From the perspective of your research field, what are the biggest challenges Europe is facing at the moment, and what are the biggest opportunities?

'It’s clear that we are at a juncture in which Europe has to take stock of where its interests lie and how it can secure its relations with the rest of the world, as geopolitical axes shift and other (re)emerging powers vie for a seat at the table. To historians, however, there is nothing unprecedented about this moment. Power shifts constantly and states are always in the process of rethinking what is important to them and working to align policy with these reimagined interests. Europe was not always in a position of power and influence globally and therefore challenges to its presumed role in the present are not unexpected. How we view our place in the world is informed by our histories, and as histories have unfolded variously in different parts of the world, we all have a differentiated sense of what it means to be ‘in the world,’ in a geopolitical sense. Following from this, it is necessary to emphasise that, for most people in the world, Europe is not the geopolitical centre and Europe’s challenge is to reassess what it can expect of others, based on this understanding.'

'As a cultural historian, the biggest opportunities really lie in understanding what binds us, rather than what divides us. Geopolitics is not just what state-level institutions in Europe and elsewhere do with and ‘to’ each other. It is, more broadly, a way to imagine the world and our place in it, and all of us are engaged in this all the time, even if we are unaware of doing so. This understanding can only really emerge from studying civil society networks and people-to-people ties. Any notion of shared values imposed by institutions in Europe runs the risk of being framed in a Eurocentric manner and can make difficult a sense of a common future that includes others’ voices equally. We need to look at people’s local and transnational efforts and their agency in crafting common visions and building coalitions of support for peace and justice. These efforts do not always unfold on a single broad platform but are distilled through disparate actions around multiple topics, whose common principle is peace and social justice.'

How do you see Europe’s role in the world evolving beyond just politics and grand strategy? What impact do people-to-people connections play in this shift?

'Interpersonal and civil society connections inevitably work to undercut the persistent national/ist frames of institutional thought. For this reason, such connections also enable all kinds of solidarities and allow people to imagine other ways of living in this world. I worry that so much of the way in which geopolitics is imagined in Europe is based on a zero-sum view of the world: “You’re with us or against us.” Much of the world does not operate this way and most countries’ histories encourage a move away from this binary view. Foregrounding how non-state actors build communities of interest and support across societies, around various shared interests, helps us imagine new global connections in an embodied way.'

In your research, you look at the cultural exchanges between Europe and other parts of the world. How have these exchanges shaped Europe’s identity over time, especially in terms of art, politics, and daily life?

'The answer is not straightforward. Perhaps my research can offer a useful moment of reflection, reminding one that Europe is experienced in different ways by the rest of the world. I work on ties between East Europe and the Global South, making clear that West Europe is only one node in a large network of global cultural entanglements that involve many disparate actors. Europe is not always at the centre of things. This may sound simple, but truly understanding this can have a profound impact on how geopolitics in the immediate future is informed.'

You’ve studied the relationships between women in Europe and the Global South. How do you think these friendships and connections influenced political and social changes in Europe?

'In my current research I focus on women, but it is more accurate to call my approach a feminist perspective. A feminist lens on global connections, whether in the past or the present, makes visible the enabling role that people can play in building solidarities and crafting visions for peace. This is not a gendering of politics; I am not claiming that women are more ‘naturally inclined’ to communitarian practice. Rather, it is to emphasise that intimate ties, the locus of personal connections (among people of any gender), are often the spaces where ideas about freedoms, mutual support and common humanity can circulate freely, without being bogged down by the imperatives of states in Europe and elsewhere.'

What are some of the biggest challenges you face when studying cultural connections between people across borders, and how do you approach these challenges in your research?

'The biggest challenge is often in convincing a public (whether academic or other) that the ‘small-scale’ and personal act can carry enormous, enduring implications for larger political changes. Cultural coalitions and bridge building should not be academic footnotes, but a central topic in discussions about geopolitics. Another challenge, but also opportunity, is rendering visible the invisibilised. It is a challenge because you must be creative about what you imagine a source to be; it may be people’s words, a film, poetry or an inanimate object. All these are pervaded with people’s stories and are conduits for people’s imagined worlds. Such a focus forces you to think interdisciplinarily. It is hugely rewarding, however, because it gives you a (geopolitical) history that is of people and their emotions, of connections felt deeply, of politics felt viscerally. It also gives you histories that are messy and forces you to abandon academic categories that are often reductionist and almost sanitising in their imperative to neatly organise historical and other knowledges that are necessarily complex.'

How do you think Europe’s collective memory of events like the Cold War, and the ways it’s remembered through art and history, influence its current cultural and political landscape? What do you think are the most important areas of research when it comes to understanding Europe’s relationship with the rest of the world?

'Europe’s collective memory of the Cold War continues to see the world in a binary, disregarding how much of the world did not care to participate in this binary thinking during the Cold War, and continues to have little use for it now. This binary thinking, unfortunately, affects much of Europe’s current thinking. One of the imperatives of a research group like ours is to underscore other alignments both between Europe and others and alignments among others in this new world where Europe must reassess its place. This means that many global alignments may not have Europe as their pivot; the group’s imperative is to understand Europe’s position as contingent on both its own and others’ histories and points of view. Europe, like any other place, can be seen as both central and marginal in people's worldviews. It will have to grow accustomed to this.'