The Summit will be composed of seven panels, three moments of "Conversation with...", two keynote speeches, and several cultural breaks.

For the Opening Session we are honoured to have Manuel Heitor, Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Graça Fonseca, Portuguese Minister for Culture, Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Michael Murphy, Chair of the European University Association, and António de Sousa Pereira, Rector of the University of Porto.

• Manuel Heitor

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    Manuel Heitor is the current Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, a role he has occupied since 2015. He is also a Research Fellow for Texas University, in Austin, and has been involved in the promotion of the European Network “step4EU, science, technology, education and policy for Europe”. Prior to this, he was Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education between 2005 and 2011, actively working towards increasing public and private financing for science and technology activities, as well as in the reform and modernization of higher education. He was a Visiting Professor at Harvard University between 2011 and 2012, and co-president of the Instituto Superior Técnico between 1993 and 1998, as well as being a Professor at the same institution.

    Manuel Heitor has a Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. He has a doctorate in the same area from Imperial College, London, and a post-doctorate from University of California, in San Diego.

• Graça Fonseca

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    Graça Fonseca is the current Portuguese Minister for Culture, a role she has occupied since 2018. Prior to that, she served as Secretary of State Assistant and of Administrative Modernisation (2015-2018). In 2005, she took on the role of head of cabinet to the Minister for State, Internal Administration, and Justice until 2008, and served as co-Director of Legislative Politics and Planning at the Ministry of Justice (2000-2001). She was also an alderman for the Municipality of Lisbon, responsible for Economics, Innovation, Education, and Administrative Reform (2009-2015), and researcher in Social Studies (1996-2000) at the University of Coimbra.

    Graça Fonseca holds a Law Degree from the University of Lisbon, a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Coimbra, and a PhD in Sociology from the University Institute of Lisbon.

• Mariya Gabriel

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    Mariya Gabriel was appointed as Bulgaria’s European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth in 2019, under the administration of President Ursula von der Leyen. Prior to that, she was the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society (2017-2019), Member of the European Parliament (2009-2017), and Vice-President of the EPP Group in the European Parliament. She was also appointed as Vice-President of the EPP Women, a role she maintains in the present. At the start of her professional carreer, she was a teaching and research assistant at the Institut d'études Politiques de Bordeaux (Institute of Political Studies) in Bordeaux (France).

    Mariya graduated in Bulgarian and French languages at the Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski" in 2001, and continued her studies at the Institut d'études Politiques de Bordeaux in Bordeaux, where she studied International Relations, History of the European Institutions, Political Sociology and Comparative Politics. She holds a Master’s Degree in ‘Comparative Politics and International Relations’ from the Institut d'études Politiques de Bordeaux.

• Michael Murphy

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    Michael Murphy is President of the European University Association. Over the years, he has held a variety of leadership roles, such as President of UCC, Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Ireland, Chair of the Health Research Board of Ireland, Chair of the Irish Universities Association, and Chair of the Permanent Working Group (PWG) of European Hospital Doctors. As a past member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the US National Dairy Council, he has been active in many academic organisations both in Europe and in the USA. At the start of his professional career, he held faculty positions in Pharmacology and Medicine at the University of Chicago. He then returned to Cork in 1992 as a Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

    Michael Murphy graduated in Medicine from University College Cork. He did his postgraduate training in Dublin and at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London. He received his doctorate from the National University of Ireland.

• António de Sousa Pereira

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    António Sousa Pereira has been Rector of the University of Porto since 2018 and President of the Portuguese Rectors Association since 2020. He is a member of the National Council of Ethics for Life Sciences elected by the Assembly of the Republic, as well as Vice President of the Strategic Council of the Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Porto, member of the Board of Directors of the Centro Académico Clínico ICBAS / Centro Hospitalar do Porto and of the Strategic Council of the Centro Hospitalar de Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho. Among the positions he held he was also President of the National Board of Education and Medical Education of the Order of Physicians, consultant to the Government of the Dominican Republic for the evaluation of the Reform of Medical Schools (2016- 2017), and member of the Board of Directors of ORPHEUS – Organization of PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in European System (2013-2016)

    António Sousa Pereira is a Graduate, Master, and Doctor in Medicine, having been granted all these degrees by the University of Porto.

Keynote Speakers:

• Alberto Manguel, anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, editor

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    Alberto Manguel is an Argentinian anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist and editor. He is the former Director of the National Library of Argentina, as well as author of numerous non-fiction books. Some of his most well-known non-fiction books include The Dictionary of Imaginary Places (co-written with Gianni Guadalupi in 1980), A History of Reading (1996), The Library at Night (2007) and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey: A Biography (2008). He has also written several novels, the first of which, News From a Foreign Country Came, won the McKitterick Prize in 1992. Manguel has over twenty years of experience editing literary anthologies, with genres ranging from erotica and queer narratives to fantasy and mystery.

    Manguel has gone on to win 20 awards from several countries throughout his career, for novels, translations, short stories, and literary criticism, among others.

• Jane Pickering, Director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology – Harvard University, USA

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    Jane Pickering was appointed as the William and Muriel Seabury Howells Director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology in 2019. Prior to that she was the Executive Director of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, a partnership of six museums. She has thirty years’ experience working in university museums, including administrative positions at MIT and Yale. During her career she has focused on the unique opportunities available to university museums for public engagement, through multiple exhibition projects and informal education initiatives. In 2016 she was appointed by President Obama to the National Museum and Library Services Board.

    Jane has an MA degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK, an MS degree in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester, UK, and is an Associate of the U.K. Museums Association. She is also an alumna of the Getty Leadership Program’s Museum Management Institute.

A Conversation with...

• Elisa Ferreira, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms

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    Elisa Ferreira was appointed as European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms in 2019, under the administration of President Ursula von der Leyen, being the first Portuguese woman to take on the role of EU Commissioner. Prior to that, she served as vice-governor of the Bank of Portugal (2016-2019), and as a Member of the European Parliament (2004-2016). During her time in Parliament, she was a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. She was also a Member of the Portuguese Parliament (2001-2004), Minister for Planning (1999-2001), and Minister for the Environment (1995-1999) in the government of António Guterres. Before entering politics, she was a professor of Economics at the University of Porto and vice-President of the CCDR-N.

    Elisa holds a Degree in Economics from the University of Porto, as well as a Master’s and a PhD – also in Economics – from the University of Reading, UK.

• Rui Moreira, Mayor of the City of Porto

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    Rui Moreira has been the Mayor of Porto since 2013, having been re-elected in 2017 as an independent candidate. Prior to that, he was elected President of the Associação Comercial do Porto (Porto Commercial Association) from 2001 to 2013. Rui has also been a political commentator for television stations, as well as writing chronicles for the press, taking on an active role in highlighting and defending the interests of the Northern Portugal Region and the city of Porto. He has taken on several consulting roles in commerce, culture, and high education teaching, both at the University of Porto and at Universidade Católica.

    Rui Moreira holds a Degree in Business from London’s University of Greenwich (1978), having graduated top of his class.

• Chair: Miguel Sousa Tavares, journalist and author – Portugal

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    Miguel Sousa Tavares is a journalist and political commentator for SIC (Portuguese television station). Having begun his professional career as a lawyer, he entered the world of journalism in 1978, when he made his debut as a presenter on a television programme. Since then, he has published chronicles in many newspapers, from Público (for 12 years) to the sports newspaper A Bola, as well as Máxima magazine and online Diário Digital. He currently writes for the newspaper Expresso. He has taken on roles as director of the Sábado magazine, and later helped establish the weekly magazine Grande Reportagem, of which he was director for ten years. He has presented countless television programmes and debates, as well as participated as political commentator for television networks. He won the Victor Cunha Rego Prize for Journalism and Communication in 2007.

