The international conference Conflict Resolution and Interreligious Encounter, which took place on 5-8 September and was jointly organised by the the Von Hügel Institute (VHI) and the Wasatia Graduate School at the European University of Flensburg (EUF), provided a fertile ground to discuss possible forms of institutional cooperation between the two institutions.
After the conference, Prof Dr Ulrich Glassman, EUF Vice-President for Europe and International Affairs, explained that the aim of this event was “research collaboration on questions of justice and reconciliation, political ethics and interreligious dialogue as represented by the European Wasatia Graduate School for Peace and Conflict Resolution” and that “we would very much like to expand this collaboration institutionally”, thanks especially to the extensive work of Prof Ralf Wüstenberg, Senior Research Associate at the VHI.
Dr Vittorio Montemaggi, Director of the VHI, is delighted to welcome this collaboration which aims to offer researchers, especially young academics, the opportunity to use a unique interdisciplinary environment provided by both institutions to benefit their research projects. Doctoral students and academics could visit Flensburg University or St Edmund’s College and connect with experts on relevant areas of expertise. The aim is to have an open form of encounter to allow scholarly exchange in fruitful academic environment without strict regulations. For example, a group of doctoral students from the Wasatia Doctoral College at the EUF travelled to St Edmund’s College to attend this conference: the doctoral college, funded by the BMBF and cooperating with the Maecenata Foundation, brings together Israeli, Palestinian, Albanian, Irish and German doctoral students as well as professors from the European University of Flensburg. In Cambridge they discussed questions of religion and conflict with Jewish, Muslim and Christian members from Cambidge Divinity Faculty. “We focussed our discussion particularly on the topic of interreligious tolerance through the dialogical model of scriptural reasoning favoured in Cambridge. The aim of this model is to methodically train participants in the empathetic perception of the interpretation of the three holy scriptures: the Hebrew Bible, the Koran and the New Testament”, explained Dr Zeina Barakat, the conference co-organiser.
Photo, from left: Prof Ralf Wüstenberg (VHI and Wasatia Graduate School), Prof. Dr. Ulrich Glassmann (EUF Vice-President for Europe and International Affairs), Catherine Arnold (Master of St Edmund’s College) and Dr Zeina Barakat (VHI and Wasatia Graduate School). Photo credit Tristan Selden
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