Unholy Alliances: Reframing European History and Politics

In this workshop, scholars from different disciplines will explore what concrete, and at times controversial, examples in European history and politics have been considered unholy, unlikely, and, for some, unwelcome alliances.

Unholy alliances can be found across empirical and disciplinary contexts. For example, how did British socialists and conservatives find common ground in Euroscepticism? How did Eastern European anti-communist dissidents come to oppose European integration, and why were left-wing intellectuals supporting the far-right politics of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán?

Rather than shying away from such uncomfortable cases, in this two-day workshop we aim to turn these apparent conundrums into a collective inquiry and object of analysis.

Organized by HCAS Fellows Annastiina Kallius and William King.

9:00 Coffee  

9:30 Introductory remarks (Hanne Appelqvist, Annastiina Kallius and William King)  

9:45–10:45 Keynote I: Carol Balthazar (UCL): ‘Unholy Alliances and Their Everyday Ethics: An Anthropological Approach’
Chair: Annastiina Kallius (HCAS) 

10:45 Coffee  

11:00–12:15 Panel 1: The Everyday of Unholy Alliances 
Chair: tbc 

Panellists:  

• Andriy Fert (HCAS)
• Marie Cazes (University of Jyväskylä) and Corrado Piroddi (Tampere University)
• Aleksander Alekseev (University of Helsinki) 

12:15–13:30 Lunch Break

13:30–14:45 Panel 2: Governance and Unholy Alliances 
Chair: tbc 

Panellists:  

• Timo Miettinen (HCAS)
• Ivan Fomin (HCAS)
• Vesa Heikkinen (University of Helsinki) 

14:45 Coffee 

15:00–16:15 Panel 3: Unholy Alliances in Contemporary Politics 
Chair: tbc 

Panellists: 

• Cherry Miller (University of Helsinki)
• Yuliia Kurnyshova (University of Helsinki)
• Karel Kekkonen (University of Tampere) 

16:15–17:30 Reception at HCAS Common Room (for speakers, participants, and HCAS   Fellows) 

18:00 Dinner (for speakers) 

9:15 Coffee 

9:30–10:30 Keynote II: Katja Seidel (University of Westminster): ‘Promoting, Contesting and Shaping European Union Building: Holy and Unholy Alliances in European Integration History’ 
Chair: William King (HCAS) 

10:30–10:45 Coffee 

10:45–12:00 Panel 4: Historical and Contemporary Unholy Alliances
Chair: tbc 

Panellists: 

• Risto Marjamaa (University of Helsinki)
• Alan Granadino (Complutense University of Madrid)
• Timo R. Stewart (University of Helsinki) 

12:00–12:15 Closing remarks    

12:30 Coffee