PULLING TOGETHER OR PULLING APART - CONFERENCE

Welcome to this interdisciplinary conference organized by the Department of Hispanic Studies, Trinity College Dublin.

The question of Nationalism is central not only to contemporary academic Hispanism, to debates on the directions of peninsular and wider European identities, but also to the future of Europe and the European Union – the supranational objective of creating a European identity is contested by the force of micro-nationalism. Nationalist aspirations are an increasing component of global politics and the recent resurgence of both liberal and anti-liberal movements runs counter to the perception of Renan in 1882 that: ‘Nations are not eternal. They had a beginning and they will have an end’.

Similarly, attempts to (re)define the concept of national collective identities serves to underscore the fact that within an expanding Europe, unity is a fragile concept, and from an international perspective there are signs, both worrying at one extreme and heartening at the other, that national, regional, and local identities are not at ease with global hegemonies. The conference is intended to provide a forum for international discussion on these and interrelated issues.