Global Gateways[Thu 16 Oct] Kyushu University EU Centre JM Seminar ex. Mario Maritan ‘Mazzini’s Legacy and the Future of the EU’
This is an announcement of Kyushu University EU Centre "Jean Monnet Seminar Extra." A lecture entitled ‘Mazzini's Legacy and the Future of the EU’ will be given by Dr Mario Maritan. The seminar is open to all the students and staff of Kyushu University.
1. Date and Time: Thursday, 16 October 2025, 5th Period (16:40–18:10)
2. Venue: Room E-D-523, 5th Floor, East Building 2, Ito Campus
3. Participation Fee: Free
4. Registration
This event is held as part of the Seminar “Development and Good Governance” (a joint course of CSPA Programme, Graduate School of Law and Undergraduate Political Studies Seminar, School of Law, Professor HASUMI Jiro). The students who are not enrolling these courses and the university staff wishing to attend this seminar must register via e-mail at euevent@jimu.kyushu-u.ac.jpwith the subject line '10/16 Seminar Attendance Request', including: ①Your name, ②Your email address, ③Your affiliation
▼See more details here (EU Centre website News)
https://eu.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/post-4057/
●Lecturer Biography: Mr Mario Maritan (Research fellow, Institute of International and Area Studies, Sogang University, Korea）
Mario Maritan was awarded his PhD in modern history from University College London, where he taught modern European and Middle Eastern history, having previously studied at Durham and Cambridge. He is currently a research fellow at the Institute of International and Area Studies of Sogang University in Seoul. His papers have appeared in leading journals about nationalism.
His "The Fight for a Supranational World: Trieste, the Adriatic and the Habsburgs, 1848-1867" is forthcoming with Purdue University Press.
●Lecture Outline: "Mazzini’s Legacy and the Future of the EU"
My presentation shows how the future of the European Union is not only undermined by external threats like dictatorial Russia, but also by internal issues, in particular the living legacy of nationalism.
Across the member states of the EU, the national and nationalist dimension of Europe has been emphasized as a tool of national self-legitimation at the expense of the long history of multi-ethnic experiments, including the Habsburg Monarchy. Within political science, nationalism is now considered to be a necessary component of a functioning state and as such is seen as positive force that binds communities. Yet nationalism is a specific European ideology that conceives of the nation as homogenous and driven by communal goals; the individual is supposed to merge in the collective life of the nation and lose their individuality. Thus, nationalism, notwithstanding attempts to portray it as liberal because democratic, is an illiberal ideology.
This doctrine was elaborated by Giuseppe Mazzini, one of the leading figures of the Italian Risorgimento, who conceived of the European continent as made up of distinct nations that were supposed to establish their own distinct states. The multi-ethnic Habsburg Monarchy, a predecessor of the EU, stood in the way of his vision. While Mazzini’s ideal was a “brotherhood of nations,” he contradictorily laid the foundations for the fragmentation of Europe, later implemented by Woodrow Wilson, that we face to this day. In the process, national narratives and political scientists have relegated the Habsburg Monarchy, as an anachronism, to the dustbin of history.
*****************************************
Kyushu University EU Centre (JMCoE-Q)
euevent@jimu.kyushu-u.ac.jp
*****************************************
1. Date and Time: Thursday, 16 October 2025, 5th Period (16:40–18:10)
2. Venue: Room E-D-523, 5th Floor, East Building 2, Ito Campus
3. Participation Fee: Free
4. Registration
This event is held as part of the Seminar “Development and Good Governance” (a joint course of CSPA Programme, Graduate School of Law and Undergraduate Political Studies Seminar, School of Law, Professor HASUMI Jiro). The students who are not enrolling these courses and the university staff wishing to attend this seminar must register via e-mail at euevent@jimu.kyushu-u.ac.jpwith the subject line '10/16 Seminar Attendance Request', including: ①Your name, ②Your email address, ③Your affiliation
▼See more details here (EU Centre website News)
https://eu.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/post-4057/
●Lecturer Biography: Mr Mario Maritan (Research fellow, Institute of International and Area Studies, Sogang University, Korea）
Mario Maritan was awarded his PhD in modern history from University College London, where he taught modern European and Middle Eastern history, having previously studied at Durham and Cambridge. He is currently a research fellow at the Institute of International and Area Studies of Sogang University in Seoul. His papers have appeared in leading journals about nationalism.
His "The Fight for a Supranational World: Trieste, the Adriatic and the Habsburgs, 1848-1867" is forthcoming with Purdue University Press.
●Lecture Outline: "Mazzini’s Legacy and the Future of the EU"
My presentation shows how the future of the European Union is not only undermined by external threats like dictatorial Russia, but also by internal issues, in particular the living legacy of nationalism.
Across the member states of the EU, the national and nationalist dimension of Europe has been emphasized as a tool of national self-legitimation at the expense of the long history of multi-ethnic experiments, including the Habsburg Monarchy. Within political science, nationalism is now considered to be a necessary component of a functioning state and as such is seen as positive force that binds communities. Yet nationalism is a specific European ideology that conceives of the nation as homogenous and driven by communal goals; the individual is supposed to merge in the collective life of the nation and lose their individuality. Thus, nationalism, notwithstanding attempts to portray it as liberal because democratic, is an illiberal ideology.
This doctrine was elaborated by Giuseppe Mazzini, one of the leading figures of the Italian Risorgimento, who conceived of the European continent as made up of distinct nations that were supposed to establish their own distinct states. The multi-ethnic Habsburg Monarchy, a predecessor of the EU, stood in the way of his vision. While Mazzini’s ideal was a “brotherhood of nations,” he contradictorily laid the foundations for the fragmentation of Europe, later implemented by Woodrow Wilson, that we face to this day. In the process, national narratives and political scientists have relegated the Habsburg Monarchy, as an anachronism, to the dustbin of history.
*****************************************
Kyushu University EU Centre (JMCoE-Q)
euevent@jimu.kyushu-u.ac.jp
*****************************************