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Excellence Lab Europe
The Excellence Lab Europe ("Exzellenzlabor Europa") was founded in 2021 by Saarland University and Villa Vigoni e. V. | German-Italian Centre for European Dialogue as a permanent cooperation between the two institutions. It is conceived and coordinated at the Cluster for European Research at Saarland University (CEUS). Within the framework of the cooperation, a multi-day international scholarly event is held each year at Villa Vigoni. The aim of the Exzellenzlabor Europa is to stimulate an interdisciplinary dialogue on questions relevant to Europe at a European level. The focus is above all on how Europe relates to the world, and on the question of how 'concepts' of Europe are projected, transformed and understood. The cooperation is intended in particular to promote early-career researchers. The events held within the Exzellenzlabor Europa also give rise to publications, which are also published in the CEUS series 'Saarbrücker Beiträge zur Europaforschung' (Nomos).
The cooperation was inaugurated on 11 September 2021 with a ceremony at Villa Vigoni.
Excellence Lab Europe 2026
Spanish Gazes on (a Threatened) Europe: Changing Iberian Perspectives in 100 Years of Cultural Productions
The 6th Excellence Lab Europe will take place as an international workshop from 7 to 10 October at Villa Vigoni. The academic lead is Prof. Dr. Janett Reinstädler (Romance Literary and Cultural Studies, specialising in Hispanic Studies).
The event aims to provide an initial, in-depth exploration of an emerging field of research: the ways in which Europe has been perceived and conceptualised in Spain. As a former global power situated on the geographical periphery of Europe, Spain offers a distinctive perspective on the continent. The collaborative work at Villa Vigoni will seek to establish a foundational understanding of the historical development of Spanish conceptions of Europe in the postcolonial era, examining how specific contexts – including geographical, religious, political, intellectual and artistic perspectives, as well as historical circumstances – have shaped Iberian images of Europe.
8. Oktober 2026
- Bohdan Chuma (Catholic University Lviv): Spanish Images of Europe in the First World War
- Oleksandr Pronkevich (Catholic University Lviv): José Ortega y Gasset’s Meditation on Europe from a 21st-Century Perspective
- Barbara Grecco (Università di Turino): Reception and Re-elaboration of Europe in Spanish Avant-Garde Movements
- Assunta Polizzi (Universidad de Palermo): Europeismo en la prensa española: Europa. Revista de cultura popular (1910)
- Cinthia del Valle Bruno (UdS): Cinematic Imaginaries of Europe through the Female Figure in Amor a la española (1967) and El turismo es un gran invento (1968)
- Juan Carlos Cruz Suárez (Stockholm Universitet) Non placet Europa. Memoria de una entelequia en la narrativa española del franquismo (de Max Aub a Juan Goytisolo)
- Cristina Ruiz Urbón (Universidad de Valladolid): Crossing Europe: From Europe as a Dream to Europe as a Resource. Imaginaries of Spanish Emigration in Franco’s Narrative and Contemporary Fiction
- María Martínez Deyros (University of Valladolid): Europe as an Unfinished Project in the Narrative and Essayistic Work of Cristian Crusat
- Antonio Candeloro (Catholic University of Murcia): Jorge Semprún: A Multifaceted View of Europe (Analysis of his Essay “Pensar en Europa”, Barcelona: Tusquets 2006)
- Eduardo del Campo (Universidad de Sevilla): Europa vista desde el archivo de Televisión Española: el caso del programa “El arte de vivir”
9. Oktober 2026
- Janett Reinstädler (UdS): Odysseys to the “Other” Europe: The Travel Literature of A. Checa Gody and C. Campoy
- Olha Majevska (Universität Ivan Fanko, Lviv): European Space: In Search of Personal Identity in Contemporary Female Narrative (R. Montero, V. Montfort, M. Sanz)
- Isabel Exner (Universität Halle/Saale): Mito y sexo. Europa, Zeus y PornoBurka (2013) de Brigitte Vasallo
- Dr. Diana Rodríguez Vertiz (UdS): The Migrant Gabriela Wiener in Madrid: The Disillusionment of Europe
- Dr. Ruben Venzon (Universidad de Salamanca): The Wounded Continent: Europe in Cristina Cerrada's Trilogy
- Teresa Gómez Trueba (Universidad de Valladolid): Spanish Fictions about the End of Europe
- Carmen Morán Rodríguez (Universidad de Valladolid): Europe Never Ends: From Modernist Exhaustion to Enrique Vila-Matas’ Tenacious Optimism
Previous Excellence Labs
Contact
Dr. Florian Rossbach
Campus C5 3, Raum 2.23
Tel. +49 (0)681-302-70454
florian.rossbach(at)uni-saarland.de
