Academic Year Opening Lecture - 13 October 2026

Europe, nation, migration: the triple challenge of 'integration', by Adrian Favell The 2026–2027 Academic Year opened with a keynote lecture by Professor Adrian Favell: Europe, nation, migration: the triple challenge of 'integration'. This conference was organised in the framework of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence BoundEUries. 'Europe' and 'nations' are constantly recombining levels of governance that require different forms of loyalty and identity. 'Migration' is an urgent policy issue that brings together socio-economic interests, identity, and cultural requirements. Together, these concepts present a triple challenge of 'integration', investing the term with multiple, overlapping, and sometimes contradictory meanings. The management of the relationship between European integration as a process, the integration of nations within a European polity and the integration of migrants within nations is likely to shape the political future of the continent. About the speaker: Adrian Favell is Professor of Social and Political Theory and Founding Director of the Radical Humanities Laboratory at University College Cork, Ireland, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is the author of Philosophies of Integration (1998), Eurostars and Eurocities (2008), and The Integration Nation (2022). He also writes and comments regularly about Japanese contemporary art and architecture. Presently he directs the ERC AdG project (2024-28) MIGMOBS - The Orders and Borders of Global Inequality: Migration and Mobilities in Late Capitalism. More info about his research here. Chair and discussants: François Foret, Professor of Political Science and President of the IEE-ULB Paula Gobbi, Professor of Economics, Director of ECARES Julien Jeandesboz, Professor of Political Science