Symposium ‘From Contemporaneity to Antiquity: dialogues on the present, past and future’

Philosophers (Rosen, 1989), sociologists (McCarthy, 2003) and historians (Momigliano, 1990; Fleming, 2006) have realised that there has been a recent concentration on the present, which has taken on an inflationary dimension whose effects tend to override the past and extend into the future. Experiencing this perennial present deprives us of both the perception of the permanence of the past and the subtleties of its changes, throwing us into a shapeless and intrusive aorist that makes it difficult to perceive the depth of history and the possibility/need for a different future.

The fundamental aspect that explains this context is the downgrading of history as an important key to interpreting society. Another aspect is the mistake of making Classical and Humanistic Studies a mere appeal to perennial nostalgia, rather than a heritage of collective and social memory that is indispensable in reflecting on contemporary issues.

The recent pandemic and climate change have brought to light the extreme fragility and uncertainty of a present with no ballast and no historical-cultural horizon. The present, furrowed by sudden fractures that open up disturbing trajectories, demands an urgent revisiting of the past and the imagination of a new possible design for the future.
The Symposium ‘From Contemporaneity to Antiquity: dialogues on the present, past and future’ aims to bring together researchers from different fields to address multiple aspects of the crisis affecting our times. At each of the Symposium's tables, a conference on a Contemporary, Modern or Ancient theme that touches on a sensitive point in the present will have a reaction that highlights some contribution from Classical Studies in its various fields. Thus, present demands directly related to crises will be reflected upon by appealing to memory, which will be reinforced or shared in such a way that it co-operates with the reflection of local and global problems and/or issues.

The need to recover the perception of the depth of time and of a future that is built through the choice of alternatives is one of the great challenges facing us today. The Symposium invites philosophical, anthropological, historical, philological and literary problems to be explored within the broader horizon of Antiquity and the Humanities that are open to contributing to the construction of a better and more conscious future.

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