Studying Overlapping Territories/Canons/Identities: Comparative Perspectives on East Central Europe

Type: 
Conference
Audience: 
Open to the Public
Building: 
Nador u. 11
Room: 
TIGY
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - 9:00am
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Date: 
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - 9:00am to Wednesday, May 26, 2010 - 7:00pm

Student Conference hosted by
the Department of History and Pasts, Inc. Center for Historical Studies of the Central European University, Budapest;
supported by the CEU-HESP Comparative History Project

May 25-26, 2010

After 1989 there has been a sweeping wave of Europeanization, regionalization and supra-national integration involving the countries in Central and Eastern Europe. This, however, did not lead to the obliteration of conflicting historical myths, prejudices, and negative stereotypes, which survived and in many cases, paradoxically, became reinforced after most of these countries entered the Euro-Atlantic integration structures. It is obvious that much more institutional and intellectual investment is needed to challenge these perceptions and develop more integrative collective identity discourses

Comparative and trans-national history is one of the most promising venues of building alternative narratives of the past. The last 20 years brought a veritable boom of such scholarly ventures in Western Europe, and many promising endeavours were started also in East Central and Southeastern Europe, from joint textbook projects, through writing the history of multiethnic regions to even more ambitious projects of ‘historical reconciliation.”

The Central European University in general, and its History Department and its affiliated research centre, Pasts, Inc,. in particular, have been at the forefront of such ventures. The Department’s curriculum is comparative, while the Center has initiated a number of major projects (such as the CEU-HESP Comparative History Project or the project on Hungarian-Romanian entangled histories) which sought to break out of the conventional framework of nation-centered historiography. Likewise, the Futures Continuous Project, organized by CEU students and faculty, brought together Hungarian and Romanian graduate students in an exchange program.

The aim of the student workshop hosted by CEU is to bring together students from the region interested in comparative and transnational historical research. Historical studies in this context are understood in a broader sense, also including boarder disciplines as historical sociology, historical anthropology, political thought, etc. The intention of the organizers is to facilitate a transnational dialogue among the participants and also to form a broader network of students interested in these themes and willing to be involved in further cooperation.

CONVENERS
Constantin Iordachi (Associate Professor, History Department, Central European University Budapest)
Balázs Trencsényi (Assistant Professor, History Department, Central European University Budapest)

BOARD
Damir Agičić (Associate Professor, University of Zagreb)
Kateryna. Dysa (Assiastant Professor, Kyiv Mohyla Academy)
Luciana Ghica (Assistant Professor, University of Bucharest)
Jaroslav Miller (Associate Professor, Palacký University Olomouc)
Slávka Otčenášová (Assistant Professor, University of Košice)

May 25

9.00 Registration
9.30. Welcome – Constantin Iordachi and Balazs Trencsenyi  
9.40 Keynote  Speech: Eric Beckett Weaver (Editor, The South Slav Journal) The Benefit of Being Bunjevci: A brief illustration of the comparative method.

Panel I. Overlapping nation-building projects

10.20-13.45

Barbara Klen (Croatia, University of Amsterdam), Studying Overlapping Identities: The Illyrian Movement as a Case Study of Both Yugoslavian and Croatian Identity Formation 
Costel Coroban (Romania, Bucharest University), Overlapping Territory Between Romania and Bulgaria:  From Friendship to Distrust at the Beginning of the 20th Century (ca. 1878–1916) 

Discussion of the papers

Alica Kurhajcová (Slovakia, Matej Bel University), MemoryCelebrations – Identity 
Sebastian Majcher (Poland, University of Łódz) Situation of the Hungarian Minority in Central Eastern Europe in the Beginning of 21st Century

Discussion of the papers

Zsuzsanna Kovács (Romania, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj) Hungarian Youth’s National Identity in Transylvania
Zhikica Pagovski (Macedonia, American University of Blagoevgrad) Europeanization of Multiethnic Countries:  The Macedonian Path toward Stability

Discussion of the papers

14.45 Keynote Speech: Markian Prokopovych (Associate Research Fellow, Pasts Inc., Center for Historical Studies, CEU,) Cities of East Central Europe under the Empires and Their Aftermath

Panel II. Multiple and Contested Identities

15.25–18.40

Michal Kšiňan (Slovakia, Slovak Academy of Sciences, History Institute, PhD student) Štefánik’s Identity in Changes of Times
Izabela Kazejak (Poland, European University Institute, Florence) Official Policy and Local Popular Responses: Jews in Wrocław and in Lvov (1945–1968)

Discussion of the papers

Nicolae Vascautan (Moldova, Vilnius University) The Religious Conflict in the Republic of Moldova: a Dilemma of Transition
Vsevolod Samokhvalov (Moldova, University of Cambridge) Forgetting, Reviving and Again Forgetting the Balkans Contested Identities in the Ukrainian Bessarabia: Reni District Case
Anna Bara (Russia, European University Institute, Florence) Formation of Regional Identities in Russia

Discussion of the papers

May 26

10.00. Keynote Speech: Gábor Kádár (Associate Professor, Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences, Budapest)

Panel III. Cross-histories: Studying Social and Intellectual Processes in a Regional Framework

10.40–13.05

Ievgeniia Sakal (Ukraine, Kiev-Mohyla Academy) The Reformed Orthodox Teaching as the Product of the Inter-Confessional Dialogue in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 
Alexandra Tieanu (Romania, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj) Central Europe: from Mitteleuropa to the EU 

Discussion of the papers

Jelena Lončar (Serbia, University of Belgrade), The Development of Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989 
Jakub Drabik (Slovakia, University of Prešov), Anarchists in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Their Self-reflection and Historiography at the Turn of the 80’s and 90’s of the 20th Century

Discussion of the papers

Panel IV. Comparing Politics of History and Memory Cultures

14.15–19.00

Bálint Varga-Kuna (Hungary, University of Mainz) The Myth of the Beginning 
Dmytro Zaiets (Ukraine, Kharkhiv University) The Identity Discourse: the Heuristic Potential of Public Art Practices

Discussion of the papers

Oleksandr Svyetlov (Ukraine, Kharkiv University), Re-assessing the Stereotypes of Past Conflicts (Poland and Ukraine) 
Tetyana Dmitryv (Ukraine, Ivan Franko National University, Lviv), Collective Image of Ukrainians and Ukraine in Modern Polish History Textbooks

Discussion of the papers

Elena Dragomir (Romania, University of Helsinki) Narrating the Past: Communist Nostalgia in Romania 
Alexander Martynau (Belarus, Olomouc University), Lustration: a Modified “Peace versus Justice” Dilemma?

Discussion of the papers

Closing Lecture
Charles Ingrao (Professor, History Department, Purdue University) History as a Destructive and Reconstructive Force in Central Europe