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Venue: Lecture Hall Complex, Radboud University
This programme is English spoken.
What does it mean to grow up in an environment where violence and alcohol abuse are the norm? What is it like for a child when everyone around you is unemployed, racist and homophobic? Especially when you yourself are intelligent, sensitive and queer? This is the story of writer and sociologist Édouard Louis, who managed to break free from his background and continues to fight against it on every page of his books. Come and listen to Édouard Louis in conversation with literary scholar Maaike Koffeman, sociologist Francesco Cerchiaro and educationalist Eddie Denessen and ask your own questions!
A stifling environment
Édouard Louis grew up in a disadvantaged environment in northern France. His childhood was harsh and violent: welfare benefits were spent on alcohol and cigarettes, his brother went off the rails into drug use and crime, and his father sat on the sofa watching television with a broken back. Louis is different from other children, and he has to endure humiliation from both his classmates and his parents. It is only when he goes to secondary school that he is able to escape his suffocating environment. In his books, he mercilessly criticises both the circumstances in which he grew up and capitalism and the political elite who make the lower classes pay for their policies.
Consequences of poverty
What does it mean to grow up in poverty? What are the consequences of not being able to be yourself? What role does our political and economic system play in perpetuating inequality of opportunity? And what happens when someone from a working-class background enters the somewhat elitist literary world? Led by philosopher Cees Leijenhorst, Édouard Louis will engage in conversation with literary scholar Maaike Koffeman, sociologist Francesco Cerchiaro, educationalist Eddie Denessen and the audience.
An added bonus: writer and sociologist Milio van de Kamp, affiliated with Wintertuin, will open the evening with a literary laudation for Édouard Louis.
About the speakers
Édouard Louis is a writer and sociologist. He grew up in a disadvantaged family in northern France. The poverty, racism, alcoholism and hatred of his homosexuality that Louis faced during his childhood are the main themes of his literary work.
Maaike Koffeman is a literary scholar at Radboud University. She studies the cultural relations between France and the Netherlands and is particularly interested in the role of the author in the literary field and its social impact.
Francesco Cerchiaro is a sociologist at Radboud University. He conducts research into mixedness – the lived experiences, social constructions and meanings attributed to mixed identities, families and relationships.
Eddie Denessen is an educationalist at Radboud University. His research focuses on the effects of socio-cultural backgrounds and value orientations on inequality of opportunity in education.
Milio van de Kamp is a writer and sociologist at the University of Amsterdam. Having grown up in poverty, he offers a unique, personal perspective on social inequality in his book Misschien moet je iets lager mikken (ENG: Maybe you should aim a little lower). His previous essays and articles on inequality of opportunity and poverty have been published in newspapers such as de Volkskrant and Het Parool.
Participation
This programme has been sold out. Participating is not possible anymore.
This is a programme of Radboud Reflects, Boekhandel Roelants and part of Wintertuinfestival (24 – 29 November 2025) of literature organisation Wintertuin.
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