A conversation between 2019 Holberg Laureate Paul Gilroy and Professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen.
How can we live together? What could be causes of optimism at a time riddled by frictions, suspicion, xenophobia and withdrawal? Paul Gilroy, whose work ranges from racist exclusion to cultural creativity in the African diaspora, has recently explored the possibilities of conviviality as a positive alternative. This conversation takes its point of departure in Gilroy’s writings and the whirlwind of change affecting populations, identities, cultural worlds and ideologies of belonging in the contemporary world.
Paul Gilroy is Professor of American and English Literature at King’s College London. He receives the Holberg Prize for his outstanding contributions to a number of academic fields, including cultural studies, critical race studies, sociology, history, anthropology and African-American studies.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo.