Summer Academy 2020
Between the 21st and 23rd of August, the first summer academy of the “Jaunimo debatai” association – titled “Įkvėpk” (engl. “Breathe in”) – brought together over 20 motivated young people for a series of discussions on the topic of CHANGE. It is no coincidence that Thomas Mann, one of the most famous writers of the 20th century, who spent his summers in Nida, wrote: “Time is a precious gift, given to us so that we can become wiser, better, more mature, more perfect.” Inspired by this Nida-context, we asked ourselves at the academy: How does time change a person? What does change mean in the economy? And what – in art? How can we recognise and assess change in history?
In order to answer all these questions and shed light on the academy’s general theme from as many angles as possible, lectures were given on communication strategies, Vilnius city planning and the history of Kaliningrad; also, change was also discussed more generally, in the context of psychology, literature and art. We are delighted that our Summer academy was able to welcome guests such as Nerijus Mačiulius (Chief Economist of “Swedbank”), Dr Andrew C. Jones (Lecturer at LCC International University in Klaipėda), and Mindaugas Pakalnis (Chief Architect of the City of Vilnius). We would also like to thank the members of the association who agreed to present change in their own areas of interest: Firstly, Neringa Butkutė, who spoke on the topic “Can humans change and how does change affect them?”, and Džiugas Kuprevičius, who presented the topic “From Prussia to Russia: How and why change happened in East Prussia (Kaliningrad Oblast)”.
With the help of the German-language debate format “Jugend debattiert” – a beloved format among association members – we also learned how to defend our position in a structured discussion. However, during this year’s Academy training, we decided to focus more on listening. We are therefore very grateful for Dr Jones’ presentation – titled “The times, they are changing: Listening in an age of computer mediated communication” – which was particularly relevant to the said discussion on the listening moment in a debate.
We would like to thank the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Vilnius (Botschaft der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Vilnius), which supported the event through the “EuropeUnited”initiative. With the help of the Embassy, we were able to deepen our understanding of German culture and Lithuanian-German relations not only through debates in German or discussions about the German cultural heritage in Nida, but also by visiting the Thomas Mann Cultural Centre and closing the event with classical music by German composers.
The Summer Academy is just one of many events organised by the association to promote democratic values, critical thinking and civic engagement. Read more about our other events in the projects section.
A few snapshots from the event:
