idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
Workshop of the research group “A LAND ON THE MOVE: TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON BELARUSIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE”/ EU4BELARUS – SALT II
Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe, Institute of the Leibniz Association, Gisonenweg 5-7, 35037 Marburg
In cooperation with the University of Bremen and Justus Liebig University of Giessen
Transnational history gained its prominence in the study of East European histories and societies in the early 2000s, offering a critical alternative toward the national histories and their homogeneous narratives. While its initial momentum has since shifted, the agenda of transnationalism continues to resonate across various levels of historical and cultural inquiry. Yet, the world it engages with today is significantly different from that of two decades ago. We are witnessing the resurgence of radical nationalism and populism across Europe and beyond. Simultaneously, ongoing wars and political crises threaten both the material and immaterial heritage of national and local cultures – especially those of smaller or marginalized communities – raising concerns about their possible erasure.
These developments have contributed to a re-nationalization of historical and cultural studies. At the same time, the forced migration of millions from Eastern Europe compels us to reconsider the concept of diaspora. National cultures are increasingly sustained not within national borders, but in transnational and diasporic contexts. Furthermore, the digital transformation continues to reshape our understandings of space and time, proximity and distance, belonging and detachment.
This workshop aims to address these tensions and contradictions. It seeks to explore how we might write about the history and culture of Eastern Europe today without reverting to the optimism of early transnational studies or relying on re-nationalized narratives.
PROGRAM
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
10:00 Registration, Coffee
WELCOME Thomas Bohn (Giessen), Antje Johanning-Radžienė (Marburg), Tatsiana Astrouskaya (Marburg)
10:30 KEYNOTE DISCUSSION Ellen Rutten (Amsterdam):
Insights from the Workfloor: A Talk with Ellen Rutten on Research in Flux
Moderated by Tatsiana Astrouskaya and Simon Lewis (Bremen)
12:00 EXHIBITION OPENING / VERNISSAGE
Belarusian Art Across Borders & Boundaries: Vladimir Tsesler and Sergey Grinevich
Curation & Introduction: Pavel Voinitski (Kotor), Sergey Grinevich (Hrodna)
13:00 Lunch
14:00 PANEL I The Borderless War: Russo-Ukrainian War from a Transnational Perspective
Chair: Ala Pihalskaya (Bremen)
Birgitte Beck Pristed (Aarhus): Transborder perspectives on publishing children’s literature in the Russia-Ukraine War
Pavel Voinitski: Wartime Sculpture in Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation
Mischa Gabowitsch (Germersheim): War Memorials to the Ongoing War in Ukraine and Russia
15:30 Coffee
16:00 PANEL II Transnational Encounters, Transborder Violence
Chair: Thomas Bohn (Giessen)
Darius Staliūnas (Vilnius): Micro, National, Transnational, Imperial, and Global History of the Kražiai Massacre (1893)
Claire Le Foll (Southampton): Belarus through Jewish lenses: Political, Socioeconomic and Literary Conceptions of ‘Belarus’ in 19th Century Jewish History
Magdalena Waligórska (Berlin): Plundered Lives: Researching the History of Genocidal Dispossession in Today‘s Polish-Belarusian Borderlands
18:00 Dinner
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
09:30 PANEL III Soviet History Revisited
Chair: Tatsiana Astrouskaya
Tania Arcimovich (Erfurt): “We are like the foremothers”. Writing the Histories of the Avant-garde in Belarus
Jonathan Raspe (Zurich): Differential Discrimination: Belarusians and Kazakhs in Soviet Industrial Labor, 1930s–1980s
Uladzimir Valodzin (Warsaw): The Zionist revival in Minsk in the 1960s: Generational and Gender aspects
11:00 Coffee
11:30 PANEL IV Transnational Spaces of Culture
Chair: Uladzimir Valodzin
Ala Pihalskaya: Scaling the Transnational: Publishing Autonomy across Borders in Imperial
Vilnius and Soviet Minsk
Uliana Veryna (Bremen): Between Emergence and Suppression: Transnational Phenomena in the Literary Space of the 1920s–1930s in Belarus
Simon Lewis: Multilingual Memory and the post-Crisis Transformation: Belarus after 2020
13:00 Lunch
14:00 PANEL V The Challenges of Transnationalism
Chair: Simon Lewis
Anton Saifulaeu (Warsaw): How to Decolonize the Past? The Case of Belarusian History
Tatsiana Astrouskaya: New History of Dissent: Transnational and Local
Georgii Kasianov (Lublin): Are We Prepared for Transnational History? A Critical (Self)Evaluation
15:30 Coffee and Departure
Dr. Tatsiana Astrouskaya
https://www.herder-institut.de/event/after-transnationalism-writing-about-east-e...
Poster zum Workshop
Copyright: Herder-Institut
Programmflyer zum Workshop
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