Lustrumcongres: A meaningful life in a just society

The University of Humanistic Studies aims to contri-bute to a meaningful life in a just society. In celebration of its 25th anniversary the UvH bestows honorary doctorates upon professors Carol D. Ryff (University of Wisconsin) and Joan C. Tronto (University of Minnesota) and organizes an international conference with keynotes from both professors.

This conference will take place at the magnificently restored Paushuize (Papal House) – one of the most outstanding monuments in the medieval city centre of Utrecht. With a maximum of only 150 participants this conference offers a unique opportunity to engage in an intimate setting with the latest research on some of today’s pressing topics.

The theories by Carol Ryff and Joan Tronto, on psychological well-being and on care, are of the utmost importance to the further development of meaningful human lives in humane institutions in a just society. This conference aims at further exploring questions about the relationship between well-being and a meaningful life. The critical insights of competitive caring, unsympathetic disregard and privileged irresponsibility all point at the injustice produced by an insular concept of wellbeing. We will explore what this critical stance means for concepts of well-being; how institutions endorse, and possibly give shape to what it means to be first of all citizens; and which factors and conditions foster meaningful human lives in caring societies.