Over six hours of content with 12 presentations offered at the Teatro Titano: "An infinite project, because the differences and efforts required are infinite."
A "day of reflection" to "question a present riddled with profound wounds, paradoxes, and ambiguities, but also with resources" that push us to explore a concept of peace that is "different, not only as the absence of conflict but above all as the presence of justice." These were the words with which Laura Gobbi, Director General of the University of the Republic of San Marino, introduced the conference that on December 4th at the Teatro Titano brought together academics, activists, artists, and others to reflect on one of the most pressing and sensitive issues of the moment.
At the urging of Rector Corrado Petrocelli, the University of San Marino has embraced a vocation that attributes to academic institutions "a specific and valuable task," Gobbi explained, "as a place for developing critical and original thought, where dialogue between cultures can be promoted, building bridges and paths of shared existence and responsibility."
These considerations were echoed by Luigi Guerra, director of the Department of Human Sciences at the University of San Marino: "Peace is not the absence of war, just as health is not the absence of disease," he stated. "It is a constantly evolving project and cannot be achieved once and for all." The activities developed to "keep war at bay," according to the academic, must be combined with a vision of "peace as encounter, dialogue, and the co-presence of diverse inspirations and feelings." Culturally, it is "an infinite project, because the differences and efforts required to peacefully coexist with different ways of feeling, seeing, loving, and eating are infinite."
The twelve presentations that characterized the initiative, entitled "Thinking about Peace – Interdisciplinary Perspectives," can now be listened to in full in a series of podcasts curated by Usmaradio and available free online.