Inaugural Lecture of Professor Georgios Varouxakis

The School of History is excited to present Professor Georgios Varouxakis's Inaugural Lecture

“The West” is on everyone’s lips, but what does the term mean? Where is “it”? Who represents “it”? When did “the West” begin to be used as a socio-political concept? And, more importantly, why? Does it have a future? Is it a good thing, a bad thing, or…? Who belongs to the West? Who decides? How many definitions of the West are there? Are they all valid, or all wrong? Does the polysemy of “the West” render it meaningless? Or could it still stand for something? -- And, if the answer to the latter question is positive, what might it stand for? All these, and some more questions will be addressed in a brief lecture on a long story.

Georgios Varouxakis is Professor of the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary University of London. He grew up and went to school in Platanias, Crete. He studied History in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, and then completed an MA in Legal and Political Theory at University College London (UCL), followed by a PhD in History at UCL. After eight years at Aston University, Birmingham, he joined Queen Mary in 2006. He serves as Co-Director of the intercollegiate London MA in History of Political Thought and Intellectual History, as well as Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought. His books to date include Liberty Abroad: J.S. Mill on International Relations (Cambridge University Press – “Ideas in Context” series, 2013), Victorian Political Thought on France and the French (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), Mill on Nationality (Routledge, 2002), and Contemporary France: An Introduction to French Politics and Society (Arnold, 2003, co-authored with David Howarth). His next book monograph, The West: Journey of an Idea, will be published by Princeton University Press (2025).

The Lecture will be chaired by

Reception to follow.

Host or Publisher School of History, Queen Mary