Discussion: Nostalgia - A History of a Dangerous Emotion

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 the UCL European Institute, the IAS and UCL Grand Challenges, for an evening with the author, in conversation 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. 

Speaker
Agnes Arnold-Forster, Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Edinburgh 

Respondents
Sonu Shamdasani, Professor in Jung History, UCL SELCs and Co-Director of the UCL Health Humanities Centre 
Emily McTernan, Associate Professor in Political Theory, UCL Department of Political Science 
Joanna Elmy, writer, journalist and UCL European Institute, Writer in Residency 2024

Chair
Nicola Miller, Professor of Latin American History and Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies