4EU+ Doctoral and Postdoctoral Seminar in Copenhagen 26.-29.11.2024

As part of the 4EU+ European University Alliance, a seminar for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers was held again this year. The event took place from 26-29 November 2024 in Copenhagen and was attended by 18 doctoral students and postdocs from the universities of Geneva, Copenhagen, Heidelberg, Milan and Prague. Under the title “Texture(s) of Hope: Dialogues in an Age of Conflicting Worldviews”, the structures of hope and hoping were explored. The young scholars linked their own research projects to the overarching theme and were thus able to develop interesting and complementary perspectives on the question of hope.
The seminar was opened by a public event on “Hope between Fantasy and Reality”: short keynote speeches from different contexts highlighted what hope means there and what influence hope can have on social transformation processes. Pavol Bagar (Charles University Prague) showed the processuality of hope in the context of reconciliation processes and Jewish-Christian dialogue. Anne-Milla W. Kristensen (University of Copenhagen) linked hope and social crises by elaborating on the creative dimension of kairotic moments. Beate Bengard (University of Geneva) emphasized the need for contextual sensitivity in the theologies before they can jointly serve ecological responsibility in the climate crisis. Finally, Friederike Nüssel (Heidelberg University) shed light on the relationship between existential hope and the perception of and expectations towards AI. The short presentations were followed by a lively discussion that provided a good introduction to the topic of the seminar and was continued in the plenary discussions in the following days.
From Heidelberg University, Nino Apciauri, Dr. Arne Bachmann, Christine Böckmann, Peter Jonescu, Kevin Kraft, Dr. Elisabeth Maikranz and Prof. Dr. Friederike Nüssel participated.
This was the third time that the universities had cooperated within the framework of the 4EU+ Alliance. Since 2022, doctoral students and postdocs from the universities of Prague, Heidelberg, Copenhagen, Milan (since 2023) and Geneva (since 2024) have been meeting once a year for a seminar on various aspects of hope (2022: “Theology of Hope - Hope in Theology: Challenges in Multi-religious, Secular and Multi-Cultural Europe”; 2023: “Hope and Empathy in Times of Conflict in Europe"). The continuation of this seminar format and the deepening of cooperation is also planned for 2025.