2026 Paris-Liège Prize: Sophie Bessis
05/11/2026 17:00 - 05/11/2026 18:00
This event is in French.
An interview with the winner of the 2026 Paris-Liège Prize: Sophie Bessis
Established by the City of Liège with the support of the City of Paris, the Paris-Liège Essay Prize is awarded annually to the best original essay in the humanities published in French. It is awarded by a joint jury comprising Belgian and French figures, with the chairmanship alternating between the two countries.
For the 2026 edition, the prize was awarded to Sophie Bessis for her essay *La civilisation judéo-chrétienne. Anatomie d’une imposture* (The Judeo-Christian Civilisation: Anatomy of a Hoax), published by Editions Les liens qui libèrent.
The award ceremony will take place on THURSDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2026 at 6.00 pm at La Boverie and will be followed by a meeting with the winner.
Sophie Bessis is a historian specialising in North-South relations and the status of women in Africa and the Arab world. A former editor-in-chief of *Jeune Afrique*, she also taught at INALCO and Paris I before becoming a researcher at IRIS. She is the author of several books, including *L’Occident et les autres* (La Découverte, 2000), *Histoire de la Tunisie de Carthage à nos jours* (Tallandier, 2019) and *Je vous écris d’une autre rive, lettre à Hannah Arendt* (Elyzard, 2021).
The Judeo-Christian Civilisation: Anatomy of a Hoax
For forty years, the concept of ‘Judeo-Christian civilisation’ has dominated political and media discourse in the West, presented as the cultural foundation of Europe and North America. But what lies behind this expression, which has become a hegemonic reference point?
Co-opted by a variety of actors – states, political movements and nationalist groups – this concept is used across the board to rewrite history, serving in Europe to obscure two millennia of anti-Semitic persecution, to deny the East’s contribution to its past, and to exclude Islam from its cultural references. Zionism, and subsequently the State of Israel from the moment of its creation, have needed to assert their exclusive ties to the West, proclaiming themselves today as the ‘forward bastion of Judeo-Christian civilisation’ in the face of the ‘Arab-Muslim enemy’, whilst Arab nationalisms have seen this phrase as a convenient tool for denying the Jewish dimension of their own countries’ histories.
Sophie Bessis reveals how this dichotomy, far from being neutral, is used everywhere to prevent cultural and political convergences that could serve as paths towards peace.
Thursday 5 November at 6.00 pm at La Boverie
Free entry
Book your ticket online via the ticket office
Address: Parc de la Boverie, 3 - 4020 Liège
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+3242385501
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Event type: Événementiel (festivité, pièce de théâtre, conférence, brocante, balade, etc.)
