Beauty and the search of meaning around the world

Asking whether beauty has the power to save or transform us goes far beyond an abstract question of aesthetics. It invites us to consider what happens when our sense of the sacred encounters the realities of everyday life. What is stirred within us when we experience something that transcends our own limits and awakens a deeper search for meaning? Bringing together social research on perceptions of beauty in the United States and the United Kingdom, experiences from refugee communities in Africa, reflections on beauty in architecture, and perspectives rooted in Arab and Islamic culture, the discussion examines how beauty can move us, bring people together, and open the way to love.

With Stephanie Acker, Founder and Executive Director, Everyplace; Chiara Curti, architect expert on the Sagrada Familia, lecturer and researcher at the Antoni Gaudí Faculty in Barcelona; Wael Farouq, Director of the Arabic Cultural Institute (ACI);. Moderated by Brandon Vaidyanathan, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institutional Flourishing Lab at The Catholic University of America