8-9 September 2023 Curonian Spit History Museum
“Strong Together. The Diagnosis of the European Unity“
Discussions of the European unity or lack thereof seem to be as old as the EU. Probably older, in fact. Nowadays they were first rekindled by Brexit, which appeared to indicate a lack of unity. At the time, speculations of the likelihood that the European unity might fall apart entirely became especially active. They quieted down during the pandemic, and the war in Ukraine has brought them to the extreme.
At the sixth Nida Forum, we will try to diagnose the European unity, well aware that the diagnosis may not be final, as life is more interesting than any prognostications we can make.
The questions are so numerous that they are more easily raised than answered. Is there something that we could call the basis for the unity of Europe or even, looking more broadly, of the West? To what extent is our unity dependent on the interests of each country? When we speak of unity, do we not have in mind a certain ideal which, like any ideal, many never really be achieved, but it is nonetheless worth trying? Is unity possible when the matter that we need to agree on is less deadly than the war in Ukraine?
We can continue this list almost forever. Let us wait and see how it will be continued by the speakers of the Forum, and what answers they will come up with.
SEPTEMBER 8TH (FRIDAY) CURONIAN SPIT HISTORY MUSEUM
9.30 a. m. Opening
Morning session, chair Antanas Gailius
10.00 – 11.30 a. m. prof. Chantal Delsol (F)(Professor at L’université de Marne-la-Vallée, President of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences) „The West in Times of Danger: Remembering and Learning Again Together“
11.45 a. m.– 1.15 p. m. dr. Bernardas Gailius (LT) (Historian, writer, Vilnius University)
“The Cold War as a Story of Western Solidarity”
Afternoon session, chair dr. Jogilė Ulinskaitė
3.00 – 4.30 p. m. Andrii Kurkov (UA) (writer) “Is Ukrainian Identity Bulletproof?”
4.45 p. m. Tour of Nida Landscape
SEPTEMBER 9TH (SATURDAY) CURONIAN SPIT HISTORY MUSEUM
Morning session, chair Antanas Gailius
10.00 – 11.30 a. m. Michael Wolffsohn (DE) (Former professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, historian and public activist, online presentation) „6fold Germany“
11.45 – 13.15 Mohamed Amjahid (DE) (journalist)
“Good refugees, bad refugees“, Migration between Europe’s self-image and universal human rights
Afternoon session, chair dr. Jogilė Ulinskaitė
3.00 – 4.30 p. m. , Dr. Jaroslaw Kuisz (historian, political analyst and essayist, Editor-in-Chief of “Kultura Liberalna“).
“Between moral responsibility and trauma. How to speak of history and war in today’s Europe?”
16.45 – 18.15 Concluding discussion
Evening:
8.00 p. m. Ukrainian Poetry. Translations read by Marius Burokas
SEPTEMBER 10TH (SUNDAY)
9.00 a. m. Holy Mass at the Nida church
Celebrated by fr. Antanas Saulaitis SJ
Organiser:
Thomas Mann Cultural Centre
Partners:
Neringa Museums
Neringa Municipality
Goethe Institut in Lithuania
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania
Administration of the Curonian Spit National Park
Thomas Mann Cultural Centre is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture