CULTURAL, TRAINING AND ACADEMIC PROMOTION ACTIVITIES

OSM runs and promotes numerous initiatives in the field of medieval studies: cycles of lessons, lectures, seminars, workshops and study days, presentation of volumes and researches, conferences and congresses, scholarships etc. Among these initiatives there is the Colloquio medievale (held for the 16th time) and the Settimana residenziale di studi medievali (held for the 19th time), on themes that are strongly interconnected, in an interdisciplinary outlook, with the ongoing researches of OSM. Recently OSM every year has organised meetings with the title Sacred Perspectives in the East and West, by arrangement with the Associazione Perennia Verba, la Fondazione Siracusa Terzo Millennio and a big group of researchers on history of religions, with the purpose of making a deep comparison between religions on various thematic choices. Among the aims, work is being done on a project for founding an International Centre for the Study of Religions in Syracuse. OSM also organizes meetings on Jewish studies, Lecturae Hebraicae and international study meetings on Linguistics of knowledge, by arrangement with scholars on medieval linguistics and grammars.

ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL COLLABORATIONS

Among the most recent collaborations we will mention those with the Raimundus Lullus Institut of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg and Brepols Publishers in Turmhout for the critical reissue of the Opera Messanensia et Tuniciana of Raymond Lull; with the Spanish University of Leon for the planning and the realization of the Master Oficiál entitled Cultura y Pensamiento en Occidente. Origen y consolidación del concepto de Occidente; with the French University of Lille (for cycles of common seminars and publications); with the Centro de Estudios Medievalis de la Universidade de São Paulo, with the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (common researches and cycles of lectures), with the Universidad Nacional de San Martin (UNSAM) Escuela de Humanidades de Buenos Aires (for common study projects), with the Region of Castilla y Leon for common cultural and training exchanges.

Mention must also be made of the intense collaboration with the Société Internationale pour l'étude de la Philosophie Médiéva/e (SIEPM), for the organization and realisation in Palermo of the XII International Congress of Medieval Philosophy (16-22 September 2007) on Universality of Reason. Plurality of philosophies in the Middle Ages, also by arrangement with the Italian Society for the study of Medieval Thought (SISPM) and in collaboration with the Fédération Intemationale des Instituts of études Médiévales (FIDEM) for the planning and realization of the IV European Congress of Medieval Studies on the theme Coexistence and cooperation in the Middle Ages (Palermo 18-21 June 2008). OSM collaborates on the editing of some items in the Medical Encyclopedia of Islam and Iran published by the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It has a contract for collaboration with the University of Malta and the Degree Course in Cultural Heritage of the University of Catania for the planning and realization of an international project of cultural collaboration within the Community Initiative Programme Interreg III A (2004-2006). The project, denominated Archaeological koine: wise antiquity (K.A.S.A.) has the purpose of studying and publicizing, through cultural, training, academic and promotional moments (seminars, publications, research contracts, etc.) regarding common phases and contexts of the cultural history of Malta and Sicily.