Project Description

The project of J. Monnet Chair on “Transmission and creation of a common European culture: the making of heroes” (FABER) addresses the fourth priority of the current Erasmus+ program: “raising awareness of and understanding the European Union context, notably as regards the common UE values, the principles of unity and diversity, as well as their social, cultural and historical heritage”.

It involves a 3-year position for an Associate Research Professor, Anne Gangloff, at Rennes 2 University, and includes 105 hours of teaching for about 350 students, as well as research and research dissemination activities.

The FABER project will be highly innovative by developing a parallel between the making of ancient heroes and heroines and the making of European heroes and heroines, in order to examine how the notion of heroes, heroines, and “great men” can help build a political and cultural EU.

FABER aims to establish a dialogue between the academic world and the European citizens, through 6 events that will be widely opened and disseminated: 2 conferences, an international symposium, a cycle on “The peplum in European culture” (3 film screenings), for an audience of about 700 people. It favors popular media such as cinema, comics, and websites.

It proposes to develop awareness-raising and educational activities that will bring the EU closer to the public, particularly in the field of education, by reflecting on how to teach Europe in a more concrete way and less focused on the institutions. It will produce 5 deliverables in open access.

The methodology of the FABER project is comparative and interdisciplinary. It will gather a team of 7 scholars and 5 international experts in the fields of classics, modern history, film studies, EU studies, media studies, European history teaching, and heroization. The question of gender will also be addressed through the notion of heroines, which will allow questioning the role of women in the construction of the EU.