The 9th edition of the Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture, dedicated to the theme "Neurohumanities: Promises & Threats", will start on the 1st of July and will last until the 6th of July in several institutions in Lisbon. The summer school is an international landmark in the field of culture studies, bringing together the most important specialists on a highly up-to-date topic in the intersection of science and humanities.
Among the main speakers is Semir Zeki, a prestigious British neuroscientist at University College London, one of the founders of neuro-aesthetics and author of seminal works such as A Vision of the Brain (1993), Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain (1999) and Splendors and Miseries of the Brain. Love, Creativity, and the Quest for Human Happiness (2009). At this Summer School, Zeki will bring a reflection on the experience of beauty coming from the point of view of neurobiology.
Fritz Breithaupt, professor at Indiana University Bloomington, presents the conference "The Dark Sides of Empathy", title of his latest book, published in 2019. Breithaupt is an expert on empathy issues. His book has provoked intense debate about whether empathy can have negative sides. Is it not always advantageous to have empathy? Do some suffer because of the empathy of others? And what does this mean for our social life?
Péter Forgács, Hungarian media artist and independent director, closes this year's edition with one of his works, The Danube Exodus. He is best known for his “Private Hungary” series of award winning films based on home movies from the 1930s and 1960s, which document ordinary lives ruptured by an extraordinary historical trauma that occurs off screen.
Every year, the Lisbon Summer School promotes the articulation between the artistic and the academic world, bringing together academics, curators, artists and young researchers for a week of lectures, presentations, debates and artistic activities that aim to provoke reflection on contemporary culture and art.
This year, the event counts on around 100 participants from 30 nationalities, from all continents, and will take place at Católica, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, EDP Foundation and the Orient Museum.
More information at: https://neurohumanitiessummer.school.blog/
