Special Edition of the International Summer School of Latin American Studies 

June 2018 in Belgrade and Novi Sad 

  

The special edition of the project International Summer School of Latin American Studies took place in Belgrade and Novi Sad, on July 10-12. The main topic of the School´s 2018 edition was intercultural philosophy. The philosophical thread is the link that binds all of the School events, strengthening last year´s topics that were based on the search for utopia, the era of globalization and the Latin American identity. 

 

The speakers of the 2018 edition were: the guest of honor Raúl Fornet-Betancourt, Cuban philosopher, professor of philosophy at the University of Bremen; Dejan Mihailovic, professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus in Mexico City; Iva Cukic, co-founder of the Ministry of Space; Nemanja Dzuverovic, associate professor at the Department for Peace Studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. We also had the honour of having the professor Alexis Toribio Dantas with us, from the State University of Rio de Janeiro who contributed to the School’s programme with his comments on violence in Brazil. 

 

The lectures and round tables that were part of the Summer School are: 

 

  • Latin American Thought in Post-Globalization Era(round table):Raúl Fornet-Betancourt and Dejan Mihailovic
  • History and Tasks of Intercultural Philosophy in Latin America(lecture): RaúlFornet-Betancourt
  • Era of Violence: Latin American Perspective(round table): Nemanja Dzuverovic, Iva Cukic, Dejan Mihailovic
  • Intercultural Philosophy: Philosophy for a Better Human Coexistence(lecture):Raúl Fornet-Betancourt 

The activities of the special edition of the Summer School took place at the Cervantes Institute, where we opened this year’s edition with a round table. In addition to the Cervantes Institute, the Institute of European Studies opened its doors to the public for the lecture History and Tasks of Intercultural Philosophy in Latin America and the Delfi bookshop was the place where the round table dedicated to violence took place. In Novi Sad, we had the pleasure of participating in the workshop of assistant professor Bojana Kovacevic Petrovic about translation, at the Faculty of Philosophy of Novi Sad, and we concluded the programme in the cultural centre Matica Srpskawhere we finished this year’s edition with the lecture delivered by Raúl Fornet-Betancourt. 

 

Institutional support grows more every dayThe insitutions that supported us last year: Institute of European Studies, Cervantes Institute, Yugoslav Association of Latin Americanists, Andrzej Dembicz Foundation, Faculty of Philology of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy of Novi Sad, Alternaktivawe have also added new insitutions: Embassy of Brazil, Mediterran Publishing, Peruvian Super Foods, Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb, Institut zur interdisziplinären und interkulturellen Erforschung and Jungle Tribe. Institutional support is one of the signs of the project importance and its size in this region. 

 

Another important factor that underlines the efforts and significance of the development of Latin American studies in Serbia is the presence of our guest of honor in the media. Three interviews were published (Politika, Danas and Vecernje novosti) and two television programs were broadcast (Oko magazin and Kulturni dnevnik), both of these programmes are part of the national television. 

 

The second edition of the Summer School was a success. We have been organizing an excellent project for two years, with exceptional speakers and current and important issues not only for Latin America, but also for us as a society, in order to build bridges between the Latin American region and the Balkans, find solutions to current problems and learn to develop critical thinking, and act with responsibility, especially in the ethical, economic and social crises in which the world finds itself.