COMUNICATION

The European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation inaugurated the Carlos V European Award – Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe Doctoral Seminar. In this activity ten doctoral candidates who have been awarded one of the European Research and Mobility Grants on European Studies will be presenting their research work dealing with the topic “Culture, heritage, history and memory for the promotion of European values, integration and peace” from a multidisciplinary point of view. (07/06/2023)

The director general for External Action, Rosa Balas, stressed that culture is “a bulwark, a symbol and an act of vindication and courage in the face of extremisms and nationalisms”. In this sense, she defended that culture is “identity and universality” to then affirm that Europe is a “project of future that is consolidated in a cultural identity that is woven over the centuries and based on solid values of solidarity, equality, freedom and peace”.

Balas assured that the European project has been able to “strengthen itself thanks to its diversity”, and the values which it is based on “have become universal thanks to the cultural routes, since the European identity was consolidated through them, diversity was respected and an intercultural dialogue that enriched us was established”.

The head of External Action highlighted the role of culture as “identity and future” and it is in fact through culture that the researchers participating in this doctoral seminar are expanding their knowledge of the history and process of European construction. Ten young people join Yuste’s Euro-Ibero-American Alumni Network, a research and academic excellence group of Yuste Foundation that contributes to reflection, debate and analysis of the challenges facing Europe.

Rosa Balas encouraged the young participants to continue thinking and working, “you are the present building the future with a tool such as culture, which may be the best diplomacy countries have in order to know each other”, and she warned that in these challenging times “Europe can only survive and be a strong international player in the new geopolitical scenario that is becoming bipolarised between China and the United States if it works to remain united and cohesive”.

In turn, the director of the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation, Juan Carlos Moreno, stressed that this doctoral seminar “gathers the essence of Yuste Foundation, because it is an instrument for the intergenerational transmission of knowledge in the relay race that academic life involves”.

Jean Monnet professor ad personam, vice-president of the Royal European Academy of Doctors and co-director of the seminar Teresa Freixes, highlighted the importance of concepts such as culture, heritage and memory for the promotion of European values and that they be translated into institutions and policies and revert to citizenship.

Freixes also highlighted the importance of Yuste Foundation’s doctoral seminar because it has been forming Yuste’s Euro-Ibero-American Alumni Network throughout its different editions. The latter is made up of young people from all over the world, with different traditions and with different academic training, and this “cross-cutting nature and interdisciplinarity of knowledge is enriching”.

The director of the European Institute of Cultural Routes, Stefano Dominioni, was in charge of giving the opening speech which was entitled “The Values of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe”.

The themes presented at the seminar address different topics, such as cultural heritage, sustainability, linguistic diversity, citizen participation, European identity, European values, peace, literature, the eradication of hate speech and feminism.

The ten researchers selected are the Spaniard María Rodríguez Alcázar, PhD student at the Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies of the United Nations University; Unai Gómez Hernández, PhD student at the Universities of Edinburgh (United Kingdom) and Leuven (Belgium); Paula Albitre Lamata, researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid; Vanesa Miguel Barrado and Javier Matamoros Becerra, researchers at the University of Extremadura; and Estefanía Cabello, student at the University of Córdoba and at the University of Exeter (United Kingdom). Also selected were the Italian-Argentinian student María Laura Gasparini, from the University of Bologna (Italy); the Colombian Camilo Espinosa Díaz, PhD candidate at the University Jaume I; the Romanian Andrea Elena Grigore, from the University of Seville, and the Belgian Laetitia Aulit, who is currently studying at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium).

Also participating in the meeting are the director general of culture at the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), Natalia Armijos; the professor of Contemporary History at the University of Extremadura and member of the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste, Enrique Moradiellos García; the researcher at the University of Leuven and member of the Euro-Ibero-American Alumni Network, Ana Milošević; Jean Monnet professor of European Integration at the Sorbonne University of Paris IVC, Éric Bussière; Jean Monnet professor of European History at the University of Cologne, Jürgen Elvert; the director of the Alfaqueque Research Group at the University of Salamanca, Jesús Baigorri Jalón; the UCM professor of American History, Rosa María Martínez de Codes; and the academician of the Royal Academy of Arts and Letters of Extremadura, Carmen Fernández Daza.

The seminar counts with the collaboration of the Jean Monnet Chair of History of the Catholic University of Louvain and the academic collaboration of the Socio-Economic Governance and European Identity network (SEGEI) of the University of Extremadura, and the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe Programme.

CARLOS V EUROPEAN AWARD RESEARCH AND MOBILITY GRANTS ON EUROPEAN STUDIES

The general objective of the Research and Mobility Grants on European Studies is to do research work on the history, memory and European integration, taking the profile of the awarded person, institution, project or initiatives with the Carlos V European Award as a reference. The topic and priorities of research are determined with the award-winner under a multidisciplinary perspective. In 2019, the jury of the Carlos V European Award delivered the prize to the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe “for its work promoting European values related with cultural diversity, the respect for the respective identities, the intercultural dialogue, and the exchange and knowledge about the countries and History”. The jury also valued the work carried out by the routes in favour of cooperation in research and development; the enhancement of European memory, history and heritage; cultural and educational exchanges for young Europeans; contemporary cultural and artistic practice and cultural tourism.