    Miguel Sousa Tavares holds a Degree in Law from the University of Lisbon.

• Daniel Innerarity, professor, philosopher, and essayist – University of the Basque Country, Spain

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    Daniel Innerarity is a professor of Political and Social Philosophy, Ikerbasque researcher at the University of the Basque Country, Directeur d'Études Associé de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, and Director of the Instituto de Gobernanza Democrática. Prior to that, he was fellow of the Fundación Alexander von Humboldt at the University of Munich, visiting professor at the University of Paris Sorbonne, visiting professor at the Robert Schuman Centre in the European University Institute of Florence, and visiting fellow in the London School of Economics and Political Science.

    He was awarded the III Miguel de Unamuno Essay Prize, the 2003 National Literature Prize in the Essay category, the 2004 Espasa Essay Prize and the 2012 Euskadi Essay Prize in 2008. He has also received the Prize for Humanities, Culture, Arts and Social Sciences from the Basque Studies Society/Eusko Ikaskuntza in 2008, and the Príncipe de Viana Culture Prize 2013.

Hosts

• Fátima Vieira, Vice-Rector for Culture – University of Porto, Portugal

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    Fátima Vieira is Vice-Rector for Culture of the University of Porto since 2018. She is the Director of the Museum for Natural History and Science and the Chair of Fundação Marques da Silva and Casa-Museu Abel Salazar. She is the coordinator of the University of Porto's branch of CETAPS – Centre for English, Translation and Anglo-Portuguese Studies, where she is the leader of the research group “Mapping Utopianisms”; she has coordinated several research projects in the field of Utopian Studies and was the Chair of the Utopian Studies Society/Europe from 2006 to 2016. In 2013, the American and Canadian association Society for Utopian Studies selected Fátima Vieira as a recipient of the Larry E. Hough Distinguished Service Award.

    She is Associate Professor (with “Agregação”) at Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, where she has been teaching since 1986. She has got her Doctoral degree in 1998, with a thesis on William Morris and the British Utopian Literary tradition.

• Paulo Pires do Vale, Commissioner of the National Arts Plan, Portugal

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    Paulo Pires do Vale is the Commissioner of the National Arts Plan, essayist, and curator, and also President of the International Association of Art Critics – Portugal. He teaches at Universidade Católica Portuguesa and at Escola Superior de Educadores de Infância Maria Ulrich. He has contributed to many magazines, books, and exhibition catalogues, and curated many exhibitions at different institutions throughout Europe.

    Paulo Pires do Vale has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s in Philosophy from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the Nova University in Lisbon.

Panels

• Panel 1. Democratic access to heritage, artistic expressions and experiences

  • It is essential that the higher education system does not replicate the social and economic inequalities that dominate the world outside academia. Higher education institutions must provide access to and raise awareness about the Arts to those who would not ordinarily visit museums or art exhibitions. They must also be responsible for introducing students to new worlds, aesthetic sensibilities and worldviews; and for creating spaces for artistic experimentation.

    The Arts should not be seen as a supplement but as inherent to university training. Democratic access to higher education needs to go beyond providing students with equal opportunities for specialised training and include democratic access to the Arts. Only in this way will Europe be able to neutralise the social and economic drivers of inequality.

    
    
    

    The objective of this panel is to map good practices of democratic access to heritage, artistic discourses and artistic experiences and identify the most important actors in the process.

    
    
    

    Key questions:

    1. What consistent cultural policies for generalised artistic projects in higher education institutions are being implemented across EU countries?

    2. What instruments are being used for the implementation of those projects?

    3. How are students’ encounters with contemporary artistic discourses being promoted?

    4. What are the most prominent outcomes of those projects?

    5. How are the projects being assessed?

    
    
    

    Chair:

  • João Bettencourt Relvas, researcher in Neuroscience – University of Porto, Portugal

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      João Bettencourt Relvas is a research neuroscientist working at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S) of the University of Porto. He heads the Glial Cell Biology lab, the Integrative Program in Neurobiology and Neurological Disorders, and is a member of the Board of Directors. He is also Invited Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine. Although his interests center in the neurosciences, he has roamed through areas of interface between Science and the Humanities, being particularly interested in the promotion of interdisciplinarity as an engine of educational, institutional and societal change. As a result, over the last 10 years he has organized and participated in many exhibitions, conferences and debates bringing together science, arts and humanities inside and outside of the university.

      João Bettencourt Relvas conducted his doctoral studies at the Universities of London and Lisbon (1992-1997), post-doctoral work at the University of Cambridge, UK (1997-2002), and was a junior group leader and lecturer on Neurobiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), CH (2002-2008).

  
  

  Speakers:

  • Ralph Dekoninck, Rector's advisor for cultural affairs – Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium

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      Ralph Dekoninck is full Professor of early modern art history at the Université catholique de Louvain, co-director of the Centre for Early Modern Cultural Analysis (GEMCA) and member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. His research focuses on early modern image theories and practices, specifically in their relation to spirituality, on Baroque festival culture, on the relationships between art and liturgy, as well as on the iconography of martyrdom.  As Rector’s advisor for cultural affairs at the Université Catholique de Louvain, he has developed in this university an ambitious cultural policy, with the aim to place culture at the heart of the university’s three main missions: teaching, research and service to society.

      This policy takes in particular the form of a new program in « research-creation » aiming at encouraging encounters and crossovers between the arts and sciences.

  • John Clammer, professor, sociologist, and author – Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, India

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      Prof. (Dr.) John Clammer is Professor of Sociology at the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University, India. Prior to that he was Professor of Comparative Sociology and Asian Studies at Sophia University, Tokyo and then professor and advisor to the Rector at the United Nations University. He has taught and researched all around the world and has held regular or visiting posts at Oxford, Weimar, Australian National University, Buenos Aires, Pondicherry, Singapore and Warwick. He currently works mainly on the interface of culture and development, the sociology of the arts, and issues of sustainability, but in the course of his career has roamed through just about every area of sociology and anthropology.

      John Clammer has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Lancaster, as well as a Master’s and a PhD in Philosophy, both from the University of Oxford.

  • Carlinda Leite, Emeritus Professor, Education Sciences – University of Porto, Portugal

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      Carlinda Leite is Emeritus Professor at the University of Porto, and Invited Full Professor within the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences (FPCEUP), where from 2005 to 2007 and from 2009 to 2010 she served as Head. Currently, she is President of the Research Ethics Committee and researcher at the Centre of Research and Intervention in Education of the University of Porto (CIIE), co-leading the research community of practice 'Curriculum, Evaluation, Teacher Education and Educational Technologies' (CAFTe). She has been acting as Chair of the evaluation and accreditation process for BA, MA and doctoral programmes in the Education field and Teacher Education courses, convened by the National Accreditation Agency (A3ES). She directs research focused on curriculum studies, educational policies, evaluation and quality of education, learning assessment, teacher education, school improvement, innovative teaching and learning as well as digital competencies and inclusion, and the promotion of equity in education.

  • Artur Santos Silva, cultural administrator – Portugal

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      Artur Santos Silva is the President of the General Council of the University of Porto, as well as a member of the Administrative Council of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (of which he was President between 2012 and 2017), member of the Consulting Council of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto, and member of the General Council of Porto Business School. Prior to this, he was a member of the Council of the Serralves Foundation, as well as President of the Administrative Council for Porto – European Culture Capital 2001, and President of the General Council of the Coimbra University. He was also vice-governor of the Bank of Portugal (1977-1978). He began his professional career as director of the Banco Português do Atlântico and went on to fund BPI bank in 2981, presiding at its Council from 2004.

      Artur Santos Silva has a Law Degree from the University of Coimbra, and frequented the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University, USA. In 2010 he was conferred the title of Doctor honoris causa by the University of Porto.

  • Ina Druviete, Vice-Rector of the Humanities and Educational Sciences – University of Latvia

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      Ina Druviete has been the Vice-Rector of the Humanities and Educational Sciences in the University of Latvia since 2015, and a professor of General Linguistics since 1997. Prior to that, she was the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia in 2004-2006 and 2014. She is also a researcher in the Latvian Language Institute of the University of Latvia since 1992, and a Member of the Latvian Parliament since 2002. She has published over 300 publications on themes ranging from linguistics and sociolinguistics to language policy.

  • Luís Ceríaco, biologist, historian of science, museologist – Museum of Natural History and Science, University of Porto, Portugal

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      Luis Ceríaco is the head of collections and research of the Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto. Prior to that he was a post-doctoral researcher in several North American museums and Universities. He conducts research in history of science, museology and biodiversity, and works in close partnership with colleagues and museums from African Portuguese Speaking Countries (PALOP). As a biologist he has described more than two dozen new species to science and is continuously training a next generation of museum and biodiversity researchers in Portugal and Africa. Luis Ceríaco has a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science – Museology from the University of Évora, and has authored more than 80 scientific publications.

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• Panel 2. The Arts as a strategy: Paying attention to the Other

  • Culture is the window through which we see the world and which frames our idea of development. It is the vision that binds us together – and it is part of the solution to the problems the EU is experiencing today.

    Higher education institutions are spaces for growth where students’ potential is unlocked with the best learning and research opportunities. But they also need to be spaces of inspiration and enthusiasm for life in community, collaboration, celebration of diverse cultures and perspectives, and awareness that we are all connected and share responsibility for the society to which we belong.

    
    
    

    The objective of this panel is to discuss how the Arts develop attention and empathy for the Other, fostering a cultural identity based on the appreciation for the diversity of the human experience.

    
    
    

    Key questions:

    1. What consistent cultural policies are being implemented to foster higher education students’ intercultural competences?

    2. What instruments do we need to favour a polycentric cultural policy that does not overlook the art of the Other and that deconstructs the idea of the Other?

    3. How can we enrich the ERASMUS + Exchange Programme with cultural and artistic activities?

    4. How can higher education institutions assert themselves as spaces for the creation of peace narratives, capable of contradicting and replacing violent narratives of exclusion?

    5. How can we integrate an accessibility policy into cultural policies?

    Chair:

  • Rui Carvalho Homem, professor – University of Porto, Portugal

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      Rui Carvalho Homem is Professor of English at the Department of Anglo-American Studies, Faculty of Arts, Universidade do Porto (University of Oporto), Portugal. He has published widely on Early Modern English drama, Irish studies, translation, and word-and-image studies. He is also a literary translator, and has published versions of Shakespeare (Antony and Cleopatra, Richard III and Love’s Labour’s Lost), Christopher Marlowe, Seamus Heaney and Philip Larkin.

  
  

  Speakers:

  • Richard Kearney, professor, author, and editor – Boston College, USA

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      Richard Kearney is the Charles Seelig Professor in Philosophy at Boston College and has taught at University College Dublin, the Sorbonne, the University of Nice, and the Australian Catholic University. He is the author of 23 books on European philosophy and literature (including two novels and a volume of poetry) and has edited or co-edited over 20 more. He was formerly a member of the Arts Council of Ireland, the Higher Education Authority of Ireland and chairman of the Irish School of Film at University College Dublin. He is also a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

      Richard Kearney holds a Bachelor’s Degree from University College Dublin. He completed a Master’s Degree at McGill University in 1976, and then completed his Ph.D. at University of Paris X: Nanterre. He corresponded with Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida and other French philosophers of the era.

  • Madalena Victorino, choreographer and dance teacher – Portugal

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      Madalena Victorino works as a choreographer and dance pedagogue, being heavily engaged in community arts and theatre. She is currently the Cultural Co-Programmer and Artistic Co-Director of Lavrar o Mar. She choreographed the opening of the Galway Arts Festival in Ireland (1994) and of the Freia Festival, Arhus, in Denmark (1995). In 1991 she co-founded Fórum Dança, a cultural non-profit organisation that promotes dance in the areas of education, investigation, choreography, interpretation, and artistic production. This is a project she is still engaged in, teaching choreographic composition.

      Madalena Victorino studied contemporary dance at the London School of Contemporary Dance from 1975 to 1977, and got her teaching Degree from Goldsmith’s College 1, Laban Centre for Movement and Dance, University of London, in 1980.

  • Adessa Zadia, Culture and Education Policy Assistant – Erasmus Student Network, Brussels, Belgium

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      Adessa Zadia is the current Culture and Education Policy Assistant at the Erasmus Student Network in Brussels, Belgium. Prior to that, she interned as English Language Teacher in Italy, and as Kindergarten Teaching Assistant in Greece. She was also Education Officer (2018), and Local Vice President (2019) for the Greek Erasmus Network.

      Adessa Zadia has two Bachelor’s Degrees, one in Education and Human Sciences from the University of Moderna and Reggio Emilia, and another in Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education.

  • Ana Luísa Amaral, poet, essayist, professor – University of Porto, Portugal

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      Ana Luísa Amaral is a poet, translator and essayist. Her books are published in several countries, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Venezuela, Mexico, or Colombia. She has translated the poetry of Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, John Updike or Louise Gluck. She was awarded several distinctions and prizes in Portugal and abroad. Her last books are What’s in a Name, NY, New Directions, 2019, Ágora, Assírio & Alvim, 2019 and Was ist ein Name, Berlin, Hanser Verlag, 2020. A collection of essays on her poetry is about to come out in the UK. She is a retired professor from the University of Porto where she developed her academic research around Comparative Poetics, Feminist and Queer Studies. In that capacity, she has coordinated international projects and belonged until recently to the Board of Directors of the Institute for Comparative Literature Margarida Losa, where she coordinated the research line “Intersexualities”. She has edited several academic books, such as Dicionário da Crítica Feminista (2005), or New Portuguese Letters to the World (Peter Lang, 2015).

  • Borna Nemet, Human Rights and Solidarity Coordinator – European Students’ Union, Zagreb, Croatia

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      Borna Nemet is the current Human Rights and Solidarity Coordinator at ESU. Prior to that, he served in CSC as well as other student organizations in Croatia, working mostly in the area of International policies and the assurance and improvement of student rights. His expertise is in fields of international cooperation, establishing trust networks and the support throughout southeast Europe students´ organizations. 

  • Nuno Cardoso, Artistic Director – Teatro Nacional São João, Porto, Portugal

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      Nuno Cardoso is an actor and artistic director, currently heading the Teatro Nacional de São João (TNSJ), in Porto. He was one of the founders of the Visões Úteis collective (1994), and between 1998 and 2003 he worked in the artistic directing of the Carlos Alberto National Auditory. He carried on coordinating the programming for the Carlos Alberto Theatre until 2007. Since then he is the artistic director of Ao Cabo Teatro. At TNSJ, he has headed several productions, such as Büchner’s Woyzeck (2005), and Tchékhov’s Platónov (2008). Many other productions have been presented and coproduced by TNSJ over the years, such as Shakespeare’s Coriolano (2004), and Gorki’s Veraneantes (2007). Parallel to this, he has developed theatre productions with charitable community outcomes and/or developed with non-professionals, for instance PRJ. X. Oresteia, at the Paços de Ferreira Prison Establishment (2001); R2, interpreted by youth from the Cova da Moura burgh (2007) or Porto S. Bento, with residents from the historical centre of Porto (2012).

