Convergence 2024
23-24 MARCH
A cultural encounter in the heart of Oxford
FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE
WHAT'S CONVERGENCE?
Convergence is a cultural event aiming to foster a shared space for dialogue on common challenges, bringing together people with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives.
As Rowan Williams has rightly observed, culture collapses when communication and mutuality break down in utterly destructive and mutually indifferent forms, with a sort of big bang which distances a speaker from a speaker, a subject from a subject.
The inaugural edition is titled "Can We Live Without Fear Today?” and is scheduled for March 23-24 at Corpus Christi College in Oxford. The main theme of the event is the possibility of facing times of crisis, risk, and uncertainty without fear
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The theme is explored through an art exhibition inspired by a video documentary featuring contributions by Rowan Williams and Charles Taylor. There will be five panels dedicated to some of the most pressing challenges of our times: Artificial Intelligence, War, Social Crisis, the Nature of the Human Being, and Mental Health. In addition, Convergence will feature two exhibitions: "Provocations" a series of visual and non-visual responses to the video documentary and one on the Japanese doctor Takashi Nagai. Saturday night everyone is invited to a musical evening on the Beatles.
Rather than offering definitive answers, Convergence seeks to raise questions, with the desire to encounter different views and concerns and simultaneously share and deepen what we value the most.
