The idea of nature is once again at the heart of contemporary reflection. It is an unstable notion, no longer easily opposable to ‘culture’. The same idea of a return to nature seems obsolete: we are part of nature, which is not an essence to be protected or violated, and is itself imbued with artificiality.

The seminar explores political nostalgia as a collective practice that transforms temporal isolation into co-presence. Through rituals and spaces of memory, nostalgic communities share the loss of the past, finding comfort and legitimacy in a secession from the shared present.

Adriana Cavarero (University of Verona) will be the speaker at the 2026 Zordan Lecture. Her lecture will focus on a key issue in Western philosophy: the relationship between myth and logos.

The international conference “The Lonesome Meaning” explores multiple forms of solitude and isolation in contemporary cultures, bringing together religious, ethical, social, and technological perspectives. Through an interdisciplinary approach, it will examine both painful experiences of separation and abandonment and voluntary forms of withdrawal, recollection, and meaning-making, including new scenarios shaped by artificial intelligence and imaginaries of insularity.