      Nuno Cardoso has a Law Degree from the University of Coimbra, and has received the SPA Autores Prize 2016 for Best Production for his work on Lars Norén’s Demónios.

  • Alfredo Jaar, artist, architect, photographer and filmmaker

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      Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect, and filmmaker who has realized more than seventy public interventions around the world. Over sixty monographic publications have been published about his work. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow since 1985 and a MacArthur Fellow since 2000. He received the Hiroshima Art Prize in 2018 and the Hasselblad Award in 2020. He has participated in the Biennales of Venice (1986, 2007, 2009, 2013), Sao Paulo (1987, 1989, 2010, 2020) as well as Documenta in Kassel (1987, 2002). Some of his most important individual exhibitions include The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1992); Whitechapel, London (1992); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1994); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1995) and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome (2005).

      His work can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum, New York; Art Institute of Chicago and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; MOCA and LACMA, Los Angeles; MASP, Museu de Arte de São Paulo; TATE, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centro Reina Sofia, Madrid; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; MAXXI and MACRO, Rome; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlaebeck; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Japan; M+, Hong Kong; and dozens of institutions and private collections worldwide.

  • Susan Meiselas, documentary photographer – Magnum Foundation

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      Susan Meiselas has been a MacArthur Fellow since 1992 and President of the Magnum Foundation since its founding in 2007. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Acumen Fund and the Vera List Center for Arts and Culture in New York. She is best known for her coverage of the insurrection in Nicaragua and her extensive documentation of human rights issues in Latin America. She has had one-woman exhibitions in Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, and her work is included in collections around the world. She has received the Robert Capa Gold Medal for her work in Nicaragua (1979); the Leica Award for Excellence (1982); the Engelhard Award from the Institute of Contemporary Art (1985); the Hasselblad Foundation Photography prize (1994); the Cornell Capa Infinity Award (2005); the Harvard Arts Medal (2011), Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), and most recently the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (2019).

      Susan Meiselas holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA in visual education from Harvard University.

  • Lydia Matthews, writer, curator, educator, activist – Parsons School of Design

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      Lydia Matthews is a critical writer, contemporary art curator, educator and cultural activist who currently serves as Professor of Visual Culture in the Fine Arts program of Parsons School of Design, and Director of the Curatorial Design Research Lab at The New School. She taught for 17 years at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, having co-founded and chaired the graduate program in Visual Critical Studies and co-directed the MFA program in Fine Arts, which launched the first MFA program in Social Practice in the United States in 2005. From 2007-2012, she served as Dean of Academic Programs at Parsons, and in 2011 she launched the Curatorial Design Research Lab (CDRL) across The New School.

      Lydia Matthews trained as a contemporary art historian at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of London’s Courtauld Institute. Thus far, she has been invited to design curatorial ventures in New York, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and the Czech Republic. Her work has been recognized through various grants and fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, CEC Artslink, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Emre Senan Foundation, among others, and supported through international artist and critic-in-residence programs in Italy, Turkey, and Georgia.

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• Panel 3. A scientific and artistic worldview

  • The cultural ambition of the University cannot be separated from its scientific and technological endeavours. Cultural policies need to be transversal to training and research policies, embracing the problems science and technologies are trying to solve. The integration of different tools offered by both science and the arts, as well as the variety of methods they gather, is indispensable for the production of new and significant knowledge.

    On the one hand, this panel acknowledges the Arts’ capacity to transform society, train reflexive and critical minds, and infuse scientific and technological training with the conviction that there is always another way of looking at things and awareness of the ethical limits imposed on scientific freedom. On the other hand, it declares the urgency of providing students with a scientific culture based on evidence and basic knowledge of disparate disciplines’ findings.

    
    
    

    The objective of the panel is to discuss the benefits of promoting, at higher education institutions, a culture at once scientific and artistic - a common creative culture.

    
    
    

    Key questions:

    1. How can the arts advance science?

    2. How can culture promote a transdisciplinary vision of knowledge?

    3. How can we get students interested in peripheral knowledge?

    4. How can the arts contribute to solving problems science and technology are dealing with, such as the causes and consequences of climate change or the pandemic situation we are experiencing today?

    5. How can the arts contribute to the preservation of scientific and technological heritage?

    
    

    Chair:

    • Peter Hanenberg, Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation – Universidade Católica Portuguesa

      • 

        Peter Hanenberg is the current Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation at Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP), as well as Director of Católica Doctoral School (CADOS). He is also member of the Research Centre for Communication and Culture (CECC) which he coordinated between 2012 and 2020, and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Human Sciences (FCH) since 2006. Prior to that, he was Vice-dean of FCH (2016-2019), and President of the Portuguese German Studies Association (APEG) between 2006 and 2010. His research is dedicated to European literature and culture since the 16th century, the idea of Europe and its representation as well as the intersection of Cognitive Sciences and Cultural Studies.

        Peter Hanenberg holds a Master’s Degree in German Studies and Philosophy from the University of Bamberg, Germany, and a PhD in Modern Languages and Literatures also from the University of Bamberg.

    
    

    Speakers:

  • Renato Janine Ribeiro, professor, political scientist, author – University of São Paulo, Brazil

    • 

      Renato Janine Ribeiro is a professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences, University of São Paulo. He is also a columnist for the Valor Econômico newspaper. In 2015 he was named Minister of Education of Brazil in the cabinet of Dilma Rousseff. He received the Jabuty Prize in Literature (2001) for his piece "A Sociedade Contra o Social", and was decorated with the National Order for Scientific Method (1998), as well as the Rio Branco Order (2009).

      Renato Ribeiro holds a Degree in Philosophy from the University of São Paulo, a Master’s from the University of Paris (Sorbonne), and a PhD from the University of São Paulo. His PhD thesis became a published book, among the many that he has authored.

  • Rosalia Vargas, President of Ciência Viva – National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture, Portugal

    • 

      Rosalia Vargas is President of Ciência Viva – National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture, and of the Pavilion of Knowledge, a large science centre. She is also responsible for implementing Ciência Viva Centres around the country. She has been a member of the National Education Council since 2006. Prior to this, she participated as a specialist on the Benchmarking Study on Scientific Culture for the European Commission (2002), and was member of the Board of ECSITE – European Network of Science Centres and Museums (from 2001 to 2007). She was also member of the International Programme Committee of 5th Science Centre World Congress 2008, and was councilwoman for Education, Youth, and Culture at the Lisbon Municipality from 2007 to 2009.

      Rosalia Vargas holds a Degree in Philosophy from the University of Porto, a Master’s in Communication and Education Multimedia from the Universidade Aberta, Lisbon, and a PhD in the same field from the Higher School of Education (Polytechnic Institute of Santarém).

  • Angelos Agalianos, Senior Policy Officer – European Commission, Brussels

    • 

      Angelos Agalianos works in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture since 2006. Between 2006 and 2016, he worked mainly on education inequalities. Between 2017 and 2020 he worked for the Jean Monnet Activities promoting the need to teach about the European Union in all levels of education. Since 2020, he works in the Culture Policy Unit of the same Directorate-General. Between 1998 and 2006, he worked in the Directorate-General for Research of the European Commission, where he was co-responsible for European research policy in the social sciences and for the monitoring of education-related European research projects.

