The ‘Elite’ as Delicate Beast
What do we mean when we talk about 'the elite'?
- Date
- 13 April 2026
- Time
- 17:00
- Location
- SPUI25
The starting point of this event is Roger Celestin’s recent novel The Delicate Beast (2025, Bellevue Literary Press, recently listed among PopMatters’ Best Books of the Year). Célestin will join us to discuss the complex ties between cosmopolitan life, intellectual work, workingclass politics, postcolonial struggles, and new forms of colonial power.
This event connects to key questions in postcolonial studies, especially the long-standing concern with who gets to speak for whom, and how. We reflect on today’s wave of decolonial work and on the role of intellectuals, historians, artists, and critics in these debates. After an opening reading by Celestin, each speaker will make a 5-minute contribution, followed by a discussion.
This event is organized within the Research Priority Area Decolonial Futures. Together with ASCA and NICA, we contribute to Decolonial Futures’ ongoing roundtables and publications that revisit the social histories and critical theories shaping current discussions about voice, authority, and representation.
Drinks after event offered by an anonymous donor.
SPUI25 is the academic-cultural podium of Amsterdam. Since 2007, we have been giving scientists, authors, artists and other thinkers the opportunity to shine a light on issues that occupy, inspire or concern them. In cooperation with a large number of academic and cultural partners, we organize between 250 and 300 freely accessible programs per year. These are enriching, often interdisciplinary programs that move between science and culture, fact and fiction.
SPUI25 is one of the UvA-podia in the University Quarter.
