The Cluster The Past for the Present – International Research and Educational Programme aims at developing a pioneering approach to the reception of Classical Antiquity with a special focus on the contemporary culture. We study the ancient tradition in international and transdisciplinary cooperation as a marker of transformations underway across the world. Looking in the reception mirror and comparing the various images emerging therein, we can better understand each other, and this is crucial for the development of civic societies worldwide.

The Cluster The Past for the Present – International Research and Educational Programme is a joint endeavour of the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” of the University of Warsaw, Dipartimento di Storia Culture Civiltà and Dipartimento di Filologia Classica e Italianistica of the Università di Bologna, and Fakultät für Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, the Faculty of Education of the University of Cambridge, and the Faculty of Humanities, University of Fribourg. This is a crowning development of our collaboration over many years, within our Almae Matres' support and within the support, inter alia, by the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the “Artes Liberales” Institute Foundation, and the ERC Consolidator Grant. We base also on the experiences of two permantent units of the Faculty of “Artes Liberales”: Centre for Studies on the Classical Tradition (OBTA) and Collegium Artes Liberales (CLAS). We wish to carry out innovative projects in the reception field, involving students and early-stage researchers, working closely with schools (“science for society”), and together building a cluster of academic excellence.