      Angelos Agalianos holds a PhD in the Sociology of Education from the University of London Institute of Education.

  • Paola Spinozzi, professor – University of Ferrara, Italy

    • 

      Paola Spinozzi is Professor of English Literature at the University of Ferrara. Her current research focuses on the ecological humanities, ecocriticism and sustainability; post/apocalyptic and climate fiction, nature poetry and eco-theatre; representations of (un)sustainable societies, anthropogenic phenomena, resilience, adaptation, regeneration (Cultures of Sustainability and Wellbeing: Theories, Histories, Policies, ed. with M. Mazzanti, 2018). She is the coordinator of the International PhD programme in Environmental Sustainability and Wellbeing and the co-coordinator of the Routes towards Sustainability International Network. She also researches utopia as a genre in relation to art and aesthetics, imperialism, racism, Darwinism, and the post/apocalypse (Histoire transnationale de l’utopie littéraire et de l’utopisme, ed. with V. Fortunati and R. Trousson, 2008); literary representations of scientific theories (Discourses and Narrations in the Biosciences, ed. with B. Hurwitz, 2011); literature and the visual arts (Sopra il reale. Osmosi interartistiche nel Preraffaellitismo e nel Simbolismo inglese, 2005; The Germ. Origins and Progenies of Pre-Raphaelite Interart Aesthetics, with E. Bizzotto, 2012).

  • Pedro Rodrigues, Vice-Rector for Research, Internationalization and Innovation – University of Porto, Portugal

    • 

      Pedro Rodrigues is the Vice-Rector for Research, Innovation and Internationalization of the University of Porto since 2018. He is Associate Professor at the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute of University of Porto (ICBAS-UP), where he teaches Immunology, Pathology and Parasitology. He is also member of the Health Research and Innovation Institute (i3S-UP) where he coordinates the “Iron and Innate Immunity” research group. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the i3S-UP and Vice-Director of the Molecular and Cell Biology Institute (IBMC-UP) until 2018. His research is dedicated to the study of the interaction between the immune system and iron metabolism. Understanding the function of genes that play a dual role in iron metabolism and immune response to infection is his main scientific interest.

      He holds a Master’s Degree in Immunology from University of Porto (project carried out at the Faculty of Medicine of the Free University of Amsterdam) and obtained in 1996 his Ph.D in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences from University of Wageningen, Netherlands.

  • Miguel Januário, intervention artist – Portugal

    • 

      Miguel Januário considers himself an activist-artist, currently working on the Mais Menos Project, which aims to interfere in the urban landscapes through his art.

      Miguel Januário has a Degree in Communication Design from the University of Porto and is also a doctorate in Design in the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto and a member of The Research Institute for Design, Media and Culture [ID+], specialising in the graffiti and street art areas.

  ---

• Panel 4. Integrating artistic experiences into the study plans of higher education institutions

  • The integration of the Arts into higher education study plans, fully accredited by competent bodies, contributes to enhancing the value of artistic education on campus and grants students the opportunity to develop cognitive capacities, self-confidence and motivation. Exposure to contemporary artistic discourses, in particular, offers an opening through which students may discover how they connect to the world.

    A consistent cultural policy requires systematic planning in keeping with a well-defined social project. It entails the definition of transversal topics, common practices, and evaluation procedures. The window to the implemen- tation of such a programme was opened by the European Commission, when it pledged to “promote music and the arts in education and training, including as a priority theme in Erasmus+ (2019), and promote the development of creativity oriented interdisciplinary modules in higher education institutions, combining arts, information and communication technology, entrepreneurial and business skills (2018)”. ³

    
    
    

    The objective of this panel is to discuss how a project of generalised artistic education for higher education students may be established, what goals to set, and what assessment tools to define.

    
    
    

    Key questions:

    1. What tools are needed for the implementation of a generalised programme of artistic education across EU countries, duly accredited and integrated into higher education study plans?

    2. How can we get the students interested in artistic experiences?

    3. What transversal topics should be defined?

    4. What immediate and long-term goals are to be set?

    5. How can we monitor the impact of a programme of generalised artistic education on students’ academic and professional lives?

    
    

    Chair:

  • Inês Câmara, Executive Committee member – Culture Action Europe, Brussels, Belgium

    • 

      Inês Câmara is a member of Culture Action Europe, and president of the “A Reserva” association, which is focused on global citizenship and community development through arts and heritage. She has been collaborating and coordinating projects on a global scale since 2010, financed by Creative Europe, Erasmus Mais, and Horizonte 2020. In 1999 she co-created Mapa das Ideias, a platform for creating transdisciplinary and holistic projects focused on culture, heritage, and citizenship, with Ana Fernambuco and Daniela Araújo. She was an assistant at the Tomar Polytechnic Institute and has a never-ending PhD project focused on museums and their importance.

  
  

  Speakers:

  • Fernando Leon Garcia, President-elect of the International Association of University Presidents

    • 

      Fernando León-García is the president-elect of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), and serves on several boards and/or advisory groups related to international higher education, accreditation, governance and institutional development including the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), Council of Presidents of the Association of Governing Boards (AGB), Commission on Internationalization/Global Engagement of the American Council on Education (ACE), Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), CONAHEC (Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration), Universia-Mexico and Mexican Federation of Private Universities (FIMPES). He has been president of CETYS University since 2010. Prior to that, he served as chancellor of City University of Seattle’s International Division, and before joining City University he served as chief academic officer of Apollo International/University of Phoenix International. From 1974 to 2000, he served in diverse capacities at CETYS including chief academic officer/ provost.

      Fernando León-García holds a doctorate in educational administration and policy analysis and a master's degree in international development education from Stanford University, as well as a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from CETYS University.

  • Marija Valentina Žuvić, Vice President of Network & Internal Affairs Director – AEGEE, European Students’ Forum, Brussels, Belgium

    • 

      Marija Valentina Žuvić is the current Vice-President of Network and Internal Affairs Director of AEGEE-Europe, the European Students’ Forum. Prior to that, she was a Network Commissioner at the same institution. She was also a part of the AEGEE in Zagreb, taking on roles of External Relations (2019), President (2018), and Secretary (2017).

      Marija Valentina Žuvić has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Zagreb.

  • Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor, professor and author – Penn State University, USA

    • 

      Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor is a professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) and English, as well as Director of Graduate Studies at Penn State University. Prior to this, she was a Professor and Associate Professor at the University of Memphis. She has published several articles in refereed journals, as well as books and book reviews and contributions, and has won an award from the Society for Utopian Studies, of which she is currently President.

      Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and Language from Yale University, and a PhD in English Literature from the same institution.

  • Peter Marks, professor and author – University of Sidney, Australia

    • 

      Peter Marks is an author and a professor currently teaching at the University of Sidney, Australia. Prior to this, he was a professor at the University of Hull. He has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh; at Clare Hall, Cambridge University; and at King’s College, London. At various times he has also been Chair of the Department of English. He has written four scholarly books, as well as critical studies, book chapters, and articles, and is particularly interested in relationships between literature and cinema, as well as between literature and politics; in periodical culture; in utopias, and in the literary and cinematic representation of surveillance.

