Conference Agenda

The contribution aims to highlight the relevance of memorialization in public space. Following Edward Casey's reflections on "remembering", the talk considers the construction of public memory in its conditions of possibilities, connections to places and performativity.

BIOS: Carla Danani is Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Macerata, where she also teaches Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Dwelling. She is Director of the "G. Leopardi" School of Advanced Studies, and of C.I.S.U. (Centro Interuniversitario di Studi sull'Utopia), and she is President of the Centro di Studi Filosofici di Gallarate; she coordinates many research projects and is member of the editorial board of international journals and publishing series. Her most recent research focuses on the meaning of dwelling and place for human beings, on utopian intentionality, on ethics of care and on "spatial justice".

This paper explores the deep and complex relationship between literature and memory in the major literary works produced during the first and second waves of Russian migration to Europe and the United States. The First and Second World Wars, the Russian revolutions, the civil war, and the final years of Stalinism disrupted the cultural fabric of the early twentieth century—not only within Russia, but globally. Driven by these turbulent historical and social events, Russian literature underwent a profound transformation, with emigration often marking a decisive rupture from the writers’ homeland. The paper examines the enduring connection that generations of Russian émigré writers maintained with their past and with the very experience of displacement. Through the literary and memorial writings of authors such as Ivan Bunin (1870–1953), Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977), and Gaito Gazdanov (1903–1971), this study seeks to offer a broad portrait of the creative responses and cultural legacies shaped by exile.

BIOS: Giuseppina Larocca is Associate Professor of Russian literature and language at the University of Macerata. Her research interests include Nineteenth-Century Russian literature, literary criticism in 20th century Russia, Russian emigration literature, and the relationships between literature and medicine. She is author of the research monograph “L’aquila bicipite e il tenero iris. Tracce russe a Firenze nel primo Novecento (1899-1939)” (“The double-headed eagle and the tender iris: Traces of Russian Culture in Florence (1899-1939)” Pisa University Press, 2018) and several papers published in international journals and books.

This contribution explores the interplay between attention and power in the digital age, emphasizing how human attention is increasingly scarce. The social construction of public issues and collective memory is not neutral but shaped by technological processes. This calls for an ethical reflection on the role of media in directing and influencing public attention toward historically and socially significant topics.

BIOS: Michele Cardinali is a postdoctoral fellow at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa; adjunct professor in Moral Philosophy at the University of Macerata and at Campus Ludes in Lugano. His research topics are phenomenology, attention, ethics of care and ethics of new technologies.

Central Europe, which during its democratic transformation set integration with the Western world as its primary objective, was obliged to normatively adopt the axiological framework embodied in Western conventions and treaties (e.g., Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union). On the other hand, the construction of democratic political communities was based on references to specific historical events that were constitutive for the identity of a given community. As a result, a situation emerged in which identity narratives became a point of reference for the creation (memory laws) and application of law (judicial disputes over the past). Consequently, such references may provoke criticism, particularly from radical liberals who advocate for a unidimensional understanding of Western axiology across the entire community.

BIOS: Lawyer specializing in sociology and law history. In 2019, he obtained a doctorate from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw. He is also a graduate of the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Oñati, Gipuzkoa, Spain. His research interests include sociology of law, particularly constitutionalism, relationship between law and group identity, conflict resolution policy, legal regulation of collective memory, and studies on legal education. Visiting Lecturer at the Riga Graduate School of Law, in Latvia, where he teaches constitutional law and research methods. He is also an Associate Researcher at the Center for Legal Education and Social Theory (CLEST) at the University of Wrocław.