At the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Mostar, the tenth International Scientific Conference "Identities – Cultures – Languages" will be held on June 3rd. This year's conference theme is "Art – Artificial Intelligence – Artificial Reality." The Vice Dean for Science at the Faculty, Prof. Dr. Marko Odak, stated in an interview with Večernji list that the conference will gather more than 100 participants from Estonia, Slovenia, Zagreb, Osijek, Varaždin, Zadar, Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, and Mostar.

"In 2023, when we were contemplating the themes for the conference, we chose this title because if we look at 2023 in the context of technology, we can also call it the year of artificial intelligence," said Vice Dean Odak.

He mentioned that the initiation of the Conference in 2014 was credited to the then Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof. Dr. Zoran Tomić. "The purpose of the conference from the beginning has been to encourage and engage interested scientists and experts from the widest range of scientific disciplines to offer their own perspectives on these phenomena and to address issues that the academic community can and should raise, which are vital for society as a whole."

He emphasized that the conference will have an interdisciplinary approach and noted that the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences offers studies in languages, art history, philosophy, psychology, information sciences, and journalism, making it fitting for these topics to be contemplated at the Faculty.

"Humanities and social sciences provide key tools for critical assessment and ethical reflection on technological development. What is specific to contemporary science is the need for integrating knowledge and insights from various scientific disciplines instead of excessively focusing on specifics within individual branches," said Vice Dean Odak.

He pointed out that the keynote speakers are academician Drago Štambuk, the Croatian ambassador to Iran, and Prof. Dr. Predrag Pale from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the University of Zagreb. "We have academician Štambuk, who has been the Croatian ambassador to India and Sri Lanka, Egypt and Arab countries, and then to Japan, South Korea, and Brazil. Since January 2019, he has been the Croatian ambassador to Iran. The other keynote speaker is Prof. Dr. Predrag Pale, considered the 'father of the Croatian internet,' the person who introduced the Internet to the Republic of Croatia."

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at SUM organizes the conference in cooperation with the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, the University North in Koprivnica, the Doctoral School of Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, the Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar – Regional Center Osijek, and the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies in Zagreb.

Read the full interview in today's print edition of Večernji list BiH.

AI-translated