      Peter Marks completed his combined Honours degree in English Literature and Political Science at UNSW, and his PhD in English at the University of Edinburgh. Painel 5

  • Alexandra Sá Costa, professor and researcher in Education – University of Porto, Portugal

    • 

      Alexandra Sá Costa is an Assistant Professor in the Educational Sciences Department at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. At the present, she is Subdirector of the Faculty and Director of the Master in Teaching Visual Arts for Teachers of the 3rd cycle of Basic Education and of Secondary Education. She teaches in the first degree in Educational Sciences, Master degree in Educational Sciences, Master degree in Teaching Visual Arts for Teachers of the 3rd cycle of Basic Education and of Secondary Education, Doctoral Program in Educational Sciences, and the PhD in Art Education. She is a full member of CIIE (Center for Research and Intervention in Education), where she co-coordinates the community of practice about Work, Education, Development and Social Movements. Her research interests focus on educational and social policies; education and development; policy assessment.

      Alexandra Sá Costa has a PhD in Educational Sciences from the University of Porto.

  
  

  Endnotes

  3. A New European Agenda for Culture, p. 6.

  ---

• Panel 5. The Museums at the heart of the University

  • University museums and other scientific, technological and cultural heritage organisations that belong to higher education institutions provide us with stories that are central to human life. These narratives bear witness to our interaction with the world and to scientific imaginaries that ultimately affect social imaginaries.

    It is time we go back to the idea of the museum as a public institution of knowledge, a rich source of resources and information, but also assert it as a platform for social innovation: museums may be used to celebrate diverse cultures and to promote a positive view on the relationship between humankind and nature that may go beyond the anthropocenic perspective. It is imperative that museums become part of life on campus, spaces of encounter simultaneously meant for learning, free movement of ideas and scientific and social imaginaries. On the other hand, it is required that museums share their collections online with open access, consistently contributing to the digital transformation of our society and strengthening the EU’s democratic policies.

    
    
    

    The objective of this panel is to discuss the role museums may play in the creation of a greener and more inclusive Union and the digital acceleration of our society.

    
    
    

    Key questions:

    1. How can we put museums at the heart of the University?

    2. How can museums contribute to fostering students’ scientific culture?

    3. How can we assert higher education museums as spaces that promote a positive relationship between human beings and with nature?

    4. What instruments do we need to preserve and fuel the dialogue between science, art and culture in higher education institutions?

    5. How can museums contribute to the digital acceleration of our society?

    Chair:

  • Nuno Ferrand, Director of the BIOPOLIS Association

    • 

      Nuno Ferrand is the Director of BIOPOLIS Association, as well as Scientific Coordinator of CIBIO-InBIO. He is also Full Professor at the Department of Biology of the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, where he teaches genetics and evolution. He is the Director of the Doctoral Program in Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution (BIODIV) organized by the University of Porto and Lisbon, funded by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT). He was the Director of the Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto until 2020, having been in charge of its refurbishment project, which led to the opening of the Hall of Biodiversity in 2017. He has organized several major exhibitions, including Darwin’s Evolution, Photo Ark, Cultures and Geographies, and A New Age of Exploration – 130 Years of National Geographic.

      Nuno Ferrand has published over 150 SCI papers, namely in Science, Nature Genetics, Molecular Biology and Evolution, PloS Genetics, Evolution, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Genetics, Molecular Ecology, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Heredity. He has co-authored over 15 books and book chapters, and edited over 10 books.

  
  

  Speakers:

  • Paul Smith, Director of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, UK

    • 

      Paul Smith is the Director of Oxford University Museum of Natural History and Professor of Natural History. He is also a Fellow of Kellogg College. Prior to that, he was Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Birmingham, head of the university's School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, as well as Director of the Lapworth Museum of Geology. He is Chair of the Publications Board of the Palaeontological Association.

      Paul Smith holds a BSc in Geology from the University of Leicester, and a PhD from the University of Nottingham. His PhD was followed by postdoctoral posts, working in Nottingham and Cambridge. He has over thirty years' experience of Arctic field expeditions and was awarded the Polar Medal in 2017.

  • Anna Omedes, Director of the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona – Barcelona, Spain

    • 

      Anna Omedes is the Director of the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona since 1999, and is the author of its Museological project. She is also project manager of the new site, the “Museu Blau”, and co-curator and coordinator of the 3,000 sqm Permanent Exhibition “Planet Life” (2011), as well as member of the board of ICOM NatHist and of the Steering Committee of the Ecsite Nature Group. Prior to this, she was member of the Executive Council of ICOM Spain between 2004 and 2010.

      Anna Omedes has a PhD in Animal Behaviour from the University College of Wales. She is author and editor of many articles and books on Museology and Bioacoustics. 

  • Nuno Faria, Director of the City Museum – Porto, Portugal

    • 

      Nuno Faria is a curator and the Artistic Director of the City Museum since 2020. Prior to this and until 2019 he was artistic director for the International Arts Centre José de Guimarães, in Guimarães. He lived and worked in Algarve (2007-2012) where he founded the Mobilehome Project – School of Nomadic, Experimental and Independent Art. He was a part of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation between 2003 and 2009, and of the Contemporary Art Institute between 1997 and 2003.

      Nuno Faria is Guest Assistant Lecturer at ESAD - Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Caldas da Rainha.

  • Annelore Scholten, Head of Public Engagement, Education and Exhibitions –Museum Boerhaave, Leiden, Netherlands

    • 

      Annelore Scholten is the Head of Public Engagement, Education and Exhibitions at the Museum Boerhaave, in Leiden, Netherlands. She has also been involved in other culturally relevant areas, as chairman of the board of directors at both the Zimihc Theatre, Netherlands, and the Dutch Museum Association, and board member at Stitching Ocean Film Productions. Prior to this, she was chairman of the board at the Museum Group in Leiden between 2009 and 2011.

      Annelore Scholten has a drs focused in Art history, Modern art / Dutch modern sculpture from Leiden University, and another in French Language and Literature from the University of Utrecht.

  • Philippe Vergne, Director of the Serralves Contemporary Art Museum, Porto, Portugal

    • 

      Philippe Vergne is a curator and Director of the Serralves Contemporary Art Museum. Prior to that and until March 2019, he was Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Los Angeles, USA. He was Director of the Dia Art Foundation, in New York, between 2008 and 2014, and the deputy Director and Chief Curator of the Walk Art Centre, in Minneapolis, between 2005 and 2008. He began his professional career as director of the Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, in 1994 until 1997. He then was hired by the Walker Art Center as a senior curator from 1997 to 2005.

      Philippe Vergne holds two Bachelor’s Degrees, one in Law from the Panthéon-Assas University, Paris, and another in archaeology and the history of modern art from Paris-Sorbonne University, Paris. He also got a Master’s Degree and a MAS from the same institution.

  • Clara Camacho, Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage – Portugal

    • 

      Clara Frayão Camacho is a museologist and senior official at the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage. She was the coordinator of the Future Museums Project Group (2019-2020), reporting to the Minister of Culture. She has a PhD in History, with a thesis in Museum Networks and Accreditation. A European Overview, and a master’s degree in Museology and Heritage. She has worked in the museums and heritage institutions of the Ministry of Culture since 2000: she was Coordinator of the Portuguese Museum Network and Deputy Director of the Portuguese Institute of Museums. She was a professor of master’s degrees in Museology, is a researcher at the Institute of Art History/FCSH-NOVA and participates in European and Ibero-American working groups.

