More than 20 scholars and researchers from the USA, Germany, United Kingdom, Russia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Israel have arrived in Vilnius in order to discuss critical issues of contemporary European university education by re-reading, re-considering, and re-invigorating the thinking of Hannah Arendt on the Conditio Humana, on the plurality of Man and the philosophical roots of education. Participants of the conference were greeted by representatives of the Embassy of Germany in Lithuania.
Keynote papers of the conference were presented by Assoc. Prof. Roger Berkowitz (Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities, Bard College), Prof. Matthias Bormuth (Head of the Karl Jaspers House, University of Oldenburg).
Roundtables and sessions of the conference provided a floor for thorough discussion between distinctive researchers and doctorate students who addressed Hannah Arendt´s understanding of the essential plurality of man, his “worldliness” provides the starting point for a conception of truly democratic politics as the sphere of human exchange in the realm of “in-between” human beings; Politics hence is to be seen as the space of interaction of men – and women – sharing their humanity in diversity.
In addition to Professors and Associate Professors of EHU, speakers of the conference represented following partner Universities:
- Academic College of Tel Aviv – Yaffo (Natan Sznaider);
- Bard College Berlin (Kerry Bystrom, Michael Weinman, Aaron Tugendhaft );
- Cambridge University (Yong-Jun Park);
- LCC International University (Tricia Van Dyk, John Milliken, Andrew Jones, JD Mininger);
- Paderborn University (Maria Robaszkiewicz);
- Southern Federal University of Russia (Anait Akopyan);
- Tartu University (Siobhan Kattago);
- University of Plymounth (Jonathan Clark );
- Vilnius University (Simas Čelutka, Simona Merkinaitė).
