Join the global online conversation!
Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble
John Lewis
Enlightenment is to throw off the shackles of self-imposed immaturity and the freedom to use one’s reason
Immanuel Kant
Bildung is both. And more.
Join us for the global conversation on Equinox about bildung and how to deal with the chaotic times we are in.
Conformity is not the answer.
When the day has the same lenght around the globe, we meet to have a conversation about what it means to be human.
On Saturday, September 20, 2025, you can join the online Global Meeting on Equinox again! There will be presentations and participants from around the globe, and your voice will be heard too!
Over the course of 18 hours and 8 sessions, we will travel online from Oceania via East Asia, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Latin America to North America.
This is not about a utopia or soft psychedelic philosophy. This is where research meets values and dreams. We look to an improvement within the existing rules. Collaborative instead of competitive games. A “game of life” where people are free to move but do not end up polarised.
The Global Meeting on Equinox is a global conversation in March and September each year about what it means to be human and how we can create a future where everybody can thrive.
We share insights into the challenges facing people and planet: the culture, ideas, and man-made interventions that lock us into structures that generate fewer and fewer ever-more-powerful winners and millions of losers.
Hosts
Eliane Metni
Lebanon
Folarin Gbadebo-Smith
Nigeria
Halyna Yarmolenko
Ukraine
Lene Rachel Andersen
Denmark
Martin Ivarson
Sweden
Robert McTague
USA & Zambia
Sanchita Shekhar
India
Program
Oceania, East Asia, Asia, & the Middle-East:
04:00-12:00 / 4am-12pm UTC
Click on the images of the speakers to read more about each presentation
Blue Pacific / Oceania:
UTC 04:00-05:45 / 4:00am-05:45am
16:00-17:45 / 4:00pm-6:45pm Wellington
14:00-15:45 / 2:00pm-3:45pm Melbourne
Kinship and connectedness: cultural resilience and ‘what it means to be human’
In traditional Pacific societies, ‘what it means to be human’ is inseparable from kinship—a sense that each person was inherently connected to all others. But what did this mean in practice, long before the region came to be named Oceania? Read more…
Links shared during the session:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_McGilchrist ‘The Master and his Emissary’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia
https://www.etymonline.com/word/cosmopolitan
http://en.moe.gov.cn/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism_(philosophy)
Jackie Kauli
Papua New Guinea & Australia
Brad Haseman
Australia
East Asia:
UTC 06:00-07:45 /6:00am-07:45am
15:00-16:45 Tokyo
14:00-15:45 Beijing
Bildung and Grundtvigian Education Practices in China
Despite a well-known conformity culture and strong restrictions from political environment, there is vibrant education, self-development, and community building in China. Read more…
Michael Jiang
China
Decolonizing Bildung in Japan: Local Tradition and the Ethics of Cultural Pluralism
Since the Meiji period, Japan has embraced a Western model of Bildung centered on intellectual and moral cultivation. Recently, however, young people have begun engaging in regional folk performing arts as a new form of Bildung rooted in local tradition. Read more…
Hironobu Shindo
Japan
Asia:
UTC 08:00-09:45 / 8:00am-9:45am
15:00-16:45 Bangkok
13:30-15:15 Mumbai
Bildung: Beyond Conformity in a Traditional Society
Sanchita spoke about indigenous, traditional, modern and postmodern knowledge at our Global Meeting on Equinox in March; this time she will explore where our perspectives come from.
Sanchita Shekhar
India
Human Betterment with Mutual Aid: Bringing back humanness into the equation
We focus on development theory, but often forgot that cooperation between individuals in a community represents the real step for the advancement of all.
Reghu Rama Das,
India
The Middle East and Conclusion:
UTC 10:00-12:00 / 10:00am-12:00pm
13:30-15:30 Tehran
11:00-13:00 Rabat
The Academic Kibbutz
“The Academic Kibbutz” is Israel’s version of a folk high school inspired by Grundtvig, integrating Buberian, Freirean, Schillerian ideas, and Jewish learning traditions. Based at Beit Berl College, it brings together young people committed to rebuilding Israeli society after October 7 through education, community-building, culture, and leadership. Read more…
Chen Shamir
Israel
Shiran Greenberg
Israel
Being human in the Arab communitarian context
More info on its way…
Hanna Ziadeh
Lebanon & Denmark
Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America:
14:00-22:00 / 2pm-10pm UTC
Click on the images of the speakers to read more about each presentation
Africa:
UTC 14:00-15:45 / 2:00pm-3:45pm
16:00-17:45 Cape Town
15:00-16:45 Lagos
Nayombe Muliyunda
Zambia
What Does It Take to Be Human:
Beyond conformity and the confidence to develop
Poverty erodes human dignity and constrains the confidence to be creative and create autonomous thoughts essential to authenticity and agency. Read more…
Patrick Okigbo Jr.
Nigeria
Europe:
UTC 16:00-17:45 / 4:00pm-5:45pm
19:00-20:45 Kyiv
18:00-19:45 Paris
Bildung as tradition and the global and planetary relevance of the idea
An introduction to the German bildung philosophers 230 years ago and what has happened to the planet and bildung since.
Jesper Garsdal Denmark
From folk high school to tactical medicine
Sergey wanted to start a “Scandinavian folk high school” in Ukraine, but then came the war…
https://www.facebook.com/FolkHighSchoolVovchok
Sergey Chumachenko Ukraine
Ukrainian Folk High School Hoshcha: Challenges, Opportunities, and Development
Nataliia attended one of Sergey’s courses and now she is starting a folk high school of her own…
Nataliia Kalinchuk Ukraine
Latin America:
UTC 18:00-19:45 / 6:00pm-7:45pm
15:00-16:45 Sao Paulo
13:00-14:45 Bogotá
What higher education is lacking; some perspectives from a student
We are not educating for the 21st century but for the 20th. So, how should we educate for the 21st century?
Matias Ignacio Lara
Argentina
Conformity and beyond conformity from a psychological perspective
How do people conform to the norms of their society and how do they grow and develop beyond what others might think?
Ines Medeiros
Brazil
North America:
UTC 20:00-22:00 / 8:00pm-10:00pm
16:00-18:00 / 4pm-6pm Washington DC
13:00-15:00 / 1pm-3pm Vancouver
What is prosperity?
There are so many ways to define it, and Brad Canham is asking people at the Entrepreneur Jubilee festival how they define it. We will be among the first to hear their answers…
https://entrepreneurjubilee.com/
Brad Canham
United States
Marching to the Beat of a Different Drummer
About Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau College, and the Art of Cultivating Distinctive Individuals in the Context of Community. Read more…
https://thoreaucollege.org/
Jacob Hundt
United States
Radical Hope in a Second Gilded Age: Lessons from the Danish Folk High School
In a moment when American democracy feels fragile and educational institutions are under threat, what does it mean to be human? An American educator explores schools built not for credentials but for citizens.
https://ipc.dk/
Link shared by a participant during the session:
https://rsdsymposium.org/relational-reality/
Julie Shackelford
United States & Denmark
What it Means to Be Human is a series of online events the first Saturday after Equinox, a series of articles, and a book.
Watch the presentations from the September 2024 event here
Intro article for the September 2024 event by Lene Rachel Andersen and Folarin Gbadebo-Smith