Listening to the surging noise of the time

UCL Dutch and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands invite you for an evening with Safae El Khannoussi and Dimitri Van Den Meerssche.

Safae El Khannoussi’s novel Oroppa (2024), one of the most innovative Dutch novels of the twenty-first century, offers a perspective on Europe (or ‘Oroppa’) from those European residents whose stories are not often told nor heard: immigrants, so-called ‘losers’ and others who find themselves far removed from the centres of power and wealth.

The targeting and repression of these and other vulnerable groups is however also reaching new heights in the Low Countries and elsewhere in Europe and the world, and often in violation of international laws.

How can we understand the current dynamics of these tough and trying times? What can we learn from the experiences and stories of those immigrants that confront exclusion? Which role can the law play in resistance against some of these tendencies? And to what extent can literature and the imagination offer an alternative?

We will start our journey in Oroppa, with El Khannoussi and Van Den Meerssche as our guides covering these and other questions in a conversation moderated by Hans Demeyer.

Programme

5.30pm – Doors open

6.00pm – Welcome by Ambassador Paul Huijts

Conversation with Safae El Khannoussi, Dimitri van den Meersche and Hans Demeyer followed by a Q&A

7.15pm - Networking reception.

8.30pm – End.

Refreshment and light bites will be provided throughout the evening.

About the Speakers:

(Top to bottom)

Safae El Khannoussi is the author of Oroppa (2024), winner of both the Boon and Libris literary awards. An English translation of the novel will appear in 2026. El Khannoussi is also affiliated with the University of Amsterdam where she writes a PhD on prison abolition in Algeria, Morocco and Tunesia.

(picture: Hedayatullah Amid)

Dimitri Van Den Meerssche is Associate Professor of Law and Fellow of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS) at Queen Mary University of London. He is also a regular contributor to Belgian and Dutch media on issues of international law.

Hans Demeyer is Associate Professor of Dutch and Comparative Literature at University College London. He regularly publishes in academic and other media on the intersection between (Dutch) contemporary fiction, affect and politics.

This event is made possible by generous funding by the Dutch Language Union, the Dutch Foundation for Literature, UCL-SELCS and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.