Culture, War, and Peace debated at the XIV Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture
"The reason why we’re talking about war is because we want to talk about peace." With these words, Isabel Capeloa Gil, President of Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP), summarised the theme of the 14th edition of the Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture.
The relationship between Culture and War was under debate from June 24 to 29 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the UCP in Lisbon. Organised by the Lisbon Consortium of the Faculty of Human Sciences, it is also the first Summer School of the Transform4Europe university alliance. The event had more than 130 participants from 24 countries and 5 continents.
At the opening session, the President mentioned the origins of the Lisbon Consortium and this Summer School 14 years ago when "a group of academics, curators and trustees decided to bring together universities, museums and foundations to create a knowledge network focused on promoting critical and intellectual dialogue".
"To understand the cutting-edge issues facing our society", the event aims to promote "meaningful dialogues about the state of the world and the role that culture has to play to tackle the inequalities, the persistent issues, problems, and crisis affecting us", explained Isabel Capeloa Gil.
On the topic of this edition, Nelson Ribeiro, director of the Faculty of Human Sciences, said "Unfortunately, there is no need to explain why this is a pressing topic. War has become central to most discussions on international and national affairs impacting directly or indirectly millions of people and creating anxieties about our common futures".
Without forgetting the role of social media and artificial intelligence in wars, Nelson Ribeiro noted that "the media are not only mediators of wars but are also instruments of warfare or munitions of the mind".
Closing the session, the Research Centre for Communication and Culture (CECC) director Alexandra Lopes recalled the Summer School's "long tradition of fostering good debates, conviviality, and knowledge exchange".
The professor also reaffirmed CECC's "commitment to research training and to participation in a culture of dialogue, negotiation and inter-relatedness, one where knowledge production is not necessarily a contest but rather a hospitable space for discussion and dissent, for participation, and inclusion".
The Summer School included keynotes and masterclasses from speakers such as filmmaker Tonya Lewis Lee, artist Rosângela Rennó, and Professors Antonio Monegal and Christiane Solte-Gresser. In addition, PhD and Masters students could present their ongoing research in paper sessions or poster presentations.
For Przemysław Kantorski, a 33-year-old PhD student from the University of Silesia who participated in the T4EU Summer School, it was his first time visiting Lisbon and participating in a T4EU event.
Highlighting the networking experience during the event, he believes participating in the summer school was “a great opportunity to present the research results to other young scientists and specialists”.
“Participation in the Summer School has significantly contributed to my development, not only because of the feedback I received but also because of the broadly understood inclusion in something that I perceive as an academic, international community. The event sensitized me to various problems and strengthened my belief in the agency of the work of scientists, including young ones. I believe other young researchers would benefit greatly from experiencing something similar”, he stated.
Regarding the T4EU alliance, the young researcher thinks it “creates a space for productive cooperation not only between institutions but also between researchers involved in important problems of different scopes and nature”.