Biennale “Arts & Edges” - Rationale of the Call

The call is addressed to academics (faculty members, post-doctoral researchers, doctoral students, postgraduate students) from the member and associate member institutions of the ERUA Alliance, researchers and artists collaborating with these institutions, as well as local organisations of the ERUA Alliance regions, active in the relevant field, to submit abstracts of papers. The Biennale will create a space for interdisciplinary dialogue and creative exchange between the academic community, local communities and social actors around the central theme of Arts & Edges

The European Reform University Alliance (ERUA) introduces Edge as a central, interdisciplinary theme that captures the dynamic space between boundaries—whether physical, symbolic, or conceptual. It highlights the tension and potential at the threshold where change becomes possible or inevitable. Far from being a rigid divider, the edge is framed as a transition zone – an intersection that fosters innovation, creativity, and critical inquiry across disciplines and cultures. To work and live on the edge means cultivating sensitivity to otherness and critically engaging with issues of exclusion, distinction, marginalization, minority status, and peripheralization, all with a view toward social change.

In the context of ERUA, the edge serves as a key thematic lens, emphasizing the role of the arts in research and critical inquiry. As it intersects with all ERUA research areas, this theme integrates and amplifies the objectives of the alliance’s other four thematic areas, revealing unexpected and transformative perspectives that underscore ERUA’s capacity for dynamic social engagement.