Meet Lea Ypi
The debate will be moderated by Andreas Guidi (Inalco, CREE).
Book introduction
"What if everything I know about my grandmother turns out to be a story woven of hope, betrayal, power and perfidy, a story she made up simply to survive?"
When Lea Ypi discovers a photo of her grandmother on honeymoon in the Dolomites in 1941 on a stranger's social networks, she falls head over heels. Her family - who had worked in Albania's high political and intellectual circles - had always sworn that all traces of her grandmother's youth had been confiscated during the rise of communism.
So she decided to delve into the secret service archives, where her investigation would raise as many questions about her grandmother's life as it did about her turbulent times. From aristocracy under the Ottoman Empire to Stalinist repression, via a financial crisis and the horror of two world wars, Indignity reveals just how fragile truth - both personal and collective - can be.
Navigating ceaselessly between archives and her memories, the real and the imaginary, Lea Ypi delivers a powerful reflection on justice and moral integrity through her family history.
Author introduction
Lea Ypi is Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and holder of the Collège de France's annual chair "L'invention de l'Europe par les langues et les cultures" (2026). She is the author of "Enfin libre: grandir quand tout s'écroule" (Seuil, 2022) and "Indignité" (Calmann-Lévy, 2026). Thanks to the international success of these two novels and her articles published in The Guardian, The New Statesman and The Financial Times she has established herself as a leading figure on the contemporary European intellectual scene. In her novels, Lea Ypi addresses her Albanian origins, her personal history and that of her family, but also reflections on freedom, inspired by her studies of Immanuel Kant and Karl Marx. This meeting will be an opportunity to dialogue with her on her biographical trajectory, the themes of her latest novel and the importance of critical philosophy in interpreting and changing the world.
Les Débats du CREE
They are a regular meeting devoted to editorial and research news on medieval Europe and the post-Soviet space in various disciplines (language sciences, humanities and social sciences).
Coordination
- Andreas Guidi (Inalco, CREE)