(1888PressRelease)
December 18, 2007 - CM, Berlin - After one year of preparation, the Civilisations Matter Academy was founded today in Berlin. Beyond the political scene and exempt from economic incitement, the Academy is designated to provide a forum of dialogue between groups of different political, religious and ethnical backgrounds. With its name 'Civilisations Matter', underlining the need of an interdisciplinary and intercultural discussion, this academy is bound to be an international site of encounter for scientists, philosophers, artists, politicians and business representatives.
A badly needed contribution to intercultural peacekeeping is being made by this interdisciplinary activity, as has been affirmed by Peter Ruof, co-founder of the Carl-Duisberg Society in New York, Jochen Hippler, political scientist and counsellor of the German Federal Foreign Office, Robert Pitz-Paal, physicist at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Wolfram R. Bauer, theologian and founder of the Civilisations Matter Group, on the occasion of the Academy’s first configuration meeting in Berlin. By 2010 the Academy for Intercultural Dialogue is due to take up its public activities on a site and with a program, both designed especially for this purpose.
The Greek Wassilia Fotiadou was elected first administrator. At the Technical University of Darmstadt she had initiated and built up the field of interdisciplinary gender studies. Together with the scientific director to be appointed yet, she will support the co-operation with initiatives standing for a common global future.
The purpose of this non-commercial incorporation is the facilitation of science and research, as well as art, culture and international understanding.
The Academy will organise symposia, conferences, workshops, conventions and cultural events. It goes out to host meetings where scientists as well as philosophers, artists and politicians - representatives of various cultures and religious denominations - may shape ideas about global and future-oriented thinking.
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