The first PhD forum at #EuARe2024, co-sponsored by RESILIENCE, can be considered an important step to building bridges between different doctoral schools in Europe.
In his welcome word, Alberto Melloni (Fscire) mentioned that it is important to listen to what is going on on a Europenanlevel. We have the challenge to protect and demonstrate the role of academic and to show the value that they have for bring in knowledge in a pluralistic society. He hopes that it will be possiblit to build bridges between the academic universities.
Indeed, the various contributions of scholars from different institutions took us throughout Europe and even beyond. Utrecht, Vienna, Paris, Ljubljana, Helsinki, Zürich, Leuven, China, Israel, are just some of the places and countries that were represented. For many of the participants of the forum, it was fruitful to get a better insight into the work of other doctoral schools and to get the opportunity to reflect on their role in the whole of Europe. To mention only some of the questions that were raised: How to cope with political developments? With language policies of the various universities? How to encourage internationality and interdisciplinarity together? How to deal with Artificial Intelligence developments? How to learn and evaluate other news technologies? All questions that are worth thinking through further.
Bridges have been built in this half-day forum at the European Academy of Religions annual conference indeed, which can be considered a good start. The invitation from the representative of the University of Vienna to come to EuARe 2025 connected seamlessly with that: this forum is worth a follow-up.