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Villa Vigoni Talks "Rethinking Migration"

Professor Karoline Reinhardt (University of Passau) and Professor Roberta Picardi (Università del Molise) have invited German and Italian early career researchers to Villa Vigoni on the banks of Lake Como for extensive talks to develop new political and philosophical approaches to the issue of migration. Funding for the project will be provided by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Growing migration flows since the second half of the 20th century has made this topic the focus of fierce debates about several fundamental issues in political philosophy: How are borders justifiable from the perspective of legal philosophy and ethics? How to deal with a universal claim to human rights and a reality defined by state sovereignty?

These are some of the questions that will be explored at the German-Italian colloquium, which is scheduled to take place at Villa Vigoni on the banks of Lake Como in February 2024 and will bring together twelve early career researchers from both countries for intense discussions. "The purpose of the colloquium is to rethink migration by combining systemic and historical-exegetical approaches," explains Karoline Reinhardt, Junior Professor of Applied Ethics at the University of Passau. On the one hand, the goal is thus to expose the argumentation structures in ongoing discussions using the thoughts of central figures in the history of philosophy. On the other hand, Reinhardt hopes to develop concepts based on historical and contemporary philosophical perspectives that allow for a new understanding and for the development of novel solutions to the current challenges associated with the issue of migration.

"The colloquium will help deepen the German-Italian academic dialogue on a topic that plays a central role in the relations between the two countries but also represents a decisive test for the future of the European Union and for the emergence of a European identity," says Professor Reinhardt, who is the project leader together with Italian philosopher Professor Roberta Picardi from the Università del Molise in Campobasso.

About the "Villa Vigoni Talks"

And thus, the talks truly reflect the spirit of Villa Vigoni: the German-Italian Centre for European Dialogue on Lake Como. The mission of the association founded in 1986 is to promote and strengthen Italian-German relations in a European perspective.

Under an agreement with the German Research Foundation (DFG), Villa Vigoni hosts regular events that bring together German and Italian academics in an effort to foster the humanities and social sciences. The Villa-Vigoni Talks form the core of the programme. These are devoted to topics that enable more in-depth debate on European culture, history and society. The focus here is on intense person-to-person dialogue as a deliberate departure from the usual conference formats. 

Principal Investigator(s) at the University	Prof. Dr. Karoline Reinhardt (Professur für Angewandte Ethik)
Project period	26.02.2024 - 01.03.2024
Source of funding	DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft > DFG - Kooperation Villa Vigoni