The second edition of the Social Innovation Conference (SOCIN) of ERUA has come to a close, this year hosted by the University of Macerata and dedicated to the theme “Rethinking Innovation. Inclusive Practices and Interdisciplinary Perspectives.”
More than 250 participants, 150 speakers, 22 countries, and over 25 research panels made this conference a remarkable event, bringing together scholars, researchers, academics, and PhD students around ERUA’s key themes – Migration, Exile, and Refugees; Democracy; Human Rights; Inclusion & Gender Equality; Interculturality and Multilingualism; Arts and Edges.
The conference was held in cooperation with the Safina Vitality Project (PNRR), promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and fostering exchanges among researchers from different academic disciplines and fields of expertise.
It was a great success that strengthened the ERUA Alliance and highlighted the urgency of social innovation, while reaffirming the value of the Humanities and Social Sciences. As Bruna Vives, Secretary General of ERUA, reminded us: “Curiosity is something that we truly believe can bring a great deal of innovation. The theme of our conference reminds us of the enduring value of the social sciences and humanities. As Nuccio Ordine so powerfully expressed in The Usefulness of the Useless, humanistic disciplines are not luxuries, but foundations for sustaining democratic values and shaping a more equitable society. According to Ordine, literature and the humanities constitute the amniotic fluid in which our cherished ideas of democracy, liberty, justice, equality, freedom of speech, tolerance, solidarity, and common well-being are nurtured and can flourish.”
Also Unimc Rector John McCourt emphasized the importance of ERUA: “For us at UniMC, ERUA is more than a project – it is a commitment. A commitment to strengthening the role of universities in a time of rapid social, cultural, and technological transformation. ERUA matters deeply to us: it allows us to pool our strengths, to learn from one another, and to make our voices heard in the broader European Higher Education Area”
The conference also featured two distinguished keynote speakers: Ana Cristina Santos (University of Coimbra), with a lecture entitled “Older, queer and proud: rethinking ageing through an interdisciplinary perspective”, who explored the experiences of ageing as LGBTQI+ people; and Ineke Sluiter (Leiden University), with a lecture on “Their future isn’t our past: the ancient world, humanities, and innovation thinking,” reflecting on the relationship between past and present, and on how the ancients imagined the future we now inhabit.
SOCIN2025 also provided valuable opportunities for networking, fostering further dialogue and knowledge exchange among scholars.
The conference concluded with the meeting of ERUA’s Steering Committee, confirming the strength and commitment of the entire Alliance.
