Unpacking Europe is an exciting collection of scholarly essays and artists' projects which interrogate the historical and contemporary meanings of Europe. Examining the construction of "Europeanness," this volume focuses on the contradictions between homogenizing official narratives and everyday realities of urban life, where heterogeneity and hybridity have long been the living norms. The theme is timely, given the political climate in Europe, its shifting demographics, and the rising xenophobia and hardening of immigration policies.

 

Published in conjunction with the exhibition Unpacking Europe, this volume is composed of two parts: Part one includes essays by scholars from around the world rethinking various philosophical, historical, and cultural facets of Europe. Contributors include Ali A. Mazrui, Apinan Poshyananda, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Fatima El-Tayeb, Fredric Jameson, Gilane Tawadros, Irit Rogoff, Jimmy Durham, Leslie A. Adelson, Martin Bernal, Naoki Sakai, Natalie Melas, Okwui Enwezor, Rey Chow, Rustom Bharucha, Slavoj Zizek, Susan Buck-Morss, Ted Swedenburg.

 

Part two focuses on the artists' projects and includes essays on each of the artists by art critics as well as images of artists' works.