Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion - In discussion with Agnes Arnold-Foster

Nostalgia is a social and political emotion, vulnerable to misuse, and one that reflects the anxieties of the age. It is one of the many ways we communicate a desire for the past, dissatisfaction with the present and our visions for the future.

In Nostalgia: A Biography, Agnes Arnold-Forster traces the history of this complex, slippery emotion and uses it as a lens through which to consider the changing pace of society, our collective feelings of regret, dislocation and belonging, the conditions of modern and contemporary work, and the politics of fear and anxiety.

Join UCL European Institute, UCL Grand Challenges and the IAS, for an evening with the author, in dialogue with UCL academics, to consider the origins of nostalgia as a psychopathological disorder through to how it is used and misused in contemporary life – in areas from politics to advertising -  and how we best respond. 

Speakers

Dr Agnes Arnold-Foster, Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Edinburgh 

Respondents

Prof. Sonu Shamdasani, Professor in Jung History, UCL SELCs and Co-Director of UCL Health Humanities Centre 

Dr Emily McTernan, Associate Professor in Political Theory, UCL Department of Political Science 

Joanna Elmy, Writer, Journalist and UCL European Institute, Writer in Residency 2024