Multiculturalism and the Need for Recognition

 

Our Department of Philology and Cultural Studies has organized national/international conferences fir a few years. After a successful six years with the Anniversary Conferences, the new series of conferences on multicultural ism was set up, on the specific purpose to bring together scholars of all academic walks, and gather them under the same umbrella for a few days. The exchange between specialists in jurisprudence, social studies, literature, grammar, theology, philosophy, mass-media, postcolonialism, feminism, etc. was extraordinary due to its diversity. Participants had the possibility to listen to various points of view, coming from different scholarly approaches, and illustrated with the most interesting examples. It was very pleasant for the literature people to listen to the philosophers, with their very strict definitions of concepts and their very sharp analyses; similarly, we could see the "law people" fascinated by the literary and cultural approaches - they confessed they had very rarely had the opportunity to listen to such inspired literary presentations; specialists in economics were fascinated by the studies in contemporary multiculturalism, while anthropologists appreciated the insight of economic approaches. Interdisciplinary conferences, where presentations are not divided according to the profile of the presenter, but to the subject, prove to be tempting and profitable for all. There were moments when it was really difficult for participants to decide which panel to go to.