  • Margaret McColl, Senior Lecturer in Museum Education and Art Education - University of Glasgow, UK

    • Margaret McColl is a Senior Lecturer in Museum Education and Art Education at the University of Glasgow. She is also Director of Post Graduate Taught Programmes, and Programme Leader for MSc Museum Education, International Masters in Education, Museums and Heritage; and Master of Education with Teaching Qualification (2013 - present). She is also the Programme Leader Bachelor of Education Honours and under her leadership, the BEd Honours Programme was voted the best for Teacher Training in the United Kingdom for Session 2013/14 (2009 - present). She is the Chair and Lead of Master of Education Writing Group (2013 - present). Prior to this, she worked to establish a new model of school experience; The Partnership Model of Teacher Education (2010). This model is now Glasgow University's preferred model of TE and similar models have been adopted in other HE institutions. She was External Examiner on Educational Enhancement Panel: St. Mary's University College, Queen's University Belfast (December 2014)

  ---

• Panel 6. The Arts as a driver for community and regional development

  • The University is a space of constant scientific innovation and knowledge diffusion – and it is already one of the most important economic drivers of regional development. Implementing a consistent plan for culture across the EU will enable higher education institutions to strengthen links with society and offer role models to the community. It is time we relocalise the arts in their relation with the idea of development, acknowledging them as an essential driver for the regeneration process of cities and the creation of vibrant communities.

    The innovation plan in discussion here entails promoting constant dialogue with local institutions, fine-tuning social and cultural values, and prioritising the problems that afflict the communities. This process will enhance students’ feelings of identity and belonging, on the one hand, and involve the community in students’ training, on the other.

    
    
    

    The objective of this panel is to discuss the implementation process of a cultural agenda for higher education institutions that involves local institutions, contributes to the regeneration of cities and communities, and develops feelings of belonging.

    
    
    

    Key questions:

    1. What partners should be involved in the process?

    2. How can we stimulate their interest and guarantee their active engagement?

    3. How can we ensure the sustainability of a long-term plan?

    4. How can we fine-tune values and define pressing problems?

    5. What goals and assessment tools can be established?

    
    

    Chair:

  • José Soares Neves, Director of the Portuguese Observatory on Cultural Activities, Portugal

    • 

      José Soares Neves is the director of the Portuguese Observatory on Cultural Activities OPAC). He is an integrated researcher and subdirector of the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-ISCTE) and professor at the Department of Sociology of the same University. He was previously a researcher at the Portuguese Observatory for Cultural Activities (OAC, 1997-2013). Between 2006 and 2010 was the President of the Working Group on Cultural Statistics of Statistics Portugal. He has participated in several research projects (as a researcher or coordinator) in the fields of sociology of art and culture and cultural policies and in the domains of the cultural industries (music, book), cultural consumption, reading practices, museums and cultural heritage.

      José Soares Neves holds a PhD in Sociology of Communication, Culture and Education by Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon.

  
  

  Speakers:

  • Pier Luigi Sacco, Special Adviser of the European Commissioner for Education and Culture – European Commission, Brussels, Belgium

    • 

      Pier Luigi Sacco is the Special Adviser of the European Commissioner for Education and Culture, as well as member of the Europeana Research Advisory Board, of the Economics of Culture Committee of the Italian Ministry of Culture, of the Advisory Council for Research & Innovation of the Czech Republic, and of the Advisory Council of Creative Georgia. He is also a professor of Cultural Economics, at IULM University in Milan; Senior Researcher, metaLAB (at) Harvard, and visiting scholar at Harvard University. He works and consults internationally in the fields of culture-led local development and is author of more than 200 papers on peer reviewed journals and major international scientific publishers.

  • Mariachiara Esposito, Seconded National Expert – European Commission, Brussels, Belgium

    • 

      Mariachiara Esposito is the Seconded National Expert for the European Commission, working mainly on cultural policies and cultural heritage innovation and research, as well as sustainable development. Prior to this, she worked as Policy Advisor for the Tuscany Region (2017-2020), Senior Scientific Officer for Humanities at Science Europe (2015-2017), Spokesperson of the President of the European Economic and Social Committee (2008-2010), and Media Relations Officer as well as PR Manager for Mostra Communications.

      Mariachiara Esposito has two degrees from Bologna University: a Bachelor’s in Political Science and International Affairs, and a Master’s in European Policies and Institutions.

  • Nuno Crespo, Director of the School of Arts – Universidade Católica Portuguesa

    • 

      Nuno Crespo is a curator, art critic, professor and researcher, who is the current Director of the School of Arts (Universidade Católica Portuguesa) in Porto. He regularly contributes to the Ipsilon “cultural supplement”, a part of the Público newspaper in Portugal. Prior to this, he was Visiting Professor at several universities, in Coimbra, Évora, and Lisbon, as well as having been a member of the Municipal Council for Culture from the Porto Municipality. He has four published books and has contributed as editor or co-editor to countless books, articles, and pieces from many authors. He has also curated many exhibitions both in Porto and Lisbon.

      Nuno Crespo has a Bachelor’s and a PhD in Philosophy from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the University Nova of Lisbon.

  • Tina Delva, Deputy Head of Unit, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture – European Commission, Brussels, Belgium

  • Nuno Jardim Nunes, President of the Interactive Technologies Institute – Técnico - University of Lisbon, Portugal

    • 

      Nuno Jardim Nunes is a Full Professor at Técnico U. Lisbon and the President of the Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI), a research unit part of the LARSYS Associated Laboratory. He's also adjunct faculty at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Previously he was Vice-Rector of the University of Madeira and Head of the Exact and Engineering Sciences Department at the same institution. He’s authored over 160 international publications in peer-reviewed international conferences and journals.

      Nuno Jardim Nunes holds a PhD in Software Engineering from Madeira University under supervision from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, and a MEng in informatics and computer engineering from the Technical University of Lisbon.

  • Louise Coysh, Associate Director, Arts & Culture – University of Southampton, UK

    • 

      Louise Coysh is Associate Director, Arts and Culture at University of Southampton. She leads on delivery of the Arts and Culture strategy alongside the University’s National Portfolio Organisations and through partnerships. Prior to this, she was Senior Curator at Art on the Underground, TfL (2008–16), Project Curator (2004–8) at the Serpentine Gallery, London and Magazine Co-ordinator at an: The Artist Information Company (1998–2001). In 2017 she was a selector for Plymouth Contemporary. She is Co-Chair of Visual Arts South West and Chair of Southampton’s Mayflower 400 Cultural Group.

      Louise Coysh has a Master’s Degree in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art.

  • João Teixeira Lopes, President of the Portuguese Association of Sociology

    • 

      João Teixeira Lopes is president of the Portuguese Association of Sociology, and coordinator of the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto since 2020, having chaired the Department of Sociology at the University of Porto between 2011 and 2019. Prior to this, he was Director of Revista Sociologia (2009-2013), Scientific Coordinator of the Institute of Sociology at FLUP (2002-2010), and represented the Bloco de Esquerda as a deputy to the Assembly of the Republic (2002-2006). He integrated the coordinating team for the Report on National Cultural Policies (1985-95) presented in 1998 to the Council of Europe (Lisbon) for the area of involvement of the population. He has 23 published books in the fields of sociology of culture, city, youth and education, as well as museology and territorial studies, and was awarded in 2014 the "Chevalier des Palmes Académiques" award by the French Government.

      João Teixeira Lopes has a degree in Sociology from the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Porto (1992), and a Master’s in social sciences from the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (1995). He holds a PhD in Sociology of Culture and Education (1999).

