On September 21, 2023, at Vaidilos Theatre (Vilnius) the sixth Leonidas Donskis Conference will be held, organized by The Andrei Sakharov Research Centre at VDU. The conference will bring together a select group of experts to discuss Russia topic based on learned lessons from the past, putting them in a contemporary context and suggesting what steps should be taken to facilitate the above-mentioned processes. The conference will be followed by a concert in memory of Leonidas Donskis. More information and registration here.
Viktorija Voidogaitė, an educator and nun, was elected the Tolerance Man of the Year 2021 by the decision of the board of the Sugihara Foundation “Diplomats for Life”. The annual Leonidas Donskis Prize is awarded to writer, journalist and translator Rimantas Vanagas.
In honor of Leonidas Donskis, a professor at Vytautas Magnus University (Vytautas Magnus University), one of the most outstanding European thinkers, the third conference dedicated to the memory of the philosopher “Mind the Gap. Emotional Well-being and Social Solidarity during COVID-19“. Information and registration: https://www.sakharovcenter-vdu.eu/events/third-leonidas-donskis-memorial-conference/
The year 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Therefore, it invites a closer look at postwar Europe and its brief assessment. What happened to Europe then? Historically and politically speaking, Europe changed beyond recognition. For centuries, war was as unavoidable in the old continent as clashes over faith and (dis)loyalty to the king or the queen. After WWII, it became obvious that peace came as a new political identity of Europe.This was the second birth of Europe. Needless to say, this applied for a long time exclusively for Western Europe.(Continue...)
Accepted and vilified, celebrated and rebuked by all, as François Villon would have had it, Machiavelli became a litmus test case for nearly every epoch in European history. Much remains to be done to reject numerous clichés and senseless accusations to fully understand and appreciate his legacy as a humanist, historian, political thinker, and a prophet of modern politics. (Continue...)
Was the God s on the side of the poor and innocent, or did he side with evil due to being totally neutral and impartial to all of his creations? This was the central theological and philosophical issue for the Nobel Prize winning Jewish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991) – a major Eastern/Central European author who passed away twenty-five years ago. (Continue...)