1st T4EU Science Café: Can War be Repaired (by Culture)?

Can culture repair the effects of war? This was the key question under debate at the first edition of Transform4Europe’s Science Café, organised by Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP) as a parallel event to the 1st Transform4Europe Summer School.

Christiane Solte-Gresser, Director of the Käte Hamburger Research Centre for Cultural Practices of Reparation (CURE) at the University of Saarland, posed the question of reparation for the effects of war from two points of view: ‘How can this be repaired? Can this be repaired?’

The renowned researcher mentioned the various types of damage caused by war – political, economic, ecological, physical, psychological, cultural and transgenerational – and emphasised that ‘there is damage that you cannot repair, such as crimes against humanity, genocide, slavery, or colonialism. Culture is a way to deal with the irreparable.’

Although she emphasised that ‘there is no simple solution through culture,’ she stressed the need to continue researching the subject. ‘Culture opens up fields for encounters, for jumping into fictional worlds, to learn something about people, experiences, cultures, positions that you would never have known if you hadn’t read the novel, watched the film, etc.,’ she noted.

Isabel Capeloa Gil, President of Católica, focused her speech on memory, arguing that ‘the role of culture is not to create humanisation.’ ‘Culture allows for anticipation, knowledge and raises awareness’ of war and its effects and creates resilience: ‘While it allows communities to testify and bear witness, it creates a willingness to survive and mend the future.’

Believing that, in the long term, culture and education can prevent future wars, the academic highlighted the important role of universities in ‘creating spaces where diverging visions can be brought together’ so that, through dialogue, it is possible to ‘accept the responsibility for the societies we live in and for the future we want”‘

‘The mission of the university is to contribute to creating individuals that, through knowledge, can make reasoned choices to advance their lives and that of the societies they’re in,’ stated Isabel Capeloa Gil.

With the aim of promoting dialogue between experts and the community, Transform4europe’s Science Café brought two academics together with an audience of dozens of people of all ages and nationalities at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Isabel Capeloa Gil, President of UCP and Full Professor of Culture Studies, leads the group dedicated to the study of culture, art and conflict at the Research Centre for Communication and Culture. Christiane Solte-Gresser, Director of the Käte Hamburger Research Centre for Cultural Practices of Reparation at the University of Saarland, studies the Holocaust and the political and social functions of culture, among other topics.