Pilar Arregui, professor of the history of law, within the School of Law, is a member of the organizing committee for the II Interdisciplinary Conference on the Family: Family, History and Culture. The event, which is coordinated by the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) in conjunction with the Office of the Vice President for Research, will be held on April 29 at the University of Navarra.

In this interview, Professor Arregui contextualizes the theme chosen for the second conference and highlights other topics of interest

What does the II Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Family hope to achieve?

The II Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Family aims to give continuity to the important initiative that the Office of the Vice President for Research and ICS launched last year with the I Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Family: Family and Society in the Twenty-first Century.

The first event aimed to establish a meeting point for University of Navarra researchers who, in their work, address family-related issues from different perspectives. This year, we wanted to limit the topic to focus on understanding its historical and cultural evolution. This choice is due to the belief that the family's current reality and difficulties are hard to understand if we do not previously understand its historical evolution and the reasons and conditions that have led to what it is today. Let me explain with an example. Today we commonly use the expression "the traditional family." What do we mean by that? Each stage of history, expressly or implicitly, has developed its own concept of "the traditional family" so we want to ask what is understood by it at each stage. Is it the same understanding as today?

Therefore, a historical-cultural perspective can best explain its current reality. Throughout history, we can see what in the family has been fundamental, permanent, as well as accidental, and its clear interdependence with other areas of reality, etc.

What other topics related to the family can be studied from the perspective of history and culture?

Anything— because families, as well as the people that make them up, have a fundamental and inescapable historical dimension without which it is difficult to understand their current situation, their present reality.

What has changed between this conference and the previous one?

Mainly its format is different. On this occasion, the organizing committee has set the theme, designed the program and invited renowned experts as speakers on each of the selected topics (both from the University of Navarra as well as experts from other universities, including international ones).

What advantages does this conference's interdisciplinary character give it?

Life is multifaceted, as are each of the institutions that comprise it. Approaching any part of that reality with an interdisciplinary approach puts you on better footing to more fully understand its wealth and transcendence.

Why is research on the family so important to the University of Navarra?

Because the family has been, is and will be vital for each and every person (nothing has been discovered that can fully replace it). There, one is born, grows and learns as a person. In it, we are accepted, valued and simply loved for being, not for what we are. Consequently, the family has a great constructive power, but also, unfortunately, a great destructive power over its members and, therefore, over the society in which they are integrated.

How do you perceive last year's conference?

I think it was excellent to the extent that it highlighted just how many researchers the University has dedicated to issues related to the family and we therefore approach the topic with great seriousness and rigor from many different perspectives. Much of that effort will be published shortly in a collective work under the title, "Familia y sociedad en el siglo XXI" (The family and society in the twenty-first century).