  ---

• Panel 7. The Arts, health and wellbeing

  • The number of higher education students experiencing mental health problems and social isolation issues has been a growing concern – a situation severely aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing students with consistent opportunities to encounter artistic discourses and experience artistic practices may well be part of the solution to the problem.

    Artistic experiences trigger strong emotions and cognitive reactions; they change the perception of illness and of one’s body; and foster a sense of freedom, inclusion and belonging, thickening cultural identities and inspiring the imagination and articulation of alternative stories, thus breaking with exclusion narratives.

    
    
    

    The objective of this panel is to discuss how a generalised plan for the promotion of artistic encounters and experiences across EU higher education institutions would affect the health and wellbeing of academic communities and society at large.

    
    
    

    Key questions:

    1. Do participatory artistic experiences have proven therapeutic effects?

    2. Does non-participatory attendance to cultural events have significantly different effects on one’s health and wellbeing?

    3. Are some arts more likely to have beneficial effects than others?

    4. What experiences have been implemented in higher education settings?

    5. How could these experiences be articulated with the local communities?

    
    

    Chair:

  • Isabel Menezes, Chair of the Portuguese Society for Education Sciences

    • 

      Isabel Menezes holds a BA in Theater (ESAP), a degree and PhD in Psychology and a habilitation in Educational Sciences from the University of Porto, where she is a Professor in the Department of Education Sciences. Her teaching includes courses in Educational, Social and Community Intervention, Citizenship/Political Education and Political Psychology, and Educational Research. A senior researcher at the CIIE – Centre of Educational Research and Intervention, she has led research on the civic and political participation of children, young people and adults, with a special interest in groups at risk of exclusion and the ways formal and non-formal education (including artistic) experiences can generate more complex ways of relationship with the political. More recent interests relate to university social responsibility as a way to explore how HEI can creatively and proactively respond to societal challenges; the exploration of participatory research or combinations between educational research and intervention, including the arts; and furthering our understanding of the psychological underpinnings of youth political action, exploring contemporary trends of personalization, performativity and populism.Currently, she is the president of the SPCE – Portuguese Educational Research Association.

  
  

  Speakers:

  • Fernando Mencarelli, Director of the Programme for Cultural Action – Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil

    • 

      Fernando Mencarelli is a professor and Director of the Programme for Cultural Action at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, as well as a researcher and a theatre director. Prior to this, he was a member of the State Council for Political Culture in Minas Gerais (2014-2016), and was coordinator of the post-grad programme for Arts, also at the Minas Gerais University (2009-2010). Within this institution, he has taken on many roles, from creating a degree in Scenic Arts (1998) to several research lines within the theatre fields. He was member of the Curating Council from the Municipal Foundation for Culture in Belo Horizonte (2004-2008). Currently, he is also a member of the researching team from Maison des Sciences de L´Homme, Paris Nord, France, as well as associate researcher at Groupe de Recherche Théâtralité, Performativité et Effets de Presénce, of the Quebec University in Montréal, Canada.

      Fernando Mencarelli has a Master’s Degree and a PhD in the field of Social History of Culture from the Belas-Artes School within the Federal University of Minas Gerais. He also has a post-doctorate in Drama from the ARIAS/CNRS- University Sorbonne Nouvelle/Paris III, France.

  • Frank Finlay, Dean of Cultural Engagement – University of Leeds, UK

    • 

      Frank Finlay is Professor and Head of German at the University of Leeds, as well as the University’s Dean of Cultural Engagement. He also established a Cultural Institute in 2016, which he currently directs. Prior to that, he worked as a Lecturer and then a Senior Lecturer in Manchester and Bradford. At Leeds he is a former Head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Dean of the Faculty of Arts (2009-2016), and in August 2016 was appointed the founding Executive Dean of the new Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures, the largest of its kind in the UK. In the past, he was also President of the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland, a member of the German sub-panel for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, and served on the sub-panel for Modern Languages and Linguistics for the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. He has published countless books, as well as contributed with articles and chapters for periodicals and books

  • Ryan Pillay, Deputy-Director of Arts, Culture and Heritage – Nelson Mandela University, South Africa

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      Ryan Pillay is the Deputy Director: Arts, Culture and Heritage at Nelson Mandela University. Additionally, Pillay works as a researcher in the Chair for Ocean Cultures. He has extensive teaching experience in both the TVET and Higher Education sector. His undergraduate and post graduate studies in Sociology and Political Science deal with areas of gender, heritage, memory and place. His work in Higher Education on transformation, gender, culture and language allows for the interrogation of voices to be heard. Through this social enquiry/qualitative methodology/sociology he has designed, facilitated and documented over 100 processes in both the public and private sector. Pillay has a special interest in using visual participatory methods to allow voices to surface and has a keen interest in the arts. He currently holds the position of Trustee at the South End Museum and the Gcina Mhlope Trust in South Africa.

  • José Castro Lopes, Pro-Rector for Social Responsibility and Support, Health and Wellbeing – University of Porto, Portugal

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      José M. Castro-Lopes is Full Professor and Chair of Pain Medicine at the FMUP, president of the Council of Representatives of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and Pro-Rector for Social Responsibility and Support, Health and Wellbeing at the University of Porto. Prior to that, he worked at the Max-Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich, the School of Pharmacy in London and the Unit 161 of the INSERM in Paris. Prof. Castro Lopes’ main research field is the neurobiology of pain, and more recently he coordinates a research group focusing on the epidemiology of pain in Portugal and contributing for clinical research. He has led several national and European research projects and participated in the board of some national and international scientific societies.

      José M. Castro-Lopes received his MD and PhD from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto.

  • Rosemary Deem, Professor of Higher Education Management – Royal Holloway, University of London

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      Rosemary Deem is a Professor of Higher Education Management at Royal Holloway. Prior to this, she was Vice Principal for Education and Dean of History and Social Sciences at the same institution. She also worked as a Professor of Education and Director of Research for Social Sciences & Law at the University of Bristol (2001-2009), and as Director University Graduate School at Lancaster University (1998-2000). She has been a member of 3 UK Research Assessment Exercise Sub-Panels on Education (1996, 2001, 2008), and is an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences as well as an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Research into Higher Education. She is also a member of the Peer Review College of the European Science Foundation and a co-convenor of the Higher Education Network in the European Educational Research Association. From 2015 to 2018 she was the first woman to chair the UK Council for Graduate Education.

      Rosemary Deem holds a BA, MPhil in Social Sciences from the University of Leicester and an MPhil in Sociology (Education) from the same institution. She also has a PhD in Sociology of Leisure from The Open University, and is a Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) in Social Sciences by the University of Leicester.

  • Vera Dickman, Interculturality Coordinator and Associate Professor – Université Paris-Saclay

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      Vera Dickman is the Coordinator for Internationalisation at Home and Interculturality at the University of Paris-Saclay. Prior to that, she was a Modern Languages and Cultures Department Associate Professor at Telecom Paris Tech, and worked as an English and Intercultural Skills Development teacher for the Professional Teachers’ Association for Graduate Schools. She was also an EFL Coordinator and English language lecturer, trainer, and team manager at the University of Paris.

      Vera Dickman has a BA and a Higher Education Post-graduate Diploma from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa in French, English, Afrikans and Nederlands studies, and a Licence ès Lettres and Maîtrise de Littérature Comparée from the François Rabelais University in Tours. Later in Paris, she obtained a Maîtrise Langues Etrangères in Comparative Linguistics and Post-Colonial Literature. She has also co-curated exhibitions in London and Italy on Michaux's work, published essays and catalogue notes on his work and published on the theme of "Return" in Post-Colonial literature.

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