The seminar will take place from 4:00 to 6:00 PM at EHU (Savičiaus St., room 303) and will be held in English.
The event opens a new seminar series dedicated to revisiting Hannah Arendt’s ideas through the historical and intellectual experience of Central and Eastern Europe. The initiative aims to create a space for dialogue and reflection on political thought, freedom, responsibility, and the contemporary European condition.
The seminar will begin with the presentation “Hannah Arendt and Franz Kafka” by Prof. Jeffrey Taylor (Department of Humanities and Arts, EHU), followed by an open discussion with participants.
From the fall of the Berlin Wall to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, Central and Eastern Europe has remained at the center of Europe’s major historical and political transformations. During the Cold War, thinkers and writers from the region confronted the realities of totalitarianism with exceptional intellectual and moral clarity. Figures such as Hannah Arendt, Jan Patočka, and Václav Havel, alongside authors including Franz Kafka and Milan Kundera, explored questions of freedom, dignity, resistance, and moral responsibility under political repression. Today, these questions continue to resonate with renewed urgency.
The seminar invites participants to reconsider these themes through the works of Hannah Arendt and Franz Kafka, while also reflecting on the broader intellectual legacy of Central and Eastern Europe and its significance for contemporary Europe.
The event is open to all interested participants.
We invite you to join the seminar by completing a short registration form.
