From June 1 to 7, the Institute of Philosophy hosted the Visegrad Environmental Philosophy Summer School (VEPSS) - an event prepared within the framework of the Erasmus + “Blended Intensive Programme” (so-called BIP), the IDUB “Visiting Professors” program and the Visegrad Fund. The summer school was the second edition of the series, the first part of which took place last year in Hejnice in the Czech Republic and was attended by teachers and students from our Institute.
This year’s organizing team included: Professor Magdalena Hoły-Łuczaj, Urszula Lisowska, Ph.D., and MA students at the Institute of Philosophy: Ms. Malina Sieradzka and Mr. Bartłomiej Sadowski. Within the BIP framework, a consortium of the following universities was formed: the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (Slovakia), the University of Pardubice (Czech Republic), Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic), Wageningen University (Netherlands), Rotterdam University (Netherlands) and the University of Vienna (Austria). Thanks to the “Visiting Professors” program, it was possible to invite Professor Benjamin Hale (University of Colorado-Boulder). The application for a Visegrad Fund grant was prepared by the Center of Environmental and Technology Ethics - Prague (CETE-P) operating at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the University of Wrocław joined the consortium thus established. The funds obtained supported the participation of students and teachers from the Visegrad Group countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) and allowed for the invitation of Professor Nicole Seymour (California State University, Fullerton).
A total of 47 students, mainly from master's and doctoral programs, took part in the summer school. In addition to the universities in the consortiums, they represented countries such as Spain, Norway and Belgium.
The event in Wroclaw was preceded by an online part (May 27), which included lectures by Professor Magdalena Hoły-Luczaj and Alex Putzer, Ph.D. (New York University). The Wrocław part of the program comprised two main sections: seminars taught by Professor Seymour and Professors Hale, and panels featuring speakers from Central European universities. Students had the opportunity to present their research during a poster session.
The main theme of the event was water, rivers and floods. Many of the talks addressed these topics and the final group project prepared by the students discussed the civic draft bill proposing to recognize the legal personality of the Oder river.
Apart from that, participants went on a cruise on the Oder River, during which Piotr Laska, the head of the crisis management team during the September 2024 flood, gave a lecture.
The program also included a day trip to Bard, during which some people opted for a daring rafting trip, while another group went on a hike in the nearby mountains.
The next edition of VEPSS is coming next year, and its main organizer will be Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. We warmly encourage you to follow this initiative!
Photos: Magdalena Hoły-Łuczaj, Urszula Lisowska