their possible realisation in the current situation\, like global deliberative democracy or the relativisation of the sovereignty of the nation state in global (international) politics. \nObviously it would be naive to think that a positive narrative of care ethics for global governance could lead directly to concrete changes for the better. One can understand that most protagonists of political power in the politics of today have little desire to enter into dialogue about the justification of their power\, as they see it as legitimised by the traditional political systems in which they operate. The initiative for advanced thinking about global governance will have to come from people who\, in solidarity and inspired and motivated by an ethics of care vision such as the one proposed here\, want to draw closer to engage in dialogue about the workings of politics\, science\, the market and education. The avant-garde of their solidarity lies in their willingness to see our coexistence not as a cynical society of conflict and competition\, but as a society that\, today more than ever\, is characterised by our connectedness in complexity\, by our sense of engagement in reflection and deliberation to give meaning to it\, and by the recognition of the vulnerability of our roles that we assign to each other in the process. The idea of ‘cosmopolitanism as capability’ will be foundational in this vision. Only when we are prepared to reflect on our own position and behaviour ‘in that whole world of concern’ will we be able to see all other people as being of equal moral standing\, simply because then we will not only see them as having equal moral standing in their own right\, but because we can then consider them as also having an equal right to act upon a moral responsibility. \nBio\nGaston Meskens is a ‘philosophical activist’ and artist with a background in science.\nHe holds master’s degrees in theoretical physics and nuclear engineering and a doctoral degree in moral philosophy from the University of Ghent (Belgium). In his philosophical research\, he works part-time with the Science\, Technology and Society research group of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK CEN and with the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of Ghent University. At Ghent University\, his research focuses on a human rights perspective related to intellectual capacity building in the interest of global sustainable development governance. At SCK CEN\, his research and outreach is concerned with the ethics of science and technology in general and with the ethical aspects of dealing with nuclear technology in particular.  His Seminars on Ethics of Science and Technology are part of multiple international training programmes and university curricula.\nGaston Meskens has built up more than twenty years of experience in transdisciplinary research related to the ethics of governance of issues such as sustainable development\, energy\, climate change and radioactive waste management and with working in and around the policy processes of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)\, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD)\, the United Nations Non-Proliferation Treaty process (UN-NPT) and of the research-related activities of the European Commission. Since 2006\, he is member of the steering committee of the Constituency of Research-oriented Independent Non-Governmental Organisations towards the UNFCCC (the constituency that represents the global scientific world in the United Nations Climate Change negotiation process).\nMore info: https://www.normsanddialectics.net/why/
URL:https://brias.be/event/thursday-seminar-by-gaston-meskens/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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